The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has appealed to Lagos residents to exercise patience as he plans to resume work on Lagos roads by November.
Speaking yesterday in Lagos at the night of engagement on ‘Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria,’ a programme organised by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, PEBEC, in partnership with the Lagos State Government, Sanwo-Olu said the potholes have remained unfixed due to persistent rains in the city.
He said: “We came on May 29, and rain started in April and they are not just small rain. So, the issues are that we came in at a season in which there is huge rainfall, some potholes have been created before but with rain, we have more potholes, bitumen and rain don’t work together, no amount of investment or contractor we put to fix a road during raining season will stay because it will be washed away.
“I want to appeal to Lagosians that the rains will subside in November. “Lagos has over 10,000 roads and as I speak we have been able to fix about 180 roads and we just awarded 116 roads and I hope when we start in November, the story will not be that there are too many roads we are constructing,” he said.
Speaking on the issue of traffic on roads, he said the state is commencing Uber boat today (Friday), a technology-driven boat.
He said the initiative is part of the efforts of the state government to decongest the roads. Sanwo-Olu said: “This city called Lagos represents 0.4 per cent of the total of this country and of that number, one-third of it is water so, there will be traffic but we will certainly solve it.
“So, the solutions are in two-level, it’s either we do extensive work on public transportation, we cannot do an underground because Lagos is bellowed the sea level and we cannot escalate anything.”
Speaking on harassment of people with laptops, a concern raised by one of the guests, Sanwo-Olu urged Lagos residents to relax “because the entire police force is coming to Lagos on the 29th of October for a three-day conference and such issues will be topical matters of discussion. He said, “I’m hoping that at the end of it, we will make communique and conversation that will improve this very incidence and solve it permanently.”
