…Umahi gives reasons, reassures Nigerians
• As kidnappers have field day on federal roads in Benue
•Continued from last week
By Olakunle Olafioye (Lagos), Felix Ikem (Nsukka), Okey Sampson (Umuahia), Ogbonnaya Ndukwe (Aba), Tony John (Port Harcourt), Scholastica Hir (Makurdi), Noah Ebije (Kaduna), George Onyejiuwa (Owerri), Lawrence Chudi (Awka), and Paul Osuyi (Asaba).
This week, we are publishing the concluding part of our special report on bad federal roads in the country.
Following our first publication last week with the headline: “Federal roads of deaths, agony,” the Minister of Works, Engr Dave Umahi, in a statement he personally signed said that the report got their attention and, therefore, felt it was necessary to explain the efforts the government is making to ameliorate the situation.
Reacting, Umahi said: “The attention of the Federal Ministry of Works has been drawn to the concerns of the public on the deplorable situations of some sections of the federal roads throughout the federation as reported in many media platforms, especially social media, the front page, pages 4,5,6 and 14 of the publication of Sun Newspaper of 26th November, 2023. Most of the sections of the roads frequently reported, but definitely not exhaustive are: the Makurdi-Nsukka 9th Mile Road, East West Road, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Benin bypass road, collapsed bridges of Enugu- Port Harcourt road, collapsed bridges of Shandam-Plateau State, Abuja-Kaduna- Zaria-Kano road and Gombe- Bauchi etc.
“The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, Senator Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, is aware of the state of our road infrastructure which he inherited on the 29th day of May 2023. Without prejudice to all the good efforts of the past administration on road infrastructure development which they tackled within the limit of their resources, the work to be done to change the ugly state of our roads is quite enormous…
“On the part of the staff of the Federal Ministry of Works, I pledge to strictly and Godly follow the divine Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr. President, and God willing, we shall continue to support Mr. President and deepen the good efforts of Mr. President in all our road infrastructure development.”
It is believed that with the beginning of the dry season, the Minister will keep to his words to rehabilitate the dilapidated roads thereby reducing the excruciating pains Nigerians are experiencing plying federal roads in the country.
Benue federal roads
The deplorable condition of federal roads in Benue state has continued to be a source of worry to all Benue residents especially commuters, and car owners, among others.
Residents want the Federal Government to initiate an urgent rehabilitation of all the bad roads and reconstruction of ailing and broken bridges to ease transportation within the state, mitigate accidents and curtail incessant attacks and kidnappings that occur on the roads.
While many people have been kidnapped at certain bad portions of the roads, several other persons have met their untimely deaths in accidents, trying to dodge the several potholes.
Checks around the state showed that the Makurdi-Naka-Otukpo Road, Makurdi-Naka-Adoka Road, Makurdi-Aliade-Otukpo Road, Makurdi-Gboko Road, Gboko-Aliade-Otukpo road, where a 44-year-old bridge collapsed at Mbayiom community, Gboko-Ugbema road, Gboko-Ihugh-Tse Mker road, among others, are in critical shape and require immediate attention.
Vehicular accidents such as head-on collisions, fallen heavy trucks, and motorcycle accidents, have become a common occurrence on the roads just as bandits take advantage of the bad portions to carry out their nefarious activities, including waylaying travellers, attacking and kidnapping unsuspecting commuters on the highways.
Recall that on November 11, 2023, bandits mounted a roadblock along the Makurdi/Naka bad road, attacked a Benue Links bus and kidnapped 15 passengers.
On November 14, 2023, a petrol tanker loaded with petrol, while trying to avoid a big pothole at Ugbema junction, along the Ugbema/Gboko federal highway, lost control and fell on a Toyota Sienna car. While the driver of the car lost his life, other passengers escaped with various degrees of injuries.
Earlier on September 21, 2023, another petrol tanker fell on a smaller vehicle killing all occupants at the same Ugbema junction while two days later, on September 23, a truck loaded with goods, mainly bags of flour, fell at the bad spot and bags of flour emptied into the muddy water.
More worrisome is the fact that the Katsina-Ala bridge has not been repaired for a long time even after showing serious signs of damage and is on the verge of collapse due to constant use without rehabilitation.
The Benue South part of the state is not spared as Otukpo town gained notoriety for bad roads, leaving the people feeling that Abuja has abandoned the main federal road that connects the town to the state capital and has become not only impassable, but a nightmare.
Residents and other road users daily run risks by plying the federal roads. The already bad portions get worse during the rainy season, which further deteriorates with heavy-duty vehicles and trucks loaded with goods plying the routes day and night.
Speaking to this reporter and lamenting their ordeal on the roads, Tertsea Godwin said: “Terrible things are happening every day on these roads, especially at Ugbema junction because of the condition of the roads. If a tanker is not falling on a vehicle, trucks loaded with goods will fall. The roads are bad. I witnessed an accident at Ugbema junction one day, but thank God no death was recorded. The government should quickly do something.”
A commercial bus driver in Makurdi, who plies Makurdi to Cross River, Terkuma Terna, said that it was hellish driving through some of the roads in the state. “Sometimes when you get to the park and see passengers and their loads, you will feel like not travelling when you remember the condition of the roads.
“Our vehicles hardly embark on a journey without you visiting the mechanics. Every month, you are changing one motor part or another: bumper, shocks, tyres, among others. After a month, you only have money to buy fuel and continue. No gain. Government should repair the roads,” he said.
Terna added: “The worst is the time wasted and accidents you see on the roads. A journey that should take you three hours, five hours later, you will still be on the road trying to navigate through the bad roads. This is why some bad boys are extorting drivers. They block those bad portions to collect money from drivers. We are suffering. The roads need to be fixed.”
A resident of Otukpo, John Oche, lamented that the roads are simply death traps, and the failed portions have become “toll gates” for youths in the area to extort motorists.
“Some of our youths have turned this road situation to their office. They now stand there collecting money and diverting trucks to pass through our town,” he said, expressing fear that if nothing is done to fix the federal roads, very soon the few township roads would become as bad as the ones the trucks are avoiding and they would be left to suffer.
“Dangote and so many other persons whose trucks and vehicles use this road are major stakeholders in Nigeria and they should show concern by prompting the government to do something about the roads,” he appealed.
A revenue officer with Makurdi Local Government Area, Victor Jer, told Sunday Sun that most truck drivers had stopped coming to the state because of the condition of the roads in Benue.
He recalled his nasty experience while taking two trucks from Makurdi to deliver to Ogoja, Cross River State, saying: “When we got to Ugbema, after the police station, we slept there on the road for two days and for those two days, going forward or back to Makurdi was not possible because a tanker had fallen and blocked the road. It took two days to clear the road before all the trucks that arrived there could continue. It was a nightmare.”
The former Secretary of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, (NURTW), Comrade Damian Akintola, said that the condition of federal roads has remained a huge challenge to their members.
His words: “It affects our members in diverse ways, especially in the number of hours spent. A journey of six to eight hours, you end up spending 16 to 20 hours on the highway. Most of these trailers that go to Lagos to carry goods, instead of four days, spend four to five weeks on the highways.
“If you look at the country as a whole, apart from Makurdi to Abuja, which is okay, double lane, there is no other road in the country that you can travel for 10 or 20 kilometres without seeing one pothole that becomes a death trap before these vehicles.
“The lifespan of the vehicles is affected, drivers are made to spend all nights on the highways even with all the security threats, they are forced to spend more money feeding themselves on the road and fixing the vehicles and at the end, what is supposed to be the take-home is consumed by him alone on the highways while the family keeps waiting and suffering.”
Akintola called on the Federal Government to urgently wade into the situation by awarding contracts to relevant contractors that can repair the dilapidated roads in the shortest possible time.
“Just like the Minister of Works has said, the roads should also be concrete not sand this time. If that is done, the roads can last for 20 to 30 years,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Benue State Government has received approval from the Federal Government for the rehabilitation of federal roads in the state, which include the Aliade/Gboko/Yandev road, Gboko/Lessel/Ihugh/Tser Mker road and Otukpo road.
Governor Hycinth Alia who disclosed this to journalists also said that discussion is ongoing with the Federal Government to ensure the speedy completion of Makurdi/Ugbema road.
But commuters and residents alike have urged both the state and Federal Government to match words with action and ensure that proper work is done to enable them to last long.
They said repairing the roads in Benue would not only guarantee safety for road users and their property but would also boost the state’s economy.
Abuja-Kaduna–Zaria-Kano road
One fateful day while doing his business, a commercial tricyclist, who ddeclined mentioning his name, increased his speed upon sighting some officers of the Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC) at a bad portion of Kachia Road, close to the popular Ahmadu Bello Stadium Roundabout. The bad portion forces every motorist to slow down when approaching the area.
Officers of the FRSC and the Kaduna State Traffic Law Enforcement Authority (KASTLEA) chose the same bad spot as the place to flag down drivers of various vehicles for routine checks.
But the tricyclist, who knew that he had committed an offense of overloading his tricycle, refused to slow down when the officers signaled to him to stop. Instead, he increased his speed at the risk of his passengers.
Recounting what transpired to his passengers, he said: “You see this place, (pointing at the bad portion of the road), sometimes last month I was carrying heavy load on top of my Keke, and as I was approaching, the Road Safety men flagged me down. I told my passengers to sit themselves very well because I was going to speed through the bad road to escape the Road Safety officers. As they saw that I was not going to stop because I was speeding, they gave way to me.”
He fumed that instead of the traffic agencies encouraging the government to repair the roads, they were happy using such bad portions for extortion.
The state of federal roads in Kaduna is an admixture of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Several of the federal roads are still under reconstruction many years after the contracts were awarded.
Sunday Sun gathered that the Federal Government awarded the reconstruction work on the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Road to Julius Berger in December, 2017, and it was expected to be completed before the end of President Buhari’s administration in 2023.
However, on May 23, 2023, Buhari commissioned a completed section of Zaria-Kano Road even when the larger portions were yet to be completed.
When the Minister of Works, Umahi, visited Kaduna in August, he disclosed that the Abuja-Kaduna highway was only 20 per cent completed, and urged the construction company to expedite the completion by 2024.
According to him, the Kaduna-Zaria section was fully completed, and the Kaduna-Kano section was 70 per cent done.
The minister confirmed that funding for the project was not the reason for the delay in completion of the project, stressing that insecurity was also responsible.
However, the Coordinator, Arewa Think Tank, Muhammad Alhaji Yakubu, lamented that “the Abuja-Kaduna–Zaria-Kano road, which took the Gen. Ibrahim Babangida administration two and a half years to construct from start to finish, in Buhari’s eight years, he couldn’t finish its rehabilitation.”
Many other motorists plying the major roads, who did not want their names in print, expressed disappointment that the government was dragging its feet in completing the reconstruction projects.
They revealed that bad roads, coupled with high price of fuel, have caused them socio-economic shortages, adding that a journey that should not take more than two hours now lasts for three to four hours.
Onitsha-Owerri road and Onitsha-Enugu expressway
The condition of federal roads in Anambra State has become a source of worry to residents, motorists and other road users in the state dubbed the Light of the Nation.
The concerns are not unconnected with the very bad portions of the federal roads in the state, which have become a menace and constant source of pain to travellers.
Anambra has 14 federal roads, totalling about 682 kilometers, but the state has in recent times become a laughing stock for being one the states with the worst road network in the Southeast.
This situation was corroborated by Governor Chukwuma Soludo, when he said: “All federal roads in the state have failed,” during the visit of the Minister of Works, Umahi, to Awka, the state capital, earlier this year.
To say the least, the federal highways that pass through the state have become death traps, leaving motorists to their fate as they groan while grinding their way to their destinations.
Among the beleaguered federal roads are the re-awarded 33-kilometer Otuocha-Iheaka-Ibaji and the abandoned Umumba-Ndiagu-Ebenebe-Amansea roads connecting Anambra to Enugu State. Others in pathetic condition include Onitsha-Owerri, 3-3-Otuocha, Nnewi-Uga-Okigwe, Umunze-Ogbunka-Owerre-Ezukala, and Onitsha-Awka-Ugwuoba roads, among others.
Sunday Sun investigation found that the Ebenebe-Ndiagu link road which has been under construction since 2012 has been abandoned. The road was the easiest route to connect to the 9th Mile in Enugu State before it became badly damaged.
A local who simply gave his name as Okechukwu said that the 10-kilometer road has been awarded about four times. He also said that it was under construction in 2020, but ended at Ezeagu (Enugu side of the road).
A commercial tricyclist from the area, Chuwkwuemeka Okoye, said that it was the private intervention of a certain prominent son of Ndiagu community who has been carrying out palliative works on the road annually after the rainy season to enable his people access their homes during the Yuletide seasons.
“The road is not passable. There is no vehicular movement on the road; it is slippery and any motor that tries to use it easily gets stuck. People have no access to their homes, farms, or even connect to other communities in Enugu except when they use bikes,” Okoye said.
An indigene, Mr Kenneth Okafor, said that the use of commercial motorcycles has become the only means of transportation. “We pay between N1,000 and N1,500 to be transported from Amansea junction to our homes.”
A school teacher at Community Secondary School, which is located along the Ebenebe-Umumba-Ndiagu road, said that almost the entire amount of their salaries is spent on transportation because of the condition of the road.
“We need the grace of government. The road is very bad. This is the same road our students use to get to school every day. We, teachers and students, pass through a lot here. We pay through our noses to transport ourselves to the school because the road is bad.
“Our colleagues that reside at Enugu are forced to stop at Amansea junction by express and travel through Amansea to Ebenebe to be able to attend school. We pay N1,500 for each trip to and fro the school.”
Elsewhere, the bridge at Ezigbo River popularly called Mmiri John on the strategic Alor-Abatete road, linking both the Idemili North and South local government areas of the state is a disaster waiting to happen if situations around the bridge are not improved.
“There was an old bridge. Before the new bridge was constructed by the government, the road was not good. So, the new bridge was constructed to help remedy the situation.
“But after the bridge construction and the road was graded, we thought that the road would be tarred immediately, but it was not.
“They had not finished with the road when they left our town around March with their equipment to another community. Since then, this road has been graded about three times now, but the more it is graded, the more it sinks. When it rains, both the bridge and road are covered by flood. No vehicle survives passing here.
“We now find it difficult to go to Onitsha and other neighboring cities because the road is bad. Again, our alternative road, Obiaja Road, is also impassable,”” a resident, Chinedu Anisiobi from Umunambi village, Alor, narrated
Ezigbo Bridge sits at the base of the Abatete and Alor hills. Sadly, no caution or warning road signs to alert first-time or forgetful road users of the disaster ahead were found anywhere on the stretch. As a result, unsuspecting vehicles descending from the hill lose control to plough into the nearby bush and in some occasions somersault with devastating damage.
Vehicles getting trapped in the dilapidated portion is also a daily occurrence as most motorists travelling from far away usually descend into the waiting arms of the muddled road, unaware of the situation of the area.
Also motorists and commuters are always at the mercy of armed robbers and kidnappers on the failed portions of roads.
Motorists traversing the Abatete-Alor axis are now vulnerable to criminals who capitalize on the situation of the road to either rob or kidnap them.
The Onitsha-Owerri road and Onitsha-Enugu express roads are in deplorable condition, thereby subjecting motorists and other road users to sorrowful experiences.
The Upper Iweka axis to the Federal Metallurgical Training Institute has collapsed and the lives of innocent people are wasted by the movement of trucks on the road.
From Amanator junction and Mgbemena down to Mgbuka Obosi axis are very bad. Most bus operators in a bid to dodge the failed portions divert into Awada through Obosi en-route Nnewi.
“Those that still follow the main road are taking risks,” Polycarp, a resident, told Sunday Sun.
He said that some even refuse to go beyond the Amanator Junction. When they get to that place, they forcefully drop off their passengers and make a U-turn.
On the Awka side, the Eze-uzu/Immigration junction of the Enugu-Onitsha expressway has become a regular accident scene as heavy-duty trucks and other articulated vehicles have fallen due to combined reasons of failure and poor condition of the road.
A government driver who refused to disclose his name lamented that government agencies like FERMA are not living up to their responsibilities in the state, accusing them of allowing portholes to develop into gullies on the Enugu-Onitsha express road.
“I have noticed three or four places between Amansea junction and Aroma junction where erosion is eating into the roads, but that has never been addressed since 2019 when I first saw it.
“The holes on the roads are not good for vehicles because they are the real causes of accidents and constant damage to vehicles. “
Meanwhile, a staff of the Federal Emergency Road Maintenance Agency, who spoke on condition of anonymity when contacted told Sunday Sun: “I am working with FERMA and not Federal Ministry of Works to speak on Ebenebe-Umumba-Ndiagu road. You need to call the Federal Ministry of Works in Enugu to provide you with the necessary information.
When pressed further on the poor maintenance of roads in Anambra, the staff said, “I am not the right person to talk about that.”
Federal roads in Delta in deplorable condition
Although dry season appears to be setting in, federal roads across Delta State are still deplorable, occasioning tales of woe by commuters.
Despite palliative measures, including the filling of deep gullies and ditches with crushed stones, the roads which connect major cities and states across geopolitical zones have turned into a nightmare for travellers.
They are Benin-Asaba-Onitsha, Warri-Sapele-Benin, Sapele-Agbor-Ewu, East-West, Asaba-Illah-Auchi-Okene, DSC-Aladja-Ovwian-Mofor-Effurun-NPA roads, among others.
Most of the roads have expired and in dire need of excavation and complete resurfacing. Commuting on the roads has become very herculean for most travellers, but with the recent intervention on some failed portions by the state government, the anguish of travellers has reduced.
A commercial bus driver operating on the Warri-Sapele-Benin, told Sunday Sun that they have heaved a huge sigh of relief as failed portions have been filled with crushed stones.
“Before now, we were no longer taking passengers into Benin because from Koko down to Ologbo to by-pass was completely bad. So, we used to drop them off at Koko from where they would complete the journey with motorcycles.
“Now, we are driving into Benin to drop off passengers. But the road is still bad, because of the rough nature of the stones which also have mechanical effect on vehicles,” Daniel, the driver, said.
Another driver, Emeka, who plies the Asaba-Benin route, disclosed that unlike before, they now access Benin through the by-pass.
Emeka said: “Before now, we used to go into the villages to get to Benin because the portion before the Benin by-pass was very bad. With the palliative measure, the place has become motorable. The traffic hold up has reduced very much.”
Also, our correspondent learnt that the failed portion on the Ubulu-Okiti axis of the Asaba-Benin road has been patched temporarily thereby eliminating the hold-up that hitherto happened there.
It would be recalled that Delta State governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, had expressed worries over the deplorable nature of federal roads traversing the state, and the harrowing experience of the users.
His concerns led to the approval by the State Executive Council meeting for remedial works to be carried out on some of the failed portions on the roads.
Regardless of the intervention, road users are calling for comprehensive repairs, saying that most of the roads have expired.
Owerri-Port Harcourt and Owerri-Aba roads abandoned
For decades, the federal roads that pass through Imo State have been in bad shape. Some of the worst are the Ideato-Orlu-Owerri, Owerri-Okigwe, Owerri-Mbaise-Umuahia and the Owerri-Onitsha roads.
These roads have been in various degrees of dilapidation. Of these roads, the Owerri-Onitsha road still remains the most motorable except at the Mgbidi stretch of the road, which is currently being fixed by the state government for easy flow of traffic.
The Ideato-Orlu-Owerri road was in a terrible shape before the intervention of the current administration of Senator Hope Uzodimma. The governor got the approval of erstwhile Buhari administration to reconstruct the Orlu-Owerri section of the federal road from the Banana Junction down to Owerri, Imo State capital.
Similarly, the Owerri-Okigwe Road which was also in a terrible state of dilapidation has been reconstructed by Governor Uzodimma with the approval granted by the Federal Government during the administration of Buhari.
Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Works has halted reconstruction work on the Owerri-Umuahia road, which was also being done by the state government.
However, the Owerri-Port Harcourt Road around Umuapu has remained in that parlous state in the last 16 years when the contract was awarded to the Arab Contractors.
As a result of the terrible state of the road, especially from Umuagwo-Umuapu in Ohaji down to the boundary between Imo and Rivers states, commuters have been having a harrowing experience as many have been robbed of their monies and personal belongings by hoodlums especially at night. It was learnt that the contract for the reconstruction and dualization of this all-important highway which connects the Southeast to the South-south states was awarded in 2002 by the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to the Arab Contractors company during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo
But the road has remained uncompleted ever since. As a result of the high state of dilapidation of this road that stretches over 12 kilometers from Umuagwo/Umuapu in Imo State, the stretch has become a nightmare for both commuters and commercial vehicle drivers.
As a result of this ugly situation, most travellers avoid using the road, especially at night because of kidnappers who have turned the road into their den.
Recall that last May, gunmen abducted all 18 passengers travelling to Port Harcourt from Owerri around Umuapu-Ohaji in Ohaji-Egbema Council Area of Imo State, after the marauders shot the driver of the commuter bus in his leg.
A commercial driver, Chibuikem, wondered why such an important highway has remained in a state of disrepair for years.
He said: “It is passable now since the rains subsided because when the rains were still heavy you cannot drive through this place. I wondered why this important road is still like this for several years now. I heard that the contract for this road was awarded by President Obasanjo and till now the road is still like this.”
Also, Anugwam Odinaka, another commercial driver, said: “I put the blame on the members of the National Assembly, the past and present governors of the state because if they had been interested in repairing this road they would know what to do. What are the lawmakers from this state doing in Abuja? Are they not supposed to raise the issue of this road? It is because when they want to go to Port Harcourt they use a flight. It is the same for the past and even the present governor. They use private jets to go wherever they want. So, they don’t care about how we suffer on this road. Whether the road is a federal road or not, those using it are the poor people especially from the state.”
Nzeribe Osondu, a resident of Umuapu community in Ohaji told Sunday Sun that the pitiable condition of the road has affected the residents dearly, especially whenever it rained as their homes are flooded.
He disclosed that the people also suffer low patronage as most of their customers who usually come from Owerri to buy vegetables and fruits find it very difficult to come because of the bad condition of the road, adding that they rather go to Oguta.
“If you came here between April and September when the rains were still heavy you would have understood what I am saying. Our homes were flooded because the contractors had already levelled everywhere before they abandoned the work without any gutter. So, when it rains, floods will rush into our compounds and you can see that we are close to the road. “Again, those women who usually come from Owerri to buy vegetables, fruits, bananas and plantain stopped coming throughout this rainy season because of the bad condition of the road and the increase in transportation costs. So, they prefer going to Oguta market even when we are closer,” he said.
The Owerri-Aba highway does not fare better as the contractors have abandoned the road. In fact, the Ngor Okpala section of the road has continued to be in a parlous state.
Auto accidents have become frequent on this section of the road as a result of the deep potholes which have become a permanent feature.
Just last September, no fewer than 18 passengers lost their lives in a fatal accident at Umuowa community in Ngor Okpala, when a commuter bus had a head-on collision with another one coming from the Owerri axis while trying to dodge a deep pothole.
The road has remained a nightmare to road travellers as major portions of the road have collapsed.