Gov. Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State on Friday warned traders, especially auto dealers to stop making sections of the highways their showrooms.
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Fashola gave the warning when he inaugurated the reconstructed Kodesho Road and Simbiat Abiola Way in Ikeja.
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The governor said trading constricted the roads thereby causing traffic gridlock and great inconveniences to users.
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He stressed that staying too long in the gridlock had serious health implications as it could lead to accidents, hypertension and stress.
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"As we hand over these roads, I think we need to talk to ourselves.
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"We build roads to let us get to our businesses; our places of work quickly and to make movement easier.
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"But some residents covert the roads to places they trade and as long as we continue to trade on them, we defeat the purpose for which they were built.
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"As long as we turn our roads to shopping malls where everybody buys in traffic, we all pay the price because you all know that such causes stress and hypertension.
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"Now, I see those who sell cars on Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way and other areas have turned sections of the highways into showrooms.
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"I am using this opportunity to tell them to get land where they can display and sell their cars. If we want to be great people, we don't turn our highways into car shops" , he said.
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Fashola reminded the traders that Lagos was fast becoming a megacity and urged them to sell their goods in the market, shopping malls and not on the highways.
Such things should be expected from Fashola. He'll keep saying it till he retires from being Lagos State Governor.
That is everywhere in Lagos. I mean Everywhere! I wonder how Fashola will end this one too.