Worst bad roads: And the award goes to…?

Roads in Nigeria are a blight on the happiness of many road users. On many occasions, one has come to learn from equally concerned, distraught and resigned Nigerians that when a road is found to be unworthy, the likelihood is that it is a ‘federal road’. When you visit a state and you encounter a deplorable road, chances are that you would hear explanations like ‘it is a federal road’. This has become so common that some people have advocated that if we are ever going to restructure Nigeria, a call that has become one of our perennial mantras, re-designation of our roads should be one of the areas to look into.

So many roads in the country are so bad that their users are not even sure of who to turn to anymore. Recently, a wedding band from Ibadan, Oyo State, went to Badagry in Lagos State to “take our wife”. Most members of the merrymaking entourage had not been to the historic town before that day. Their tales about the road to their inlaws were so ugly, and their verdict on whosoever should have done it was damning.

The members of the wedding band resorted to jokes and anecdotes to laugh at and thereby ease the pain of a harrowing Saturday morning trip. One joke that stuck out like a sore thumb among the many about their various road trip experiences was taken out on the bride herself. A member of the team from Ibadan, who had endured a torturous trip earlier from Ilorin in Kwara State, said she now knew why the bride had refused to relocate from Awotan community in Ibadan. “It’s because she’s so used to bad roads in Badagry that she saw Awotan and its condition as a child’s play,” she said. The joke was “the bomb” as they say in Nigerian comical parlance, but the message is profound.

Travelling from the Apete bridge in Ibadan through Awotan/Lifeforte School to Akufo in Iddo Local Government of Oyo State, you would see a typical example of a deplorable road. However, the people of the area are expectant now and are waiting anxiously for a turnaround, because Governor Seyi Makinde’s government has started repair works on the road. Members of the wedding band from that locality spoke in different mien from those who had joined the band from Akobo/General Gas area part of the city. Their lamentations are still on; “we are waiting for our own epiphany,” the Akobo man had noted.

“All of you don’t know the real meaning of bad roads. Just come to Aba, the Enyimba City in my dear Abia State and you all will bow.” That quip sent a wave of silence through the creeping, uncomfortable coach. The silence seemed inexorable and he seized the moment. “You can still manage to drive through on your bad roads, isn’t it? In Aba, you walk or you wade through water or you simply leave the area. Vehicles have abandoned the roads and people have shut their shops and businesses.”

Of course the respectable speaker promptly gained the band’s rapt attention. “The filth in the town is not my only concern. Of course it’s a good thing that it cannot be wished away except something drastic is done. And, as they say ‘it’s the owner of a valuable load that shows more commitment to getting it off the ground.’ So, where is our own government over the years, whether the roads belong to the federal government or not? Who do we cry to: federal or state government or local government that only exists just for payment of workers’ salaries?”

Over the years roads in Aba, the once beautiful commercial hub, have progressively retrogressed. Aba’s status as a commercial city has endured through time but its growth and flourish have been stunted, and have been callously left to wilt by successive administrations. In 2010, the Nigerian Tribune interviewed Chief Anyaogu Elekwachi Ukonu, popularly known as Mazi Ukonu of the Ukonu’s Club fame, at his home in Aba. The legendary broadcaster and entertainer did not hide his displeasure at the dereliction of Aba, his beloved abode. He pointed at the grasses and poodles and makeshift pathways on major streets. “It’s pathetic”, the elder statesman had lamented. I wonder what he would say now when vehicles have completely gone off some roads in Aba.

Many governors had campaigned with roads in Aba, including the incumbent, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu. Being an indigene of Obi Ngwa Local Government, one of the brother areas to Aba Ngwa, Ikpeazu is even seen as being more Nwa Aba, a euphemism for people born and bred in the town, than Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu. It was taken that Ikpeazu would take more concrete steps make Aba better than the others, but…

On May 5, 2017 the governor flagged off the reconstruction of Port Harcourt Road in Aba. He was accompanied by his Ebonyi State counterpart, Chief Dave Umahi, who is also the chairman of the South East Governors Forum, on the occasion. Ikpeazu was said to have expressed shock at how decrepit the road was. I think it is even more shocking that the governor didn’t know how bad the road was while campaigning for votes.

He promised then that “the company will build a six-lane road with concrete. Water has sat for too long on the soil; whatever asphalt you lay on it will not last. So, we are using concrete for the reconstruction.”

By November 2017, a report said that the reconstruction work had commenced. Three years after, precisely on May 20, 2020, Ikpeazu reassured of an excellent job in the reconstruction of Port Harcourt Road, along with Ngwa, Uratta, Ohanku and Obohia roads. He was quoted as saying that “all preparations have been concluded to commence a total rebuilding of the aforementioned roads.” So, what happened with the concrete reconstruction? The governor was said to have also announced that his government successfully engaged the World Bank, paid undisclosed amount as counterpart funding which, he said led to the release of N27.4 billion for the project. Should this be a source of hope?

Is there a state in Nigeria safe from this festering scourge of bad roads?

Part of the consequences of this is high cost of food in Nigeria. The food inflation can easily be an offshoot of our very many bad roads. Obviously, we are at this level of infrastructural decay because of our poor governance structures. If the local governments run as they should, their administrators would fix roads in their various localities. And this shouldn’t have been an issue if we were blessed with good governance. But while pondering over whether this should also be on the agenda of restructuring, who will get the award for the worst bad roads in Nigeria?

#EndSARS: Nigeria Police To Host Naira Marley On Live Chat 

In response to concerns and complaints by Nigerian youths on the issue of unprofessional conducts by some Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS) operatives of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the force has invited Nigerian singer and rapper, Azeez Fasola, popularly known as Naira Marley, to a live interview session with its Public Relations officer on Instagram.