Lagos residents have urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to deploy police officers nightly to protect newly installed railings on the Onikan Bridge. They called on the Inspector General of Police to station personnel from divisions at Lion Building, Onikan, Ikoyi, and Dolphin Estate to prevent vandalism of infrastructure worth billions of naira. The appeal follows recent upgrades under Tinubu's administration, including solar-powered streetlights, road resurfacing, and the reinstatement of railings across key bridges in Lagos.
Residents commuting via the Third Mainland Bridge, Okesuna, and Onikan Bridges credited Tinubu with transforming Lagos' infrastructure within three years. They noted that solar lighting has reduced crime on major roads after dark. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu also received praise for the ongoing blue and red rail lines and collaboration with the federal government on urban renewal.
Chief Olalekan Disu, a resident of Iyana-Oworo, said driving through Okesuna, CMS, Apongbon, and Eko Bridge now resembles travel on European expressways. He commended Tinubu's work across all six geopolitical zones. Mr. Solar Adedeji called for sustained police presence, citing successful patrols on Third Mainland and Adeniji Adele bridges, and warned of thieves operating around Obalende.
President Tinubu's visibility in Lagos's infrastructure overhaul has turned routine urban repairs into a political asset, but the public's plea for police deployment to guard railings exposes a deeper crisis of ownership and civic trust. When citizens must beg for security to protect basic fixtures like bridge railings, it reveals how fragile public confidence remains, even amid visible improvements. The fact that residents cite the value of the infrastructure in billions of naira underscores a perception that these projects are federal investments to be guarded, not communal property to be protected by the people.
The praise for Tinubu and Sanwo-Olu reflects a political narrative where functional streetlights and intact railings are treated as exceptional achievements rather than baseline governance. The reference to European-standard roads highlights a benchmark shaped by decades of urban decay, where minimal restoration is seen as transformation. Yet the persistent threat of vandalism around Obalende suggests that economic desperation or systemic neglect in certain neighbourhoods could unravel top-down improvements.
Ordinary Lagosians, especially daily commuters and residents of waterfront communities, bear the immediate consequences if these railings are stolen. Their safety, already precarious at night, would regress without the solar lighting and physical barriers now in place. The call for police patrols is not just about security but about sustaining the fragile gains in mobility and urban order.
This story fits a broader pattern: infrastructure projects in Nigeria are celebrated as milestones, while the systems to maintain them remain underfunded and ignored.
