Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola has Commission the Lekki-Ikoyi link bridge today. The new cable bridge which was first of its kind in West Africa. The bridge is located at Eti-Osa Local Government Area, Ikoyi, Lagos State.
Being The Remarks Of His Excellency, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, San On The Occasion Of The Handover Of The Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge today May 29, 2013
I must express gratitude to all of you who have taken time off to respond to our invitation by honoring us with your personal presence at this handover ceremony of another piece of public infrastructure that adds to the growing list of life changing infrastructure that the Lagos State Government has delivered to her people.
Although this bridge is iconic in many respects such as its architectural design and civil engineering complexity, these were only secondary objectives.
The primary objective in its conception and delivery was to provide a transport infrastructure and a strategic traffic management solution aimed at easing traffic congestion in this area.
We have done so in Okota, with the construction of Okota Link Bridge; which eased traffic connectivity for seven different Local Governments and also in Falomo Area, with the Falomo Ramp which have both significantly reduced journey times for commuters, leading to reduction in fuel consumption and translating to enormous cost savings.
These types of initiatives sit well with the commitment of our Government to improve service delivery.
They sit well with our commitment to PATH, which is the acronym for Power, Agriculture, Transportation and Housing.
This is why similar bridge works are being undertaken in Agiliti in the Mile 12 Area, to connect communities that have been separated by water for forever.
This is why a similar project is being executed in Ajao-Ejigbo area with the construction of a link bridge and road to connect another area separated by the Ejigbo canal from time immemorial.
It is the same reason for a similar project, afour lane bridge in Isheri-Ijegun-Isolo area, to provide crossing over water, connect separated communities; and reduce journey times and the associated economic and social costs.
If therefore anybody still has difficulty connecting with this project, I feel duty bound today to explain my understanding of some of the geography of this State.
It is my understanding that we are a State of many small islands for whom over many years the only way to connect was by water, largely through canoes.
It was not untilaround 1901 that Governor Gilbert Thomas Carter built the first bridge in Lagos, the famous Carter Bridge to connect the two islands of Lagos and Iddo.
It was followed by the Eko Bridge, appropriately named after Lagos, built when Alhaji Femi Okunnu was Federal Commissioner for Works in the General Yakubu Gowon era.
The Eko Bridge provided the connection between Lagos Island and the Mainland, especially Surulere and the areas beyond it, and it eased pressure on the Carter Bridge by providing an alternative to the people.
The Falomo Bridge and the Independence Bridge located at the end of Falomo and Marina respectively were similar initiatives to provide connection between two islands, namely to link Ikoyi and Lagos Island respectively to Victoria Island
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, please bear with me for taking some of your time by giving this history. The purpose is to explain that we are not doing anything new.
We are connecting our islands in the way that our ancestors have done in the past.
We can all imagine how life will be today, without the 3rd Mainland Bridge.
Indeed it is the existence of the Eko and Carter Bridges and ferry services that made it possible to close down sections of the 3rd Mainland bridge for repairs without grinding our daily commuting to a halt.
Of course the compelling need for a 4th Mainland Bridge and possibly a 5th and 6th Bridge and expanded ferry services are all now no longer debatable.
We are still working ceaselessly to start the commencement of the 4thMainland Bridge and we have made a lot of progress to soon commence an alternative mode of crossing the Lagoon from Lekki to Ikorodu with the completion of the Ipakodo and Badore Ferry Terminals, as we race to conclude the Osborne Terminal that will complete what I call the Lagos lagoon ferry triangle.
All of these will bring a lot of relief during the period of the building of the 4thMainland Bridge as it will provide choice after its completion.
All of these fit very squarely within our inter-modal transport plan of connectivity of rail, ferries and vehicles.
Other cities such as London and Cairo have 33 (thirty three) bridges on the River Thames and 5 (five) bridges on the River Nile, respectively.
We expect therefore that from today the people of Lekki who have no business in Victoria Island, will not need to go on to Ozumba Mbadiwe in order to cross to the Mainland.
In the event that they do, it will not be because they have no alternatives; it will be because they made a choice.
In the future we intend to complete the road from the 3rd Round-about through Admiralty Way to provide a choice and access to commuters from Ajah who are heading to the Mainland.
In this way, we expect to finally reduce the bottle neck in Victoria Island, Ozumba Mbadiwe and its immediate environs that is caused by a lack of choice.
Having said this much, it should suffice that I should now proceed to hand over this bridge.
However, I could not pass up this unique opportunity to address a few issues that the construction of this bridge has thrown up.
The first is the anxiety of well-meaning and public spirited Lagosians and Nigerians about the seeming delay in opening this bridge since its apparent conclusion.
My first duty is to thank them all, especially through people like the Asoju-Oba of Lagos, Chief Molade Okoya Thomas and our esteemed monarch, Alaiyeluwa Oba Rilwan Akiolu. The support of my predecessor, the Asiwaju of Lagos, Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been no less inspiring. Eko a gbe yin o!
Secondly, this event provides an opportunity to dispel the thinking that we were being hampered by a court action which was initiated for political reasons.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, no court action or order has prevented us from opening this bridge and we are vigorously defending the court action that was initiated against this bridge.
I am convinced that the judicial arm of Government remains alive to its developmental responsibilities.
While the courts cannot prevent people from initiating all sorts of actions, I believe that our courts will appropriately use their powers to protect the majority of citizens from the reprobate conduct of a few mischief makers, and their professional advisers.
Furthermore, this occasion provides me the opportunity to share with you the role played by other Nigerians who contributed to the building of this Bridge who many of you may never know apart from Julius Berger, the official contractor.
While mischief makers and enemies of our people were busy as usual trying to stand in the way of progress, some patriots pulled out all the stops to accelerate the turning of the wheels of progress.
The first of such patriots is late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua of blessed memory. He was in my view the first builder of this bridge.
When the design of the bridge was completed and shown to me, it was obvious that 4 (four) properties will have to give way at the Ikoyi end. This was after we had amended previous designs to reduce the numbers of buildings to be affected.
The 4 (four) properties were the least invasive alignment we settled upon. Two of these four buildings belonged to Lagos State Government and the other two belonged to the Federal Government, or at least that was what our records showed.
At the height of the dispute between the Lagos State Government and the Federal Government over Ikoyi properties which had already resulted in a court case, some of my colleagues felt that we were never going to get the Federal Government of Nigeria to cede property to a Lagos Government controlled by the opposition party to build a bridge for the people.
While President Yar’Adua surprised them, He did not surprise me. This was the same President who had released our Local Government funds that were illegally withheld.
When I showed him the design in his office in Abuja and explained the project to him, he simply invited Alhaji Yayale Ahmed who was then Secretary to the Government to join our meeting.
Let me try to paraphrase what he said when Ahlaji Ahmed walked in: “SGF there is this bridge in conception by Lagos State Government. It will affect some properties over which we have a dispute with the State Government in court. Without prejudice to the outcome of the case, please release the two properties to them. Our court dispute or political differences cannot stand in the way of our people’s development”.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, that was President Yar’Adua as a statesman, and not as a politician.
Although there was no federal funding support, this bridge is clear evidence of what the Federal might can achieve depending on whether the person who exercises authority chooses to be a politician or a statesman.
On behalf of the Government and people of Lagos, I express continuous gratitude to the Yar’Adua family, from Alhaji Yar’Adua, the Minister for Lagos Affairs to late President Umar Yar’Adua.
There are other citizens who had adjoining properties all of whom volunatarily agreed to relocate their fences and provide part of their premises as works yards for the project. To you all, I say thank you.
It will be remiss of me not to acknowledge the roles of Ministry of Works and Infrastructure under the leadership of Engineer Ganiyu Johnson when the project was started and under the leadership of Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat who supervised the project to completion.
The project could not have been successfully managed without inter-ministerial and departmental co-operation. I therefore acknowledge the role of the Lands Bureau in resolving land and compensation issues arising from this project and other Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Lagos State Government.
To all our commuters who come to Lekki or pass through Lekki and Victoria Island on a daily basis, I congratulate you for this new transport asset of choice.
You are the real owners of the bridge because you will likely use it more.
As I have often said, the location of a public infrastructure in any area does not confer ownership on that area. Those who live in such communities are only trustees of the property for all citizens from all parts of Lagos who may choose to use the public infrastructure if they comply with the regulations for use.
In the case of this bridge, users will have to pay a toll each way as follows.
Vehicle Class | Type of Vehicles | Initial Maximum Toll |
Class I | Saloon Cars | |
Class II | Mini-vans, SUVs and Light Pick-Up Trucks | |
Class III | Non-commercial buses with a maximum seating capacity of 26 (twenty-six) persons | |
Class M | Motorcycles with 200cc capacity and above |
In addition there is a restriction on certain types of vehicles. For the avoidance of doubt, the following types of vehicles are prohibited from using this bridge namely:
Commercial Motorcyles (otherwise known as “Okada);
Tricycles (otherwise known as “Keke Marwa”);
Commercial Buses including Danfos and High Capacity Buses (i.e commercial buses exceeding a maximum seating capacity of 26); and
Heavy duty trucks, articulated trucks, lorries and such other vehicle categories
Before today’s opening we had conducted trial runs on this bridge by the issuance of passes to citizens to enable us study how the toll systems work and how traffic discharges.
We will continue to monitor and make changes as things evolve.
We expect that there will be a lot of tourist passengers who will use the bridge for the novelty and experience and we will wait until all that excitement dissipates before we conclude our studies.
In order to ensure that the full savings in journey time is experienced by commuters, we are racing to conclude the re-construction of Glover Road later in the year to provide anotherchoice of access to commuters who choose to use the Bridge.
We expect that the completion of that road will make things even better.
Finally, like the Eko Bridge this bridge will have a local name that gives prominence to the locality and places our indigenous communities on the global map. Accordingly it will be known and called the Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge.
To the glory of God, towards effective transportation and in pursuit of a brighter and rewarding future, I hand over the Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge to you the citizens and wish you a happy motoring experience.
Eko o ni baje o!
Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Governor of Lagos State
May 29, 2013
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