On your
handsets… Get set… GO!
If you don’t have a gadget that is sophisticated
enough to help you attend to all personal and official transactions from the comfort
of your home - like attending meetings online, advertising and securing sales
of your products as well as other undertakings that often require physical
contacts, it’s time you got yourself one. It may be a life saver, particularly
if your routine normally involves transiting on Lagos roads.
From the 24th July, 2020, barely a week
away, except the controlling agency of the federal government changes its mind,
the Third Mainland Bridge – Lagos’ busiest highway link to the Island, would be
shut down for six unbroken months for a mandatory repair work. Make no mistake
about it, you’re being presented with a choice of self-isolation, voluntarily
working from home or spending several frustrating hours in a nightmarish traffic!
So, if your mastery of the current telecommunications tools
does not go beyond simple phone messaging, please accept my sympathies in
advance. As the Yorubas say: ‘Oye lo ma kilo fun oni tobi” (The scantily
dressed will soon be taught a bitter lesson by the extreme cold weather)! Your
old-school limitations are about becoming an open spectacle!
It is common knowledge that Lagos roads are so interlinked
that a little mishap in one major road almost automatically locks up the rest. The
memories of the 1998 Lekki Christian crusade which locked up virtually all streets
on the Island keep haunting me each time I thought about this imminent closure.
We’ve seen this repeated ever so frequently: a heavily flooded Ikorodu Road or
an upturned trailer on just a section of Oworonsoki junction, and the result is
a traffic jam that stretches hundreds of kilometres , from Ikoyi to
Lagos-Ibadan expressway for endless hours!
There is no need for long talk here. If a public
utility as critical to safety as third Mainland bridge requires major repairs,
so be it. The spectacle of a collapsed bridge is too grave to even contemplate.
God forbid! Yet the question will continue to be asked why a recent 3 months lockdown
that kept everyone at home and the roads entirely empty was so unpardonably
wasted? Even as it stands, must the repair take all of six months to
accomplish? Is anyone thinking of the huge costs the prolonged disruptions of vehicular and commercial flow will have on the economy? And what about the family?
Till now, with business offices and commercial activities massively concentrated
on the Island, thousands of people who come from as far off as Ikorodu, Ifo,
Agege, Agbara, Badagry etc have always adopted different strategies to beat the
notorious Lagos traffic. Some of these
strategies include leaving the home as early as 4am at the risk of robbery
attack, or taking up a temporary abode on the Island while returning home only
on weekends. The strains this method had caused family relationships are
obvious, including losing one’s spouse to an adventurous male or female caretaker!
Happily,
since there are always two sides to a coin, not everyone is a loser in this
matter. There are multiple social media channels and online platforms which
have provided interested users with popular tools of engagement especially since
COVID-19 lockdown changed the landscape of communication. More converts will surely come on board.
So,
you can say this pending lockdown is a time of flourishing for the tech wizards!
However, it’s not all loss for those who can’t understand e-tech. There’s
another set of wizardry that is just as resourceful –
those who can fly night or day, reaching their targets unhindered by oceans or
blocked highways. Imagine what a man would pay to attend a critical business
meeting hundreds of kilometres away whilst still being seen in bed in his pyjamas!
