Ayobo-Ijon Waterfront Facility: Another example of government’s wastefulness and insensitivity

The Lagos State Government keeps looking for ways to solve the traffic problem in the state. OSEYIZA OOGBODO however reports that the Ayobo-Ijon Waterfront Facility, a water transport station that would greatly aid the traffic situation is being neglected by the state.   

Mrs Sandra Adebayo was born and bred in Lagos. Even though she went to university outside Lagos in nearby Ogun State, she was in Lagos for most of her life until she finally had to go to the north, Sokoto to be precise, for her youth service in 2008.

Needless to say, she found out that the lifestyle in Sokoto and the north as a whole was quite different from that of Lagos. While Lagos was frenetic hustle and bustle and endless traffic holdups, Sokoto and its neighbouring states moved along at a sedate pace.

Being that she was in the north on just a temporary arrangement, Adebayo didn’t really think about it one way or the other that living expenses were cheaper in the north and that the absence of holdups made life far easier and more enjoyable.

However, during the course of her national service, she met a young man working as a regional sales executive for a blue-chip company. Though the young man, Kunle Adebayo, was based in Kano, his work took him all over the north.

Anyway, Sandra and Kunle fell in love, courted and married in Lagos shortly after Sandra’s service ended. Once they were married, Sandra had to follow her husband to Kano. And the sedate lifestyle of Kano became her lot on a permanent basis.

Unluckily for her, she didn’t get a job. When she did get an interview appointment with a blue-chip company after a year of marriage, the interview was in Lagos so she flew in. The interview was at the company’s headquarters in Victoria Island. In order for her to make it to the venue in time, she had to wake up very early in the morning and set out at about 6am.

Going back to her parents’ Agbado residence after the interview was a nightmare for Sandra. She left Victoria Island around 6.30pm and didn’t get home until after 10pm. All through the journey home, she was fuming. Hearing her complain about the holdup, it would have been impossible to believe that she was actually born in Lagos and grew up there.

But worse was to come for her. Her interview was successful and she was called back to Lagos for training. After six weeks of training, instead of being returned to Kano which is where she applied to be, she is still in Lagos and is not enjoying it one bit.

“I spend nothing less than a thousand naira everyday when I go to work. If I was in Kano, I wouldn’t spend that much. Apart from that, the holdups are just unbearable for me now. I’m no longer used to them. I’m just praying to God that they will return me to Kano soonest.”

Unsurprisingly, Lagos State is definitely aware of its traffic problem which is a thorn in Sandra’s flesh. One of the ways the state tried to solve the problem is the introduction of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) which’s sole task is to ensure the free flow of traffic.

The state isn’t relying solely on LASTMA, though. Since Lagos has a lot of water, the government also encourages water transportation. To this end, people who stay in Ikorodu now have ferries that bring them to the Island, there are also ferries that convey people from Marina to Apapa, and many other routes as well.

But even as Sandra keeps suffering holdups to and from work, there would have been an easy holdup-free route for her by water. She could easily be taking a boat from Victoria Island to Ayobo. And from Ayobo, she would have an easy ride to Agbado. This would save her from holdups.

Unknown to many Lagos residents, Ayobo actually has a waterway that is usable by boats. Maybe this is why Ayobo hasn’t become a popular water transport station.

But what the people don’t know, the government knows, and the government has built a pier at Ayobo, indicating that the government knows its necessity there. A visit to it would however invoke sympathy for our wasteful governments. The pier has been taken over by vegetation and can’t be compared to those at Marina, Tarkwa Bay or other jetties in full use.

Anyway, the reason Sandra can’t take a boat from Lagos Island to Ayobo is simply because the pier which was built at Ayobo by the LASG has not been permitted to service Lagos State, according to a certain Moses Ojajuni. The pier is known as Ayobo-Ijon Waterfront Facility and it presently services just Ogun State, so it is Lagos residents who are losing out on this raw deal.

Ojajuni, who has been resident in Ijon, an Ayobo environ, since 1948, was seated in a relaxed manner on the pier when National Mirror visited it to confirm its existence or otherwise. Ojajuni looks like he doesn’t have a care in the world. This façade of his is in keeping with that of Ijon which is one of those towns described as rustic and ancient.  

Ijon is certainly rustic. Its residents are simple, modest and lower class. Life there is definitely peaceful and tranquil. Its people take care of their activities at a sedate pace, no rush to move on to something else. Despite being a town in the famous ever-busy Lagos State, Ijon is totally free from the frenetic hustle and bustle and traffic holdups associated with most Lagos towns.

Ijon’s roads have never been tarred and it has a lot of mud houses still in this modern age. But it is not totally basking in the Stone Age. Unlike some towns that don’t have electricity, Ijon does. “It was Raji Rasaki who brought electricity to us during his administration,” says Ojajuni.

Even though it is “on the map,” according to Ojajuni, Ijon is not very popular. But popular or not, Ijon is important, because it has River Owo which connects Lagos and Ogun States and it is at a tributary of this river that the pier christened Ayobo-Ijon Waterfront Facility was built.

Since Ijon is at Ayobo, an area which is not just on Lagos Mainland but is quite far from the Island which is also the commercial nerve centre of Lagos, Ijon’s aquatic benefits therefore takes on a tremendous toga of importance as the use of River Owo as a transportation method between Ijon, other Lagos towns and Lagos Island especially would greatly decrease the traffic holdups on Lagos roads.

Also in keeping with its rustic nature is that Ijon’s residents shy away from publicity and intrusion into their affairs. Ojajuni is a bit different from them in this regard, maybe because he’s a man of the world as he’s been in the army before. “I was in the army for three years before the civil war. I had to leave the army as my mother kept crying that she didn’t want me to die.”

When National Mirror first heard about Ijon’s waterfront facility, it was in a flippant manner. The Ayobo resident who spoke about it to National Mirror did so in a casual and offhand fashion. “There’s a place here that was started by former Governor Jakande’s administration. It’s a jetty that ferries are supposed to operate from. But it’s just wasting away.”

Ojajuni, who is replete with history about Ijon from living there for the last sixty-four years, however refutes Lateef Jakande’s said involvement in Ijon’s jetty. “This jetty was built by Bola Ahmed Tinubu during his very last days in office. Jakande never had a hand in it. Like I told you earlier, Rasaki gave us electricity, Marwa included us in the Neighbourhood Security project, and we are now waiting to see what Fashola will do for us.”

Presently, the facility is in use by crude canoes that have outboard motor engines. “We call them small flying boats. They only go to Ogun State for now,” Ojajuini disclosed sadly. “They don’t go to the Island yet because that will be on the instruction of the government and there is no agreement in place to that effect yet.

“From here to the Island is just 40 minutes by water. But even we fishermen here, we have to go the Island by road when we are going to Ebute Ero to buy our fishing nets. Going by road is a roundabout journey. It takes more time and we spend more money, at least N1,200, but we have no choice if we are to survive.”

Like Ojajuni, Rasak, another Ijon resident expressed the opinion that “the ferry service will only become fully functional when this road is tarred. Government cannot really look properly into the ferry service now until they do the road. It is the road that will make people come here easily to come and use the ferry. ”

Rasak was however neutral about government’s abandonment of the project since 2007. “You cannot force government to do anything,” he said. “When they want to do it, they will, and they can even do it overnight then. They will do it so fast that it will seem like a miracle.”

Be that as it may, the importance of Ijon cannot be overemphasised. “It’s a pity that the present government hasn’t seen the importance of this jetty. The full use of the jetty is not only to our advantage. Even as it will bring development to our town, trading will increase and our people will work in the ferry service, all the rest of Lagos will also benefit,” Ojajuini lamented.

Another Ijon resident who wished to remain anonymous was however pessimistic about the waterfront project. “It is good, but it has many negative sides. When the place is in full commercial use, it will bring many people with it and rob us of the peace we have now. I’ve been to Apapa several times, I know how it is there, lots of people with loose morals and criminal tendencies, and I don’t want Ijon to be like that. This is a residential area basically, not commercial, so I suspect that there will be many negative impacts on us from the full commercialisation of the facility.”

The Lagos State Ministry of Waterfront Infrastructure Development is however yet to furnish National Mirror with the state’s position on the pier.