President Jonathan Goodluck of Nigeria announced the reconstruction of the long overdue and the heavily neglected Lagos-Ibadan expressway yesterday. This expressway which remains the busiest interstate highway in Nigeria was neglected by all the successive Nigerian administrations since it was first constructed in the 1970s during the era of the Nigeria's oil boom in the 1970s. President Jonathan Goodluck said that the total cost of its reconstruction will be N167 billion or $1.4 billion for its total length of 127km of road and the duration for its completion will be four years or the year 2017. This project may likely make history books in Nigeria as one of the most expensive national infrastructures to rebuild apart from the construction of the Nigeria's new federal capital in Abuja.
Firstly, this development is a huge political move or strategy that is designed by President Jonathan Goodluck as his deceptive political bait that he plans to use in the capturing of the hearts and the minds of the Yorubas for his own political ambition to remain in the Aso Rock villa in Abuja beyond the year 2015. President Jonathan Goodluck in the 2011 presidential election won with a total of 22 million votes across Nigeria. About 8.5 million votes or roughly 40% of his total votes came alone from the Yoruba nation. It is not also mathematically possible for President Jonathan Goodluck to win again in 2015 without the South-West voting for him again the same way they did in 2011. The Northern Nigerians voted heavily in 2011 primarily for Mohammadu Buhari and this voting pattern may be repeated again in 2015 as Buhari is highly likely to win the APC presidential ticket for 2015.
Secondly, this development to reconstruct this major expressway in Nigeria is also an avenue for President Jonathan Goodluck to make the dirty money through this highly inflated single nation project in Nigeria. President Jonathan Goodluck will need a lot of dirty money in 2015 for his own political survival or presidential campaign as well as to bribe the INEC, the rogue political prostitutes and the Nigeria's security agencies in order to influence the final outcome of that election.
The cost of the reconstruction for a similar expressway in America today with the world's highest standard of living, engineering practices, environmental standards and wages is about $1 million to $2 million per mile (1 mile = 1.6 km) for any interstate expressway that does not requires the removal of mountains, the building of new bridges, the filling up of valleys or marshes and the financial compensations that are normally paid out for any infrastructural displacements. President Jonathan Goodluck will be spending about $8.2 million or N1.3 billion per kilometer in Nigeria. This reconstruction project will cost about $6.2 million or N9.9 billion per kilometer more expensive to reconstruct in Nigeria when this is compared to a similar interstate expressway in America in 2013. Who is truly fooling who here? President Jonathan Goodluck or the 160 million dumb Nigerians. Time will surely tell.
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