By Scholastica Hir (Makurdi), Layi Olanrewaju (Ilorin), Emmanuel Adeyemi (Lokoja), John Adams (Minna), Jude Dangwam (Jos), Abel Leonard (Lafia)
The North-central region of Nigeria is dotted with a huge number of dilapidated federal roads. Land travels have become a herculean task for motorists and commuters. Vehicle owners face grave dangers of getting stuck on bad roads. Transporters, farmers and traders count their losses as journeys drag beyond normal travel time. There are also security concerns along the bad roads as criminal elements unleash terror on innocent road users.
In continuation of our special focus on federal roads across the country, our reporters in the North-central toured the region and returned with reports of the unpleasant state of the roads.
BENUE
In Benue State, a number of federal roads crisscrossing the state are in bad shape. Some of the deplorable roads in the state include Makurdi – Naka – Adoka – Ankpa road, Makurdi – Aliade – Otukpo – Enugu road, Yandev – Ugbema road, Makurdi – Yandev – Ugbema- Katsina-Ala down to Wukari road among others.
Saturday Sun observed that with each rainy season, the roads get worse making travels a nightmare for transporters and other road users. From Makurdi, the state capital, to Gboko, to Aliade in Gwer East Local Government Areas, Otukpo in Benue South, Naka in Gwer West LGA and other places, residents, transporters, businessmen lament the effects of the deplorable condition of the roads.
Our correspondent reports that early this year, the Federal Government flagged off the construction of Makurdi – Enugu road project. The project was the dualization of the Makurdi- Otukpo-9th Mile (Enugu) road covering 266.4kms.
The Minister of Works, Engr. Dave Umahi, during the flag off said work on the Makurdi-Enugu road project was to kick off immediately pledging that the government would ensure quality work was done. However, a drive along that axis reveals that not much has been done but work has commenced on the road as some sections.
Richard Ubur, Financial Secretary of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Benue state chapter conveys the displeasure of the union members over the roads.
“The experiences are very bad. Contract for the construction of Makurdi down to 9th Mile in Enugu has been awarded but from Aliade to Otukpo is still very bad. This allows insecurity to fester along that axis. Another dangerous area is Makurdi to Naka road heading towards Adoka town and Ankpa in Kogi State. They are almost impassable.
“The Makurdi Gboko road to Katsina Ala and Taraba State is bad. That is why hoodlums, armed robbers and kidnappers are taking advantage of the bad portions to attack our members and their passengers, especially traders.
“The security situation is more alarming around Otukpo and Otukpa axis to the point that our drivers restrict their operations at certain times in those areas. At such times they allow motorcycle operators to ply the routes instead of vehicles.” Ubur disclosed that on June 13, 2024 a Benue Link vehicle was attacked on the road and its driver killed. He said that sometimes the bandits will block the bad portions of the road, kill the driver and rob the passengers of commercial vehicles and at other times, kidnappers will take both the driver and his passengers especially on Makurdi, Naka and Ankpa as well as Makurdi, Aliade to Otukpo axis.
“The first time I was robbed of N150,000 on Naka Road after supplying goods to our customers. After that experience, I decided that my customers should transfer money to my account. On this trip I had few cash and when again I was attacked, they got angry that I didn’t have cash to give them and they beat me mercilessly and took away some of the goods,” said Terver Jime,another motorist who shuttles Makurdi, Aliade and Naka to supply provisions.
KWARA
In Kwara State, some road users are lamenting the deplorable state of federal roads and bridges in the North-central state, pointing out the adverse effects on their social and economic lives. Some of the roads are Ilorin Omu Aran -Egbe -Lokoja road, Ilorin-Ogbomoso -Oyo road, Ilorin -Alapa-Kosubosu road. On a regular basis, lives are lost and goods perished as a result of accidents on these roads.
“The first thing that will make you know that you are in Kwara State from the Kogi axis is that you will hit a major pothole when you are plying the federal road,” said Ganiyat Abdulkadiri, a motorist. “We learnt that the contract for the construction of the road was awarded during President Buhari’s regime. It was started from Ilorin and a little after Idofian the work was stopped and the contractor left the site in 2019. FERMA occasionally sandfills the potholes but as the rain comes, they are washed away.”
She, however, commended the award of contract for the dualisation of Ilorin – Oloru – Jebba -Mokwa federal road and described it as a welcome development.
Samuel Adebayo, who travels regularly on the Ilorin-Kabba-Lokoja -Abuja road for many years, described the Ilorin-Omu Aran- Osi-Obbo Aiyegunle-Eruku- Egbe to Kabba – Lokoja end of the road as terrible, to say the least.
He pointed out that the roads were constructed during the military era but have deteriorated so badly.
Malam Iliasu, a commercial truck driver who has plied the Oko-Olowo-Jebba-Eiyenkorin expressway for several years narrates his ugly experience as his truck got stuck on the roads following a crash. The driver who spoke through an interpreter said it has been a nightmarish experience for him.
On Ekiti road in Kwara South, a car owner, Ezekiel Ashaolu, said the bad state of the federal road has had a corresponding effect on the worsening security situation in the area. “Apart from the damage to our vehicles, the bad state of the road is aiding insecurity in the area which has affected the social and economic activities of residents,” he said.
To drive home their frustration, members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, and their counterparts in the Road Transport Employee Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) led other road users to protest the dilapidated condition of the Moro Bailey Bridge and other federal roads in Kwara State.
Alhaji Olayinka Onikijipa, chairman of RTEAN in Kwara, said the unions and other road users are very displeased with the state of federal roads in the state.
“The construction work has been abandoned since 2018. This has imposed hardship on the people especially the transport workers and farmers who are in the majority here. The colonial structures have collapsed, causing unimaginable hardship to all us,” he fumed.
Similarly, Kwara State chairman of the NURTW, Alhaji Abdulrazaq Ariwo-Ola, said the unions have been involved in palliative measures to make the bridge passable. Ariwo-Ola who said the bridge had claimed lives in the past called for drastic and urgent action to forestall further casualties on the bridge by completing the new one.
The Kwara State government recently pleaded with the federal government to save the state from imminent disaster as a result of the damaged Moro Bailey Bridge and the washed-off road near Oyun Bridge in Ilorin and other roads in the state. The state governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq, while decrying the hardship commuters were experiencing on the road, pointed out that road users were citizens who had fulfilled their civic rights by electing their leaders at all levels of government.
“Therefore commuters do not deserve to spend days on the journey they would have made in hours,” he said, while inspecting the 49-km Eiyenkorin-Afon-Ojoku-Offa-Odo Otin road project. The project is one of the four major federal roads being constructed by the BUA Group in the state under the federal government’s tax credit scheme. The other three are the Lafiagi-Shonga-Bacita (83km); Bode Saadu-Kaiama-Kosubosu(130km); and Okuta-Gwanara-Bukuro (32km). “Two months ago, I visited Bode Sa’adu-Kaiama-Kosubosu road, which is also a federal government road. Then, there is the 83km Lafiagi-Shonga-Bacita road. We are truly lucky in Kwara; we are happy that these investments are being placed in the state.
KOGI
Motorists passing through some major roads in Kogi State are daily subject to torture and agony on the roads as many encounter terrible potholes on the roads, leading to frequent accidents, kidnapping and robbery attacks.
The Kabba-Egbe-Ilorin highway seems to be at the top of these killer roads as a journey from Kabba-Egbe which shouldn’t take up to three hours now takes over six hours with the drivers capitalizing on these to charge ridiculous fares.
The condition of this 231km ‘Trunk A’ Ilorin-Kabba Road gets worse during the rainy season. On this road, due to the high volume of traffic of heavy duty trucks on the road, a journey of four to five hours now takes about eight hours or more.
Contract for reconstruction of the road, which was last carried out around 1976, was said to have been re-awarded in 2016, but was abandoned after the flag-off exercise, with only 17km constructed from Kabba to Aiyetoro Gbede in the Ijumu local council area of the state.
Also crying for attention is the 35 Km Kabba-Omuo Road, which has been eaten up by deep potholes, constituting a nightmare for travelers passing through Kogi State to the South-west.
The worst of the federal roads in that axis is believed to be the Kabba-Olle-Akutupa Kiri road linking Abuji in Niger State which was first constructed by the Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello in 1963 and has now been completely abandoned.
Also, the seven-kilometre Ganaja-Lokoja-Ajaokuta road in the Lokoja metropolis has completely cut off residents living in the outskirts of the state capital from that axis as it takes more than four hours to pass through especially during rainy season. Like several other federal roads that are in bad shape, Mohamed Ojodale, a commercial bus driver from the eastern part of the state, who plies the route daily, said accidents are frequent occurrences, and high cost of vehicle maintenance is telling on his business.
Saturday Sun gathered that during the rainy season, the road gets so flooded that canoes are used to pass through some portions, with many vehicles getting stuck in the floods for several days. For motorists who travel from the South-south and South-east to the northern part of the country and the Federal Capital Territory, the road is a major source of worry.
The Itope-Ajaokuta-Okene highway and the Okene-Auchi highway are also among the federal roads that have claimed lives.
NIGER
Niger State has the longest network of federal roads in Nigeria, covering about 1,437 kilometers, spread across 15 out of the 25 local government areas of the state. Of this figure, 1,115 kilometers, representing about 80% of this trunk ‘A’ roads are in deplorable condition.
Before the award of contracts for the construction of 556 roads covering about 1,000 kilometers by the Niger State Governor, Umar Mohammed Bago, the state had its fair share of federal roads in bad shape.
Saturday Sun gathered that the last time a federal road project was executed in the state was in 2013 when the former president Goodluck Jonathan administration constructed the Bida-Mokwa federal highway covering about 122km through World Bank assisted funding.
Some of the roads remain in deplorable condition even though contracts for their reconstruction have been awarded, are the Jebba-Mokwa-Bokani federal highway, the Rijau in Niger State border through Zuru in Kebbi State, the Katcha-Baro port, Agaie-Katcha and the Rofia-Swete-Segbema, the Suleja-Minna, and the Tegina-Kagara-Kaduna roads.
Others are the Wawa-Kaima to Benin Republic road, the Auna-New Bussa road, Sarkin pawa-Kaduna section as well as the Pandogari-Gurmana-Allawa and the Mokwa to Makera-Tegina roads.
The bad conditions of these roads are better imagined than experienced as trucks, trailers and small vehicles struggle to cope with the reality they face. In recent times, the bad condition of these highways has paved the way for armed robbery and kidnapping. For example, the Mokwa -Tegina -Makera-Brinin Gwari-Kaduna highways have remained under the control of bandits.
Ahead of the 2023 general elections, attempts were made by the Muhammadu Buhari administration through the NNPC/FIRS intervention to fix some of these highways, notable among them are the Bida-Agaie-Lapai, Minna-Suleja and Kontagora-Rijau. But only the Minna-Suleja and Bida-Agaie-Lapai roads got some level of attention yet, the works remain uncompleted.
Worried by the state of these roads and the impact on the state’s economy, a youth group under the auspices of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Niger State chapter, shutdown the state for several hours in 2023 to protest the deplorable condition of federal roads in the state.
Anarchy was let loose upon the state and the center could not hold as both business and commercial activities were brought to stand still for the five hours the protest lasted.
Bida-Minna, Minna-Suleja, Tegina-Brinin Gwari and Sarkin Pawa-Kaduna highways were all blocked to traffic by the protesters.
The protest by the youths forced the government to seek the intervention of the NNPC and the FIRS but no appreciable work was done.
Recently the bad state of these roads got the attention of the state House of Assembly when it appealed to the federal government to, as a matter of urgency, come to the aid of the state government towards addressing the deplorable condition of federal roads in the state.
PLATEAU
Plateau State is one of the states of the federation faced with deplorable condition of federal roads, which travelers have continued to battle with in their day to day life.
The Forest Hawan-Kibo road, which received some intervention last year, is still begging for attention.
Joseph Nyam, a commuter, stressed the need for the government to dualize the road, stressing the need to maximize its potential as one major route that connects the North-eastern part of Nigeria. Abibu Sadiq, a transporter, also laments the condition of the road from Jos, the state capital to Bauchi State, a situation he said requires urgent attention from relevant government authorities.
Saturday Sun gathered that through the 2023 appropriation bill, about 20 federal roads, totaling about 935 kilometers in the state received attention.
NASARAWA
Some federal roads in Nasarawa State have been described as deadly zones of terror and neglect. Among the roads is the Keffi-Nasarawa Road, which was once known as a lifeline for connectivity in the North-central region, but which has become a haven for bandits of different shades who spread fear and uncertainty in the region.
A local motorist, Adamu Ali, describes the road as a zone where road users gamble with their lives. Musa Abdullahi a former NURTW Chairman in the area who is a survivor of kidnapping ordeal recounts his harrowing experiences.
“It was horrible. I almost died but my family members both home and abroad contributed money to pay a ransom before I was released,” he said. He urged the government to act swiftly in ensuring that the road is completed in order to restore peace and security in the area.
Hon. Muhammed Sani Otto, Chairman of Nasarawa local government council, highlighted the dire condition of federal roads in the state and the alarming cases of vehicles falling on the road and the tragic consequences, emphasizing that the road has become a death trap, with potholes posing perilous obstacles to motorists.
The contractor that is handling the project, Engr. Daniel Aleyemi, pledged his commitment to progress.
The Federal Controller of Works, Nasarawa State, Engr. Idah Daikwo, attributed delays in the execution of the project to funding constraints and global increases in the prices of construction materials.