The Pains, The Agony of Road Users of Atan-Igbesa-Agbara Road

Despite calls on the governor of Ogun State, Gov. Ibikunle Amosun, the minister of power, works and housing Mr. Babatunde Fashola to quickly intervene on the Atan-Igbesa Road, none of these government parastatals have blinked an eyelid and the citizens are at the receiving end daily.

Atan-Igbesa-Agbara road is a strategically-structured economic road which serves as a linkage road between Nigeria and West African countries through Badagry-Seme border and Republic of Benin to the east and Iba-Alaba-Mile 2 and Apapa seaports to the west.

The Atan-Igbesa-Agbara industrial road hosts 70% of manufacturing industries in the state, the road was started by Shehu Shangri-led Federal Government in the early 80s and originally tagged Badagry-Agbara-Abeokuta-Sokoto road but has since abandoned by successive governments and now causes perennial problems for human and vehicular traffic inbound and outbound Ogun state and Lagos state as well as Benin Republic through either Idi-Iroko border or Badagry-Seme border.

It will be recalled that Governor Ibikunle Amosun-led Ogun state government in July, 2017 signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with private investors in Atan-Igbesa-Agbara industrial areas being represented by Kolapo Lawson, Chairman of Agbara Estates Limited on possible road reconstruction based on public-private partnership arrangement, using concrete technology that will cost about N23 billion.

An AutoReportNG reader sent us visuals on what motorists go through this road daily. The teary video clip shows the pains, the agony and stress of residents along this area.

The most interesting thing is that Agbara/Igbesa has the highest number of companies in Ogun state, with the like of Nestle, GSK, GZi, BIG COLA, Beloxxi, Avanti, Beta Glass, Nampak, Pharmadeko, Reckitt, Suntory (Lucozade and Ribena), Eko supreme, Hyatt, Comestar, Unilever, Procter and Gamble, Perfetti,  etc to mention just few.

There are more than 40 companies within Agbara, let alone the over 30 within the China Free Trade Zone. Alas, the major link road is in a mess. No day goes by without major safety incident of containers skidding off on the road.

The questions on our mind are:

1.  Why is the federal government not saying anything about this road despite the cries from motorists on this route?
2.  Why has the Ogun State government on whose corridor at least for the love of its citizen try to find a palliative measure to ease the movement of goods and services as what is being done in Lagos state?
3.  With over 40 companies spanned along this route, why have the companies not form a coalition as being done in Apapa-Wharf in Lagos where the likes of Dangote, Flour Mills, and other companies merge together and agree to construct the roads themselves thereby applying for tax holidays from the Federal Government? This will not only help them but make them have a sense of belonging and they can supervise the construction without any form of corruption since they are directly involved in the process.

From our investigations, we understand that this is a major road for all factories within this axis to transport their finish goods from the factories to the final consumers across the country, so this needs an urgent attention.

We want to use this platform to please appeal to the Federal Government and the State Government to kindly come to a logical conclusion and find a way to make this road motorable. People are going through a lot on this road and you can’t but shed some tears when you realized that this government is blessed with enormous resources and wealth.

These are pictures and video from the road.

Watch the video here