The Lagos suburbs of Ayobo and Igando are neighbours except that they are cut off by a large, thick bushy swamp. This seeming disadvantage became an advantage for private individuals who constructed wooden bridges that ferry people across for a fee. Emmanuel Onyeche visited the most ambitious of these projects — a 1,200 metres long mass of wood that is now a dual carriage for human and vehicular traffic — and writes on its economic value to the communities nearby.
From Ashipa and Olayemi in Ayobo — a suburb of Lagos — in Ayobo/Ipaja Local Council Development Area, you don‘t even need to shout but only to raise your voice a little bit for your neighbours in Igando New town to hear what you are saying.
And as recently as four years ago, that was exactly their only option — shout pleasantries and other talks across to each other. For any other form of contact, these neighbours of several decades had just two options. They either travelled several kilometres through Moshalasi and Iyana Ipaja to get to each other or wade through the thick swampy bush that separates them, battling a couple of monkeys, snakes and crocodiles in the process.
Suddenly, after waiting as usual for government to come to their aid in vain, some private individuals woke up to the idea of constructing wooden bridges and, within a short time, three of such sprang up.
Read More:http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201011073365073
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