Lagos commuters woke up Friday to a harrowing traffic experience following the closure of Third Mainland Bridge as announced by the State Government last weekend.

Although, most people knew about the closure, but due to the publicity, commuters did not bargain for what they saw. While transport fare trippled, a lot of the commuters traveling from the mainland to the Island spent more than seven hours getting there.

Most of the commuters, however, could not stomach the stress as they dropped down from the buses to return to their houses even after paying more for the trip. The drivers and area boys had a field day fleecing passengers.

Most vehicles heading from Ogba and environs to the Island manoeuvred their way to either through Herbert Macaulay or Western Avenue. Going through each of these routes was like “a camel passing through the eye of a needle”, lamented, a commuter.

“I took off from Ogba as early as 8 am for an 11 a.m. appointment on the Island. The driver took us through Herbert Macaulay. As at 11 a.m., the traffic was getting tougher and our bus was just around the Alagomeji area, and on standstill. From what I saw, we will not get to the Island before 3 pm, so I decided to return to base,” said Charles.

He said that going back home was not that easy, although it was better.

For Roseline, (not real name) the planning for the closure of the bridge by government is wrong. “I consider them wicked for closing this bridge on a Friday. I travel abroad every other time and you dare not visit this type of suffering among the citizens. I just think that the government here prefers the citizens to suffer as a proof they are working and this is unfortunate.

“Why can’t they do this on weekends alone? What is it that they cannot do on Saturday and Sunday? I don’t see any wisdom in making people suffer like this,” she snapped.

Other commuters who spoke agreed with Roseline that the government enjoys it when citizens suffer, and that this would not be the first or second time it is happening.

They wondered what dimension of suffering will be visited on the people when the actual maintenance starts, if commuters are already stressed out by a one day closure due to poor traffic management.

The Lagos state government announced last weekend that the Third Mainland Bridge will be temporarily closed for four days, starting midnight of August 23 to midnight of August 26, 2018, in order to carry out Investigative Maintenance Test on the bridge.

The State’s Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Ade Akinsanya, who disclosed this in a statement said the decision was taken after due consultation with the Federal Ministry of Power, Works, and Housing. The four-day closure, according to Akinsanya, will enable the contractors assess the true state of the bridge after which works would commence by the end of the year or early in 2019.