Calabar residents applaud Ayade as govt embarks on infrastructure renewal
A character trait alien to Calabar has suddenly enveloped the alluring and beautiful capital of Cross River state, yet residents and motorists who ordinary should be chief complainants say, they are at home with the situation.
”It is good for the city and its people; it is good for Calabar, the pains we are going through now is temporary”, a cheerful motorist enthused as he wheeled his Audi car out of a bend to negotiate a more spacious access amidst hundreds of other horn-blaring vehicles struggling to also maneuver their vehicles away from uncomfortable positions.
The setting was Essien Town by WAPI road junction. And it was still midday. The beauty of it: every one caught in the nerve-wrecking situation was orderly and chatted heartily as they tried to make use of the available narrow strip of road.
The scenario at the Essien Town by WAPI intersection on this Friday afternoon tells the story of an unusual traffic snarl in Calabar, a city immuned from chaotic traffic situation that defines cities in Nigeria.
A cab driver who met a gridlock as he approached the ever busy Murtala Muhammed High Way described the situation as “Ayade-Made Traffic”, hooting his car’s horn as he scouted for passengers. And like his WAPI-Essien Town junction counterpart, he agreed the traffic situation was in the overall interest of road users.
Celebrating or accepting a debilitating traffic situation as fait accompli in otherwise flowery and sane roads is curious and beats the imagination, at least to a first time visitor to Calabar. But here is why the city’s dwellers and road users are not murmuring:
As humorously put by the cab driver, the traffic gridlock in the WAPI road/Essien Town axis and other parts of the city is truly, ‘Ayade Made”. The situation is a direct fall out of the re-making of Calabar, including the rehabilitation of roads, which in some instances involve a total relaying of asphalt along major roads, installation and repair of street lights, traffic lights and beautification of roundabouts within the metropolis as ordered by the state governor, Professor Ben Ayade preparatory to the yearly Carnival Calabar.
The world class event which attracts tourists round the globe comes up later this month.
Some of the roads are undergoing total asphalt overlaying and many have already been asphalted. For example, a large portion of the Murtala Muhammed High Way was sparkling black as it was being asphalted. Mary Slessor Road from the University of Calabar axis up to Watts market end which has already been totally asphalted radiates beauty as road users on that part of the city enjoy smooth ride there. The same elegant commentary is equally true of IBB Road.
In time past, the Calabar-Odukpani junction’s perennial traffic gridlock was a nightmare to road users but not anymore. Dualization work is ongoing at feverish pace.
Aides say Governor Ayade is determined to showcase a city dazzling with beauty and aesthetic landscape to the world.
A bird’s eye view of the city reveals that the governor is stopping at nothing to realize this. Essentially, decoration of all roundabouts in the state capital with glistering Christmas flowers and lights have added to the breathe-taking beauty of Calabar- Millennium park, Government House Lodge, Etta Agbor, Jonathan- Bye pass and zone 6 Roundabouts are all dripping with aesthetics.
‘Ayade is Working’ and “Men at Work” are the most popular signs in Calabar today.
Anywhere you turn, the signs stare at you and when you wonder why the avalance of such signs, you are immediately confronted with sights of workmen either fixing a road, fixing street and traffic lights or outrightly installing new ones where they did not previously exist.
There is indeed no let up in Professor Ayade’s resolve to refashion Calabar.
An enthusiastic resident in Parliamentary Extension area of the metropolis maintained that she was happy with what she described as “Ayade’s magical touch on Calabar” and urged doubting Thomases to “take a trip round Calabar and see the wonders of beauty and what a thinking head can do to transform a city”
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on Dec 10 2018. Filed under Ben Ayade Desk.
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