•Massive construction works steadily changing the face of one-time capital of chaos
Cosmas Omegoh
Oshodi, the heartbeat of Lagos, is undergoing massive renewal at the moment, courtesy of the Lagos State government. Anyone who has not been to Oshodi for a little while might find it difficult navigating the area due to the ongoing construction works.
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode had hit the ground running the moment he took his oath of office on May 29, 2015. Then, he made it clear that he would transform Lagos and bring it truly in conformity with its projected megacity status. He cited Oshodi as one of the areas his administration would remodel, asserting that a transport hub would be established in the area.
Before now, the Oshodi everyone knew was notorious for many things. For years, it wore a certain tag of notoriety and never ceased to be in the spotlight.
When area boys, for instance, were not rioting in Oshodi, traders in the area were restive. When the urchins were not running amok, snatching people’s bags once the sun began to go down, an articulated truck was somersaulting and falling on some innocent people. When law enforcement agents were not clashing with one another and making a public show of it in Oshodi, factions of the road transport unions would be at one another’s jugular, fighting for the soul of the area, fighting over the right to collect tolls. Their overall activities saw Oshodi grabbing the headlines. And there was no forgetting that, most times, Oshodi never slept.
Before the immediate past governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, left office, he stamped his name in the history books for trying to restore sanity to Oshodi. The large army of people profiting from the reign of chaos, which was a common feature in the area might not forgetFashola’s clean-up drive in a long time.
He was the one that brutally uprooted the legion of street traders and urchins who nearly locked down Oshodi by claiming large portions of its streets with their wares, thus leaving motorists with just an alley to squeeze through. At that time, smart motorists avoided Oshodi like a plague.
So, when the governor rose to reclaim Oshodi, the sustained fight reverberated in the distance. But in the end, Fashola won. Then on the ruins of that regime of chaos, the ex-governor planted some flowers. Having chased away the traders and their encouragers, he permanently stationed a task force in Oshodi. He went a step further to curtail the activities of street urchins by installing streetlights, leaving the “under bridge,” where everything went on at night time, illuminated.
At the moment, many believe that the Ambode administration is moving in the right direction by preparing Oshodi for a future role. His effort at changing the current face of the area is believed to be in line with the emerging megacity status of metropolitan Lagos.
On a normal day, Oshodi is a beehive. There is hardly any hour when it is not filled with people. For one, it is a trading post eagerly besieged by a legion of petty traders and artisans, all jostling to make a living. It is also a convergent point for many people traversing Lagos. Any doubt then why it is ever-bursting at the seams with heavy human and vehicular traffic?
Right now, the ongoing construction works in Oshodi offer residents a handful. Structures are rising by the day in the spaces earlier marked for the purpose; construction workers are busy like bees with their trade.
But over the past weeks, many who have been coming to Oshodi have been having facing considerable trauma accessing the place. There is chaos on the Oworonshoki-Oshodi-Mile 2 road, which cuts through the area, as the entire place is undergoing massive rehabilitation.
The state government has, since late last year, been working on the new ten-lane Murtala Mohammed Airport Road, which cuts through the area. The government is also widening the service lane to accommodate a projected upsurge in vehicular traffic, which would be a common feature when the proposed transport scheme takes off. A contractor is right on ground working to ensure that the state government’s goal is realised. However, its activities are causing a great deal of discomfort to many.
For now, there is real hiccup in Oshodi. Part of this is the grilling traffic situation that has been created following the barricading of some parts of the road with some iron mesh to fence off intrusion into the work area. So, motorists, including drivers of the ubiquitous yellow mini buses, who used to have unfettered access in the area can no longer have that. The latter, which rule the area with lots of guts, have been denied the full latitude to manoeuvre as they used to. Even pedestrians now hardly the space to meander around.
“Going through Oshodi now is a difficult task,” Bayo Olalekan, who works in Ikeja, told the correspondent. “Before now, once I alighted at Oshodi Oke Bus Stop, I usually took a walk and would then board another bus to Ikeja via Opebi Road. But now it is tough because of the road repairs.”
But that is not the only headache in Oshodi at the moment. Last week, the contractor handling the road rehabilitation hit a new phase in its assignment when it commenced the demolition of buildings said to have been earlier marked by the state government for that purpose.
It was a day of wailing and weeping as the bulldozers rolled in, bringing down blocks of buildings, leaving rubble behind them. Works on some of the buildings, the correspondent gathered, were merely completed weeks and months ago. To some, finishing touches on them were ongoing before the task force moved in to carry out the demolition order. Some traders had already paid for and occupied some of the shops in the buildings. So, when the bulldozers roared in, no one was amused.
Some of the traders occupying the affected buildings, including the petty traders who displayed their wares around their premises, were in terrible moods. They stood at a safe distance watching the exercise.
“Now, where do we go from here,” a middle-aged woman kept repeating to no one in particular as the demolition went on. Some hawkers simply milled around with their wares as confusion mounted.
A man who identified himself as Tony lamented that the demolition of their trading post had terribly set him back: “It was just last November that I paid a year’s rent for the shop I previously occupied. I sold men’s wares. And now, the building has been demolished.”
Public relations officer of the Lagos State Environmental Task Force, Mr. Toafik Adebayo, acknowledged the demolition exercise in Oshodi but was quick to add that his agency was not the one directly involved.
“The exercise is being carried out by officials of the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning,” he said, “We are only providing security for the officials doing the job. We are only providing our men for the assignment. So far, they have not encountered any form of resistance.”
He said it was either the commissioner in charge of the Lands and Physical Planning or that of Information and Strategy that could speak on the matter.
On several occasions, the correspondent called Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, to enlighten members of the public on the ongoing works in Oshodi and assuage their fears, but the commissioner was unable to do that until press time.