Cooperation between the federal government and sub-nationals, Lagos and Ogun is expected to bring relief to users of the very busy Abeokuta-Sango-Ota road who have had to endure a two-decade-long torture plying on the road.

Although the church and institution are not the only bodies most affected by the current deplorable state of the Abeokuta-Sango-Ota road, they are arguably the most visited by Nigerians and foreigners. For decades, visitors to that axis have endured horrendous trips on the road.

The journey of not more than one hour from the MMIA in Lagos usually stretches to eight hours, sometimes 10 hours. That however did not deter students and visitors to one of Nigeria’s leading universities, and to Living Faith, more commonly known as Winners Chapel.

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Dapo Abiodun, Ogun State governor, is expected to flag off the reconstruction of the Abeokuta-Sango-Ota road, a hitherto federal government road that was recently handed over to the governments of Ogun and Lagos states, on Friday, August 23.

The Abeokuta-Ota-Lagos road is a Federal Government road and has been in very bad shape for long, because of the suffering our people endure on the road, my counterpart in Lagos and I jointly wrote a letter using a single letterhead to the federal executive council, seeking the transfer of that road for us to reconstruct, recounted the governor.

Many roads across the country, particularly designated federal roads, are in bad shape, with state governments reluctant to fix the roads because they are not authorised to by the federal government. When the state governments eventually cave into pressure from residents and fix such roads, getting a refund is usually a steep, cumbersome process.

Many state governments have been known to mount signages absolving themselves of responsibility and shame such roads in their states attract, a practice started by the current president when he was the governor of Lagos State.

Then governor, Bola Tinubu’s plea to fix federal roads in Lagos was rebuffed by the central authority, which was constituted by a different political party. Now that the Lagos and Ogun state governments are of the same political persuasion as the federal government, frictions appear to have eased.

After waiting for a month without a reply, we wrote a reminder that [the] road was not handed over to us until the present Federal Government came on board. The contract for the reconstruction of the road had been awarded since May this year, says Governor Abiodun.

The contractor, Craneburg is reported to have started moving its equipment to the site to begin palliative measures to make a section of the road motorable while reconstruction begins on the other section.

The Abeokuta-Sango-Ota road, particularly the Ota axis, has many manufacturing companies dotted along the road, whose operations have been severely impacted by the bad state of the road.

Faith Tabernacle, the headquarters church of Winners Chapel, is reported to have a 50,000 capacity, making it the largest church auditorium globally while Covenant University has a student population of about 10,000.

Adewole Ojo

Adewole Ojo is the Editor-in-Chief of Meiza Nigeria. He can be reached on adewole.ojo@fourpoints.ng.