Kano’s N5.9bn flyover is ‘tourist site’

The N5.9 billion Kwankwasiyya Flyover, as it is popularly known in Kano State, starts from the Silver Jubilee Roundabout and extends to the ancient Kofar Nassarawa. It is the first of its kind in the history of infrastructural projects in the state.
When Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State announced plans for the construction of the flyover two years ago, citizens of the state received the news with a measure of surprise and disbelief, with many of them wondering if the project would not be abandoned halfway.
But gradually, inch by inch, the construction of the historic 780-metre overpass progressed until it was finally completed. It is adorned in the symbolic red and white Kwankwasiyya colours as well as furnished with attractive light fittings.
Since the flyover was completed, anxious residents have waited for the formal commissioning of the project. On the day the flyover was to be commissioned, thousands of elated youths, women and children swarmed all over the site and waited impatiently to witness the history-making opening of the overpass.
The crowd became more animated when the state governor Kwankwaso appeared with retired General Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who commissioned the project. Amidst the ensuing excitement, Buhari’s motorcade along with that of Kwankwaso and other government officials and party chiefs mounted the flyover and headed to the emir’s palace through Kofar Nassarawa.
Days after the inauguration of the Kwankwasiyya Flyover, our reporter observed that it has virtually turned into a tourist destination with many residents, especially youths visiting the site to snap pictures. It was noticed that the spectacle includes not only motorists, tricycle, motorcycle and bicycle riders, but also pedestrians that come from across the 44 local government areas of the state to take part in what they consider “a piece of history”.
Most of them besiege the site at sunset when the string of installed streetlights illuminate the top of the flyover. “Taking pictures on top of the flyover in the evening gave me a sense of being in one of the developed cities in the world such as London or Dubai,” a resident, who simply identified himself as Bashir told our reporter. “It makes me feel like a different Nigerian because I know that there’s no flyover like this in the entire country,” he said.
Another resident, Garba Tsanyawa, a motorist who came with a few of his family members said he traveled all the way from his village in order to ride on the flyover and satisfy his curiosity. “We’d been seen it on television. We heard about flyovers in other parts of the world without knowning what it was like, until the state government provided it for us. Now, we can also count our state among the most developed in Nigeria and the world,” he said.
Many road users expressed their views saying the overpass has reduced the gridlock which the Silver Jubilee and the Kofar Nassarawa routes were known for.
Officials of the Kano Road Traffic Agency (KAROTA) and those of the Vehicles Inspection Office (VIO) now guide motorists through the network of passageways through the Kwankwasiyya Flyover to various sections of the city. One of the KAROTA officials who requested anonymity told Daily Trust that they were deployed to ensure that motorists observe traffic rules while using the flyover.
The present Kano State government began the construction of flyovers in some parts of the city shortly after it came to power in order to ease traffic flow for the millions of people across the streets of Kano while heading to their various destinations. The multibillion naira flyover at Silver Jubilee was the first to be constructed followed by the Olusegun Obasanjo Bridge, another flyover which stretches from Radio Kano road terminating at Ibrahim Taiwo Road.
An official at the state Ministry of Works who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak on the issue told our reporter that the Obasanjo Bridge which has also been completed will be commissioned soon so as to further reduce traffic congestions in the city. It was said that Kwankwaso has left the Obasanjo Bridge to be commissioned by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. But the source said he could not verify the claim.
A third flyover, which is expected to be the longest at 1.9 kilometres is being constructed in the city, starting from the busy Murtala Muhammad Way, through Yan Kura market to Triumph Publishing Company on Katsina Road. This could perhaps be the flyover that will generate the biggest attention from across the country when completed.