Ibadan-Ife highway to sorrow

The attention has always been on the Lagos-Ibadan highway by successive administrations, especially from 1999 till date. However, little is said on Ibadan-Ife highway. Little is, in addition, said on the strategic importance of the route to Nigerians.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that the link is the most plied by travellers from Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states to the Federal Capital Territory. Despite this significance, the current state of the road, particularly from Gbongan to Ile-Ife, is worrisome to road users. The axis from Gbongan to Ile-Ife is dotted by different sizes of potholes, cracks, and other hindrances, thereby turning it to danger zone to drivers.

Although there is no available statistics on accidents so far recorded on the road before going to press, it was learnt that 90 per cent of incidents on the road were caused by those hazardous portions.

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One Mr Sunday Adebare, a commercial driver plying Ibadan-Ilesa route, recalled few accidents which he had witnessed directly on the road. He specifically told Nigerian Tribune of one crash which occurred sometime in 2015 and left the victim in injury.

“I was following a Honda Baby Boy from Ikire. It was like we were competing on that day. The driver did not allow me to overtake him. That was the pace we maintained till after Gbongan. Because I know the terrain well, I was very careful with my speed.

“The man obviously was not familiar with those bad spots. We were some kilometres away from Akinlalu junction when the man ran into a crack and landed in the bush. I was watching the car hitting a tree. It was seat belt and airbag that saved him. But the wind screen was broken as well as the bonnet and the whole front of the car,” he recalled.

There seems to be physical signs of repairs on some of the bad spots. However, those spots have failed further and forced drivers going to Ile-Ife end from Ibadan to flout traffic law.

An Osun and Ondo State-based entrepreneur, Elder Johnson Akinniyi, also acknowledged the significance of the road, but declared it as a cog in the wheel of socialeconomic activities in that zone of the country.

“Those of us who do business between Lagos and Ile-Ife and Ondo State axis know how important that road is to us and our businesses. If you see the way trucks and other articulate vehicles fall on those bad portions, especially during rainy season, you would sympathise with those of us in business. I am not a transporter but I engage service of trucks to transports my goods to Lagos.

“I can tell you that the state of the road has an effect on cost of transportation. It is funny that we struggle with this deplorable road the same way we battle with terrible roads in the villages where we source for our products.

Akinniyi, however, urged the Federal Government through the Ministry of Works, Housing and Power to extend its attention to the road with total rehabilitation that would stand all weather and project Nigeria well.

“I can also tell you that the road is fast becoming an embarrassment to us when we bring our partners from other countries to Nigeria,” he lamented.