By Prince Uthman Shodipe-Dosunmu
Recently, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu bought 500 vehicles to serve as taxis on Lagos roads. With glee and orchestrated spectacle, the vehicles were driven in a dramatic splendor across the already traffic-choked streets of Lagos.
Sanwoolu fancifully called the white and blue taxis LagRide, which in his view will expand transportation access to Lagosians.
I do not think so. It will never happen. It is a wasteful, ill-thought, hurriedly composed project that will not add any value to the transportation challenges of commuters. As a matter of fact, the so-called LagRide is a masked political gerrymandering, a half-witted partisan move, shrouded in personal gains and selfish motivations.
Lagos does not need more vehicles on our already cluttered roads. What Lagos needs as a widening megalopolis is well contemplated alternative routes of transportation that will combine modern railroad systems, the charted pathways of the Lagoon; short, interlocking bridges linking the new burgeoning towns and cities, the 4th Mainland Bridge, which is now more of a mirage, and the long abandoned Atlantic Super highway that is supposed to traverse the gateway of the Lekki peninsula, down to the reaches of Port Harcourt.
This ought to be the focus of a progressive, forward-looking administration and not a hurriedly constituted shambolic affair, an untidy Greek gift, meant for a narrow, crude electioneering purpose. Lagosians are no fools.
•Prince Shodipe-Dosunmu, is the Secretary-General of a Lagos socio-political organisation, Ọmọ Eko Pataki; and writes from Lagos.
