Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s giant strides in the transport system in Lagos State

A durable and diverse transportation system remains one of the basic societal infrastructures a community or any contraption needs to sustainably grow on all fronts of development since mobility is one of the habitual characteristics of human beings. Lagos State, according to the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) research, is third on the list of 10 fastest growing cities in Africa and one can imagine that several socio-economic factors had led to this recognition and acknowledgment and one of these is the obvious and tremendous reformation that has been carried out in the transportation sector of the ‘centre of excellence in the last couple of decades. Beginning from the last six months of the last millennium when the 12th governor of the state was elected; Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s pragmatic approach to achieving the megacity status or what we can call the Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs) of the state in the next decades and beyond began to take its course. The transportation sector as our area of focus has recorded notable reformation expected of an urban community and this set of an amendment has formed the blueprint the state has been leveraging on.

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu during his 8-year reign as the governor of Lagos state pioneered various reforms in the transportation sector all of which includes road transport, railway transport, water transport, and air transport.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu pioneered the creation of Lagos State Bus Rapid Transport System Lagos with the first phase designed to commence from mile 12 to CMS.

LAGBUS as well as the establishment of Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) with 200 motorbikes, eight heavy-duty tow vehicles and modern communication equipment to enforce discipline in Lagos roads.

A whopping amount of N14 billion was expended on 417 road construction projects spanning 250 kilometres across the state in the first three years of his administration. 255 of these roads were already completed at that time while others were near completion.

Construction of Adeola-Odekun

Dualisation of Ikorodu-Itokin-Epe Link Road

Dualisation of Ejigbo-Ajao Estate/Airport Road.

Dualisation of Mende/Opebi Link Road.

Expansion of Badagry Expressway.

Also during the first three years, six strategic roads were upgraded to dual carriageway status complete with streetlights, drainage channels and walkways. They are Ikotun/Igando Road in Alimosho, Kudirat Abiola Way in Ikeja, Akin adesola Axis in Eti-Osa, Itire-Lawanson Ojuelegba-Yaba Road in Mushin, Surulere and Mainland LGAs, Awolowo Road in Eti-Osa, and Lagos Island Local Governments Areas, and Moshalashi-Agege Motor Road in Mushin Local The government began laying the foundations for the megacity goal of the state and this brought about the revival of so many sectors in the state of which transportation was one.

Asiwaju resuscitated the moribund Lagos State Ferry Service by rehabilitating the grounded five ferries in the fleet namely; MF Babakekere, MF Jubilee, MF Ologe, MF Topo, MF Illo, and MF Omu all having the capacity to transport over 1000 passengers.
Asiwaju carried out the dualization of Oregun road.
Asiwaju created the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (LAMATA), a public-private partnership agency, as a way to reform the transport system in Lagos to create a world-class intermodal integrated transport system for the megacity goal of the state.
Revival of the light rail network by Bola Ahmed Tinubu as part of the Greater Lagos Urban Transportation Project. The blue line of the project was designed to run 27.5km from Marina through Okokomaiko with 13 stations and an end-to-end journey time of 35 minutes. The redline is designed to run from Agbado to Marina, it will share the right-of-way of the Lagos-Kano Gauge.