Quick one on Lagos transport

There’s been quite some reaction to the decision for the Super Eagles to travel for tomorrow’s beating in Benin by boat. It’s a good idea actually, but many have pointed out, correctly in my view, that the reason for the boat ride was because of the atrocious state of the road.

In 2019, a client asked my employer to do a study on the cost of road transport in Lagos in terms of time. The results of that study were documented in this video.

As part of that study, we benchmarked transit times in Lagos with some other cities that have similar population densities. Lagos had the highest travel times, and specifically, the Badagry route was really awful. A trip from Badagry to Ikeja at the time took an average of four hours and a half. In performing that study, we spoke to people in Badagry who do not see their kids during the week. One particular family did not have an option as both parents work on the Island, they can’t afford help, and they had no immediate family to bring in to babysit. Their kids were left at the mercy of their neighbours. Think of the potential social problems that could lead to in years to come.

See, the real reason behind the Eagles going to Benin by water is the state of that road, let’s not deny it. As a good social experiment, let’s wait patiently for a year, and let’s see how commonplace boat trips between Lagos and Cotonou become. That would be a genuine marker of whether this movement by boat really is an attempt to open up a new vista in inter-country travel, or just a way to cover our nakedness.