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This article is a prelude to a coming one that would x-ray in analytical terms the kind of development we have been having in the country since Independence. The discourse is an interventionist effort inspired by what I saw riding on some of our roads lately. As you read this, the strategic Port Harcourt-Enugu road, particularly the stretch from Aba to Obigbo ( corrupted to read Oyigbo by anti “sectarian fighters”) is no go area. That road that should take tankers to Eleme Petrochemical Company Limited has all the features of a war relic. It has developed gullies which are gradually turning to a plantation of weeds. Nobody should be told why we should cry about Nigeria over the state of that expressway.
The other one, the Aba-Ikot Ekpene highway. This road that serves as linkage to two very important states, Abia and Akwa Ibom states, territories bearing crude oil, has remained virtually impassable for over 15 years running if not more. If it were to be in good state, it should draw economic gains from the commercial strength of Aba and spread prosperity across Akwa Ibom and Cross River states and beyond – to countries in the Central Africa like Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Central African Republic. The road is not good at all and this has caused losses to Nigeria and invariably worsened poverty among her citizens.
Then, there is the Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene road; the journey on this road should be 25 to 30 minutes if the road is in shape but as you read this, the road is in a terribly dilapidated condition. Commuters ply because there is no alternative. It is travel citizens undertake at very high cost to the vehicle and human health. The journey of 30 minutes now takes two hours.
Now the biggest shame of the leadership class of this country would be seen in the deplorable state of Itu-Calabar expressway. Yes, there are signs the federal government under the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari had planned to transform the vital link road from two lanes to four-lane expressway. The subtraction in this otherwise laudable effort would be in the fact that the pace of work is not in tandem with level of importance the stretch holds to road users.
Work is very slow and as it is with our culture of doing things no effort was made to prepare a corridor through which users of the road could go through in relative comfort, to go do their businesses. No thought was spared for them in area of comfort and convenience as would have naturally been the case if good judgment preceded such a huge undertaking. Travellers through that route are left to face the vagaries of highly mutilated pathways. Vehicles and humans take the hits. This story is no fiction, it is an eye witness account of few days ago. As some of us traversed these roads in the last two weeks, it provoked a search for appropriate titles. One of such that appealed to the soul was “shame of a country”. The other was “visionless society” and then “Blood on their hands”.
Shame of a country because it is very difficult to comprehend the pillars on which our successive leaders planned the development of our society. Those who are avid readers of this column know we find it very difficult to call our entity a country, because obvious data show we have not become a country yet. It is elementary to teach that a society must first enter the status of a country before achieving nationhood. Part of the reasons the transformation hasn’t taken place, in spite of huge funds that have come our way by means of having crude oil, is the fact the Nigerian state symbolised this time by inept leadership has all the while ran without a blueprint. Otherwise, what else could explain the omissions I just highlighted earlier? What is development if major arteries can’t be accessed in all seasons?
So much energy has been expended on impulsive reactions to genuine and germane challenges that require critical appraisal and solid actions. History is good and it leaves us with great lessons on how people can run human entities, making progress, recording gains and as well as transforming not only human lives but the physical environment too. When the colonialists arrived our shores they knew politics and economics were the central matters to their goals, and their policy direction reflected their ultimate expectations. To establish governance and control they had consultations with existing political leaders from where they extracted commitment of cooperation. Kings and merchants who refused got the other side of the invaders. King Jaja was one of the many victims of colonial viciousness.
When power equation was settled, the colonialists began the next step which was economic production and exploitation. Their methods were simple and straightforward: map the space, identify comparative advantages of the regions in terms of population, economic endowments and provision of key social infrastructure. Things better known as enablers in development. It is true we expanded the road network but it is to the credit of the colonialists that they laid foundation when they constructed roads to points of very high economic activities. Our railway system has remained almost at the level the colonialists left it. Study the pattern and you will see what propelled each action. Our rail system was a one line thing from the North running from two ends to the coasted bases in the South.
Train services were very essential for massive evacuation of produce and human being, who were carted away to work in newly discovered territories in the Americas. The vision, warped as it seemed, served their purpose; after all, our good was nothing of their concern. Now, since they left and we got independence, nothing, not even the high level of deprivation and suffering in the land, has knocked it into the skull of our leadership class that we ought to have by now properly linked up all our cities and rural areas with railway services and that by doing so, there will be increase in productive human mobility at greater convenience and very affordable cost.
Rural people who produce not only food but raw materials needed in our industries would be encouraged to stay in their locality and produce more to reap higher gains since they will be able to reach bigger markets where their products would be highly priced, sold and then these folks would still be able to return to their rural abodes, happy that they had transacted great business for the day. Economic activities around the railway system alone can take away the pains of unemployment. This kind of vision is not even novel and yet our leaders are incapable of picking them from the shelves of history. All we hear is money and wage bills.
What enhancement ideology actually drives our leaders? The rush for urban renewal is good, many us love physical aesthetics but non-functional aesthetics is a crime against humanity. Aesthetics becomes a negative diversion when it is not tailored to create value. Environmental beauty should be such the location becomes a destination, a place people from all over the world would want to come and do business. The main roads and rail arteries must lead to points of productive human economic activities. This is where proper road and rail linkages come in. This is where our challenge has been in this regard since independence.
There has never been such a vision so we do things and in the end little or no result. Our public officials are experts in double speaking. A little inquiry to them, the likely answer would be we are knowledgeable and the system running well. If this is the case why should such strategic roads enumerated earlier and many others spread across different parts of our space not be very motorable all year round? We need explanation. Activities between Rivers State and other adjoining states would definitely create wealth and offer a huge number of citizens outlet outside the suffocating circle of poverty and want. So, why is due attention given to these roads on account given the inherent gains? Building flyovers while the pockets of citizens run dry and drier everyday; where does that leave the entire society? Elementary economics places emphasis on projects that increase the wage or income of citizens.
On some of these roads, every year we see construction activities. This brings us to the other equally important point which has to do with quality of work done. Do our engineers envisage the kind of traffic that will ply some of the roads?
If they do, how do they react? What is the quality prescription and who ensures standards are maintained? Do they actually supervise without compromising? Many roads constructed by colonialists lasted over 30 years before minor cracks appeared on them. Why is it different in our era?
