• Anguish as erosion destroys roads in Abuja suburbs
From Fred Ezeh and Charity Nwakudu, Abuja
Clogged drainages, deep potholes, bumpy rides and traffic chaos are yearly horrors Abuja suburban dwellers contend with once the rainy season peaks. The only people who rejoice in the wet season are farmers.
But their joy is usually short-lived because there are no roads to ferry their wares to major markets after harvest. With no storage facilities, the post-harvest losses are huge.
Residents of satellite towns, notably, Kubwa, Jikwoyi, Karu, Kurudu, Dutse and Gwagwalada usually pray for light showers because downpours leave them badly impacted, as erosion literally makes their roads non-commutable.
In some places, lack of drainages worsens dwellers’ woes as construction debris, mud and other waste are flushed into the roads and clog them.
Suburbanites who spoke with Daily Sun lamented total government neglect, insisting that most of their roads have become deathtraps and are dreaded by motorists and other commuters alike.
Orji Ekenna, a civil servant living in Kubwa, lamented: “Officials of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), seem to have gone on official slumber in terms of road repairs and other infrastructural maintenance.
“Motorists don’t like coming to the suburbs during the rainy season, except commercial bus drivers and truckers. The taxis that reluctantly agree to come over here will pepper you with high charges.
“They are compelled to drive with utmost care to maneuver their way against the daily increasing and expanding potholes. Recently, excuses have been shifted to the absence of Ministers. Does that even make sense?”
While the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) always forewarns about impending storms and downpours, FCTA has repeatedly accused “baban bola”, (a euphemism for scavengers), of looting road infrastructure like rails and manhole covers, which alters the drainage architecture of the city and rural areas.
Another challenge is that many of the suburban roads, aside being built with inferior materials, have been starved of routine maintenance for years.
Having succumbed to perennial wear and tear, craters have been created via flash floods on suburban roads, resulting in avoidable accidents that are often tragic.
Though many dwellers know the bad spots and manage to avoid them, first time visitors are not usually lucky as they can hardly differentiate between deep and shallow potholes and run their vehicles into them.
This is worse at night or after a downpour when the waters are yet to recede and roads look like mini-ponds.
Officials of the Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC), police and other security agencies, told journalists in a recent engagement that they struggle every morning to remove vehicles that might have somersaulted or run into the nearby bushes or drainages while trying to dodge the potholes.
A female road traffic officer at CBN Junction, Karu, who craved anonymity, told Daily Sun: “This rainy season is a challenging time for rural dwellers. Each time I resume work early I will be greeted by horrible incidents of smashed vehicles, or the ones thrown off the road, while the driver might be trying to avoid a pothole.
“At times, some vehicles that run into deep potholes have their suspension system damaged and they are stuck on that spot. This causes terrible traffic snarls.
“Indeed, roads in the satellite towns have become death traps for motorists. The earlier the authorities respond to it, the better so that lives of motorists are saved because Abuja population is growing on a daily basis.”
A female Bolt driver, Mercy, said: “The last FCT minister, Mohammed Bello, was a disappointment to FCT residents. He was the longest serving FCT minister, and unfortunately, he was the most underperforming one. That is the belief of many rural dwellers.”
She challenged the Tinubu administration to search for an accomplished person as FCT minister to galvanise the resources for a greater growth.
Emenike Uche, a shop owner at Dutse Sokale, Abuja, said: “Because of the poor drainage system at Sokale, when the rains come heavily, it floods the roads and encroaches into our shops.
“The rains have also washed away that coal tar which makes the roads inaccessible for people that want to come around the areas for shopping. It becomes very frustrating for our customers hence they rather buy from shops around them. That has brought down sales.”
Mrs. Veronica Adubor said the roads in FCT, particularly in satellite towns, have become so difficult to navigate because of the poor state of the roads: “The rain is a blessing to farmers, but the roads are bad and dangerous.”
She cited an example of a road directly opposite NNPCL headquarters in Central Area, Abuja, which is always flooded whenever it rains:
“Sometimes, I don’t know where the water usually comes from. Some other roads are flooded and can cause accidents or pose dangers to our lives.” She called on the Federal Government and FCT authorities to address the challenge of the poor system to ameliorate their sufferings.
Gabriel Age resides in Kubwa: “When the construction of this road started like three years back, we thought it would help us. But suddenly, the work was abandoned and the road became bad.
During morning hours, the traffic is always very hectic with motorists deftly looking for shortcuts to avoid being detained in traffic snarls.
“The rain keeps digging that portion of the road that is bad. We learnt the contract was given to a giant construction company but nothing has been done.
“Sometimes, you see young men sand-filling some of the deep potholes.
They use that to beg people for money, but the next day, the road worsens, especially after a downpour.
“The Liberty Junction is another thing altogether. It has been totally damaged. Once it is raining, you can’t drive through that junction because it flows like a river due to the potholes.”
Meanwhile, youths in many communities and individuals have determined to fix their roads using manual labour, at least to make them a bit motorable. While some do it out of their volition, others use that opportunity to extort money from motorists and commercial cyclists.
David said he has been doing self-sponsored road repairs for over 10 years and that he derives joy and fulfillment from that: “I used to use my car to carry materials for the road repairs. But recently, someone surprisingly gifted me an old utility vehicle. This has helped me to do the road repair work.”
A senior official at the enforcement division of the FCTA who preferred anonymity said: “Every year, we warn against dumping refuse indiscriminately, especially in gutters and motorways. But the people don’t listen.
“We are having a running battle with those living in flood-prone areas like Trade More Estate as we seek to relocate them and save them from the yearly flood nightmare. They took us to court.
“There are few resources chasing big projects and we always prioritise our operations. We can’t do it all at once. The funds are not just there.
“The much we’re doing, scavengers are looting manholes, rails and other public infrastructure we have put in place. This vandalism and looting alter the configuration of the public infrastructure.
“We have also stepped up monitoring and enforcement. Those caught doing the wrong things are being arrested and prosecuted.
“We’re also aggressively enlightening the people to desist from harmful environmental practices like clogging gutters and canals. When it rains, floods worsen. People are swept away. This has to stop.”