Towards Sustainable Access to Infrastructures in Ijoko, Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Transportation entails the movement of persons and goods from one place to the other. The available 
transportation systems as well as their efficiency and operations are major factors contributing to the 
achievement of economic growth as well as access to industries and infrastructures and sustainable living 
conditions in a particular area. The main objective of this study was to examine the convenience, pattern 
and efficiency of the mobility of residents of Ijoko area of Ogun State, Nigeria. With the aid of a structured 
questionnaire, the available transport variables were investigated to obtain people's movement trends in 
the study area. The survey material (questionnaire) was distributed to two hundred and forty (240) 
households and recovered from two hundred and twenty-seven (227) of them. The distribution of the 
survey material was based on stratified random sampling, as the target group was identified, divided into 
smaller units and presented with copies of the questionnaire. The results obtained from the study were 
analysed and discussed. The study revealed that although the residents of Ijoko were facing great 
difficulties in accessing their households, offices or businesses, and the roads were hardly motorable, 
residents were unwilling to leave the area because many of them were house owners (landlords). They 
preferred to stay at their houses than to experience delay, congestion, unpleasant or uncomfortable rides in 
the course of their movements in and out of Ijoko. Furthermore, Ijoko residents preferred to limit their 
movements to only important and compulsory places such as work, hospital, school, market and weekly 
religious activities. Consequently, sustainable access to infrastructures is a prerequisite to economic 
growth and sustainable living and can only be achieved in the Ijoko area of Ogun State via the reconstruction of Ijoko roads and provision of road furniture such as drainages, walkways, shoulders, 
kerbs, as well as traffic markings, signs and streetlights.