Reliable Transportation Network, Key To Nation’s Survival — Fashola

Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN) on Thursday delivered the first Annual Law Lecture of the Babcock University, asserting that a reliable transportation network is an imperative for the nation’s economic survival and the realisation of her national promise.

The governor who spoke at the Babcock Business School, Ilisan, on the topic, “Transportation as Hub of Modern Civilisation”, emphasised the importance of transportation to the survival of the people.

Governor Fashola treated the topic from three perspectives, municipal (intra-state). inter-state and international transportation. Starting with municipal transportation which involves road, rail and water transportation, the Governor said water transportation is more applicable in states like Lagos where water is abundant and other coastal states and communities.

Reflecting on roads, he explained that it truly democratises the society and makes the people more equal and interactive than they ever probably thought because a good or bad road makes the difference between how long a car, motorcycle, bicycle or shoes last.

He said he has seen new buildings rise, old buildings refurbished, property values appreciate and massive construction and jobs evolve during and after the completion of any road.

“This year alone, we awarded 185 new road contracts and we have repaired and resurfaced 593 roads between January to September this year alone. I have received letters, emails and text messages from citizens, expressing pleasure in the reduced time they endure every time we conclude a road or just make progress during the construction”.

“In the same way that I received complaints about roads that we have not yet attended to, and the inconvenience to commuters about those we are currently working on,” he added.

He said reduced travel time means less fuel to be burnt, less fuel burnt means less money spent on fuel, less money spent on fuel means more money to do other things and more money to do other things means that prosperity is ascending a growth curve.

“Reduced travel time means that the transportation component of water, yam, food at Mama put, medical, legal, vulcanizing, tailoring, catering and other services are reduced and our purchasing power is enhanced. Reduced travel time means less stress to our health and general well-being. It means the possibility of a longer and fuller life,” the Governor said.

Governor Fashola also examined the other side of the coin which is the impact of bad roads and used the Lagos-Benin Expressway as an example, explaining that during his University days in Benin for four years, a journey from Lagos to Benin took less than three hours by car.

He said that today, all that has become history as the jobs created by the cars, buses that operated long journeys across those destinations have disappeared with the accompanying negative fall-out that tyre companies like Michellin and Dunlop had closed shop and laid the staff off.

“It has become cheaper to export tyres to us from Europe because our demand does not make the operation of a local tyre factory viable. All of these, because we cannot rebuild a road of approximately 300 kilometres that we built in the first instance”, the Governor observed.

Drawing attention to the consequences of the development, the Governor said: “Let us ask what has happened to the engineers, chemists, clerks, storekeepers, accountants and other professionals who operated companies that made tyres, brake fluids, engine oil and the transportation business and distributors who benefited from the business”.

He added that this explains why Nigeria is becoming an Okada and Keke Marwa nation, importing the signs of China and India’s poverty simply because the nation has been unable to build interstate roads.