Sanwo-Olu promises gridlock-free Lagos if elected governor

Lagos State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Babajide Sanwo-Olu has promised to ensure eradication of gridlocks on roads if elected governor in the 2019 elections.

“I have come up with five levels of plans called the five pillars. The first one is traffic management and transportation, we are going to be heavy on that. I have done a study in the last six weeks, people have complained a lot about traffic management,” Sanwo-Olu said during an interview on Channels Television breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily.

Traffic gridlock has remained a huge challenge in Lagos State especially during the rainy season and the festive period. Often times armed robbers usually take advantage of the gridlock to rob motorists and commuters.

Besides, the security challenge it poses, the gridlocks also have a major economic impact. According to reports, $10 billion is lost annually due to the notorious gridlock around the Apapa axis of the state.

Sanwo-Olu noted that if elected governor, he will solve the challenge of gridlock in Lagos by putting in place various measures both simple and complex.

He explained that while traffic continues to be on a high on Lagos roads, he had identified how best to eradicate traffic on Lagos roads.

He said, “We have identified a lot of gridlocks that we are going to be solving. Some are very easy to solve while some are very humongous. We will put in structures as little as reducing roundabout, putting traffic lights, to difficult measures as physically taking away somethings that are impeding traffic.”

“Traffic and transportation is one the pillars, the next one is what we call environment and health,” he said.

He also revealed the plan to eliminate bad border roads, especially between Lagos and Ogun State.

According to him, one of the major bad border roads which will be fixed is the Lagos-Badagry expressway which he described as a West African transnational road.

“One of the major plans we have is the Lagos-Badagry express road which is not just an intercity because it cuts across Agbara and going towards the Seme-border. It is also a West-African transnational road. The road is such an important corridor that we are going to fix.”

He said Lagos State Government under his administration would collaborate with Ogun State Government to deal with challenges of border roads between both states.

In his words, “Regarding all other state border roads, it is for us to have collaboration with Ogun State government and say let’s look at the budget, this road 5km goes into your own state, 7km goes into my own state, let’s check the numbers, what are the trade-offs? Who has the comparative advantage?,”

“Who is collecting revenues on these corridors? I might be a bigger brother because I probably have a bigger budget. So, we deal with it and solve it.”

Sanwo-Olu, a three-time commissioner in the state, said his resume was rich enough to provide solutions to major challenges in the state.