Lagos Government and Tinubu Cause More Pain as Commuters Sleep in Traffic While Repairs Make Everything Worse

Lagos has become a city where going to work means sleeping on the road, and the government of Lagos State and President Bola Tinubu are the ones causing the pain. This week, thousands of commuters were trapped on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway for up to twelve hours because of repair works on Kara Bridge, a project the Federal Government knew would cripple one of Nigeria’s busiest highways but went ahead with anyway.

The repairs began on September 8 and are scheduled to last until September 22. The Federal Government closed a section of the bridge to replace expansion joints. But no adequate alternative routes were provided. No effective traffic management was deployed from the start. The result was total paralysis. Workers going to Berger and coming back from work found themselves sleeping inside their vehicles, on the road, and at bus stops.

Entrepreneur Nsikak Akpan spent seven hours at Ojodu Berger trying to connect to the express. He had to find a hotel to sleep. That was fifteen minutes away from home on a normal day. Samuel Markson gave up and went back home. He said traffic had turned his bus stop into a permanent landmark. Favor trekked to work for the first time in her life. Oluwaseun spent twelve and a half hours from Falomo to Berger. He got home at 6:40 in the morning. Another commuter simply said people slept inside the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway traffic and were still inside it.

This is not an accident. It is a failure of leadership. President Tinubu governed Lagos from 1999 to 2007. He knows this road. He knows how many people depend on it every single day. He knows that closing Kara Bridge without a workable traffic plan would trap hundreds of thousands of Lagosians. He did nothing. His Minister of Works, David Umahi, directed the repairs. His Federal Road Safety Corps blamed recalcitrant drivers for worsening the gridlock. But the truth is that the government created this crisis and then walked away.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his Lagos State Government are equally guilty. They knew the repairs were coming. They had weeks to prepare. They could have provided alternative routes. They could have deployed more LASTMA officials. They could have worked with the Federal Government to stagger the repairs or open up other roads. Instead, they did nothing. Lagosians were left to fend for themselves.

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But the Kara Bridge repairs are only the latest example of a government that causes more pain with every action it takes. The Oke-Afa Bridge rehabilitation in Isolo forced the state to announce traffic diversions with little notice. The Apapa and Lekki port corridors remain permanently gridlocked while the government intensifies enforcement and deploys more personnel to manage a problem it created. The government’s own lack of proper drainage causes roads to flood at the slightest rain, creating instant gridlock. And the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, a multi-billion-dollar federal project, does nothing for the daily commuter in Lagos and has even been accused of worsening flooding in some communities.

The government’s long-term plans for rail lines, water transport and BRT expansion are years away from completion. The Blue and Red Lines are only partially operational. The Green Line is still in its early stages. The Omi Eko water transport project will take years to materialise. The BRT expansion is still under construction. None of these projects will help the commuter who is sleeping in traffic today.

The government is not solving the problem. It is managing the crisis in a way that makes it worse. Every repair, every diversion, every enforcement drive adds to the pain of ordinary Lagosians. The government celebrates flyovers and coastal highways while the roads that people use every day fall apart. The Governor poses for photos at commissioned projects while commuters sleep on the expressway. The President flies to Europe for vacation while his people are trapped in traffic for twelve hours.

Living in Lagos should not mean sleeping in traffic. It should not mean trekking to work because no buses are available. It should not mean spending more time on the road than with your family. But under Tinubu and Sanwo-Olu, that is exactly what it means. The government causes the pain, then blames the drivers. The government creates the gridlock, then celebrates a new flyover. The government fails to plan, then tells the people to be patient.

The people of Lagos deserve better. They deserve a government that works for them. But until they demand it, the suffering will continue. And the government will keep causing more pain.

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