• Benin Bypass, LokojaABuja impasse, others unsettle motorists, passengers

• Air tickets sell for N500,000, yet seats are unavailable

By Cosmas Omegoh

There is celebration everywhere in the air. In towns and cities, homes and hamlets, many are having the fun of their lives, lapping up the joy of the season, and forgetting the loads of challenges life throws at them.

However, this year’s Christmas came peculiar with its obvious huge price which many Nigerians are paying in full – particularly those making overland travels across the country. This is given the high cost of transport fares and insecurity challenges they might face. Worse is the condition of the roads which many have come to describe as deplorable. Even regular air travellers are not faring any better.    

Now, the Benin Bypass in Edo State stands out as one of those facilities on which an emergency ought to have been declared given the sheer raw pain and anguish it is currently handing out to travellers.    

Video recordings and sad experiences of travellers who passed through the area lately are simply depressing, concerning and unsettling. The narratives speak about the interminable gridlocks that take long hours to clear. There is also a similar challenge on the Lokoja axis of the Abuja-Lokoja road. Many who passed through the areas in recent days have been singing a dirge. What they went through cannot go away soon.

In the videos making the rounds on the social media, travellers were seen trapped in Benin Bypass for long hours, grilling in the punishing December afternoon sun. The gridlock which spans kilometres, has this draconian chokehold on the area. Children and adults were seen stranded at deserted spaces, craving water and food; their safety was not the issue. The scenes were grim reminders of what the situation once was many years ago on the Benin-Ore corridor before a national outrage jolted the government of the day into action.

In one instance, a narrator was heard urging members of the public whose relatives travelled on a particular day before Christmas to rally and contact them as they would very likely pass the night at the scene of the chaos.  

According to investigations by our correspondent, things are chaotic in the area. People now spend between 24 and 30 hours before they can get home and have to sleep in the gridlock on the Benin Bypass. The numerous failed portions on the facility and those on the Asaba end of the road are hellish. Travellers get marooned at the same spot on the decrepit facility the country still regards as roads.

Martin is one of the persons who had such a bitter experience while travelling from Lagos to the East lately. The lad left Lagos to Owerri shortly before December 20 to commence his registration having secured admission to study in one of the tertiary institutions in Imo State. He said he spent 34 hours on the road before getting to his destination.

“Ours was an overnight journey,” he began, on a note of nostalgia. “We boarded a luxury bus at Mazamaza area and left Lagos about 11 pm on the fateful night.  

“I wouldn’t know if the roads were very bad; however, I realised that the bus kept bumping into potholes as we progressed. 

“About 6 am the next day, the vehicle pulled up at a town in Edo State called Ehor. We were told it had developed an electrical fault. We spent close to four hours before the problem could be fixed.   

“Then we ran into this terrible gridlock on the said Benin Bypass. It lasted for hours. We slept and woke up at the same place.

“I cannot remember the exact time we left there. But I recall that at 5pm we reached Agbor in Delta State.”

Martin said they experienced some other failed portions of the road between Benin Bypass and Asaba which cost them enormous delays.

“I remember we were held up somewhere for a long time. I was so uncomfortable because I had not taken my bath. We reached Owerri that day at 7pm.”

Onyekachi Okpara’s account bore similar marks of suffering on the same Benin Bypass. He said his wife left Lagos on December 19 but could only arrive in Umuahia about 9am the next day.

“She boarded a Siena commercial car at Cele Bus stop in Lagos for N63,000 which I thought was punishing, but  more was yet to come.

“When she called to inform me that they might pass the night at Benin Bypass, l was alarmed, thinking that was a rude joke. But it happened. She said the road cleared in the wee hours of the next morning before they continued on their journey.”

Kalu Atuma’s account of the suffering at the same Benin Bypass gridlock was equally shocking. “We left Oshodi on Sunday morning,  December 21,” he recalled. “We had a fairly smooth ride before arriving at the Bypass at about 3 pm and got stuck. 

“I had thought that we would be out of the place by the evening but I was wrong. So, at some point, we all resigned to fate.

“About 3 am the next day, I decided to join the emergency traffic controllers to help resolve the problem.

“When I thought it was time enough for our vehicle to arrive at the problematic spot and I didn’t see it, I decided to go back to check. Behold the vehicle had broken down. 

“I almost broke down myself. We had to wait till the next dawn before the driver could get help. So I ended up arriving in Aba in the evening on Tuesday December 23.”

A lawyer who requested anonymity gave his version of what the problem was when he passed the now infamous Benin Bypass.  

“We left Lagos at 4:30 am on Sunday to avoid passing the night at the notorious spot as we were hearing.  

“Shortly before Auchi road crossing, we noticed some heavy duty vehicles belonging to drivers from the North blocking the motorable road, narrowing the chances of other motorists.

“Because the alternate road was deplorable, everyone was using the only available part. Everyone was squeezing through the only space left.  

“Of course, the area around the Warri/Asaba end of the bypass was terribly bad. Bedlam was the word when we arrived there. But we were able to make it out of the confusion before more vehicles began to arrive. Otherwise, there was no way we couldn’t have passed the night there as people said.”       

A driver attached to one of the transport companies who pleaded anonymity lamented the state of dilapidation at the Benin Bypass, wondering if there was still a government in-charge.

“Our roads are in terrible condition now,” he said disappointed.

“From Sagamu to Ore, there are pockets of bad portions, however, they are manageable.

“But the moment you hit the Bypass, you are in for an ordeal. I have passed the night there several times. Indeed, that Asaba/Warri end of the Bypass is in a big mess.

“Where is Dave Umahi the Minister of Works while this is happening?” he asked. “Rather than repair the existing roads, he is busy working on a white elephant project they call Lagos-Calabar road. That is a misplaced priority!”    

As part of survival strategies on the bad portion of the Bypass, he noted that “sometimes luxury bus drivers explain the situation to their passengers and urge them to contribute a token to help them buy extra gas so that they can go through communities off the Auchi road to be able to cut off a few kilometres of roads before the problem source – that main failed portion. That way, they will burst out a pole or two away to the crisis point and continue on their journey.”

He acknowledged that another journey through those communities was a huge risk yet drivers still take it.

Then he added: “When you are done with the Bypass, you still face the bad portions on the Asaba road. Those portions have been bad over time. Now they are worse.

“The government ought to know that this is a period a lot of people are on the road; they should have done even some remedial works there to save us this anguish.”

To underscore the enormity of the challenges on the road, he told our correspondent as he spoke that he left Mazamaza in Lagos about 11pm on the night of December 22 and had yet to reach Owerri as of 2:10 pm the next day.

At areas around Lokoja, in Kogi State, commuters are said to be having a raw deal on the deplorable roads. Everyone feels endangered.    

Even when petrol price dropped to N739 per litre lately, transport fares went up many notches high. Fares rose on all routes even inside the townships.

Bus fares for instance from Lagos to the East, depending on the vehicle, rose as high as N75, 000 from N43,000.

There was also a report that transporters were charging N93,000 for a bus ride from Abuja to Lagos. 

Some persons who attempted to go by air did not find things easy amid sky-rocking air fares.

Ahead of Christmas, two airlines: Air Peace and United Nigerian put out separate statements alerting the public of their intention to increase air fares up to N300,000.

However, some air travellers reported even higher than was announced.

The airlines’ tickets were fully booked, leaving the only available spaces for the highest bidders. Many could not believe that air tickets for a family of four were priced in millions of naira. 

“My brother-in-law was to travel by air to Benin from Lagos on December 20 with his family,” Nosa recalled as he spoke to our reporter.

“They have been doing that over the years as uncertainties on the Nigerian roads mounted.  

“But when he learnt that the cost of a ticket just to travel from Lagos to Benin was going for N300,000, he reconsidered his decision and travelled by road.

“Even when they opted to go by road, they paid as much as N43,000 per person.”

A lawyer who spoke anonymously said when he arrived at MM 2 airport in Lagos on Monday, he was willing to pay N500,000 for a flight to either Asaba airport or Chinua Achebe International Cargo Airport but there was no ticket for him.

“The amount was far beyond what the airlines earlier announced. But even when I was willing to pay, that was subject to a passenger missing their flight for the chance to be available. Incidentally all the passengers turned up. Yet, you still need the help of airline staff to buy a ticket.  That is what we face now – all in a desperate bid to celebrate the season.”