Deplorable state of roads in Surulere, the need for a joint local government action

by Editor

Surulere is both a residential and commercial nerve centre of Lagos state. Many believe that in the near distant future, Surulere will organically transforms to being a business city. Most of the old structures are being converted to office spaces, especially in core areas like Ogunlana drive, Bode Thomas, Lawanson and some part of Shitta. Yet in spite of the fact that it is one of the fastest growing economic suburbs in the state, the support infrastructure are nothing to write home about.

Surulere host some of the poorest connecting road in Lagos, apart from this it has very poor drainage network, so that the rainy season is not usually received with joy.

 Lawanson road in Surulere is in a complete state of disrepair, large potholes could be seen at different point in the road, their is no doubting the fact that the quality of the road was poor from the beginning, the drainage itself complicates the situation of the road, the water flowing out of it affect the asphalt layer and eats deep into the ground.

The road has been in this situation for close to two years despite efforts by citizens to get the attention of the Lagos state government. The closest to any effort aimed at addressing the situation of the road is occasional de-silting of the drainage by Mushin Local government.

Ijesha is also another area of Surulere with with a bad connecting road. For Ijesha, even the inner roads which are within the purview of the LGA are nothing to write home about. The road is far more worse than Lawanson. The present state of Ijesha road makes it almost impossible to navigate, motorists would have to turn round Itire, going through inner roads to connect other part of Ijesha.

Idi-Araba road though consider to be part of Surulere, is closer to Mushin is also in a bad state. The situation of the road had been like that for up-to two years. Idi-Araba is also flood prone, basically because of the drainage network. The Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) section of Idi Araba is in a deplorable condition, so also other sections of the road.

The state government has been silent on the state of these roads, to avoid further deterioration of the road, it is important that the local government areas that share the road initiate a joint effort to address the situation. Surulere, Mushin and Ikate Local government areas. These local government areas can take initiative to address the deplorable condition of the road rather than waiting for intervention of the state government, which is taking time to come. Even if this would simply mean that they repair the sections of the roads with pothole.

Government exist at various level to solve problem, repairing these roads would put the local government chairmen in the mind of the people and perhaps change the narrative that LGAs do nothing but are mere waste of tax payers money.