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Ending hardship, carnage on Lagos-Benin Road
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the most utilised road stretch out of the over 34 000km of federal roads in the nation, is in a horrendous state. It has gradually deteriorated into a death trap and a place of sorrow for several travellers and their families over the years. The charred wreckage on the road serves as a memoriam not just for the numerous families that have lost their cherished ones on the road, but also for the government’s aloofness from the plight of its citizens. A government that has concern for the welfare of its citizenry will not allow bloodshed, trauma, rape and robbery to continue on that road.
The countless potholes and infuriating detours that adorn the road are the architects of a myriad of disasters recorded on that route.
Little wonder therefore that Ken Ugbechie, a Lagos-based journalist described the road as “a hellish stretch of bumpy, undulating artery interspersed with craters and ditches.” Several valuable hours that could have been put into productive service of the nation, are constantly being wasted on that road, because a journey that should normally last for 3-4 hours now takes twice the time or even more. The importance of the Lagos-Benin Road to the economic aspirations of the country does not need to be overemphasised. Apart from being the only link between the East and the West, it also serves as a vital medium for business transactions between various parts of the South-south.
Another deadly feature of the road is the poor drainage facility, which does not only lead to over-flooding during heavy rainfall, but also leaves the road prone to erosion, which further wears out the road, turning it into graves for unsuspecting travellers. The deplorable state of the road also exposes road users to the viciousness of daredevil robbers.
“When they storm the road, there is nowhere to run to, because the road is very bad. And what makes them rob us easily is that the potholes make us to slow down too much for them to run to the road and operate,” said Segun Ade, a driver, who has had a date with robbers on that route.
Aware of the untold nightmare that travellers face on the road, the government has deployed policemen to safeguard lives and property, but the question on the lips of many travellers now is whether the deployment of the police does not constitute a greater evil.
“It’s not every time that robbers rob us, but it’s every time we use the road that policemen…force money out of us,” said a commercial bus driver, who pleaded anonymity. “There's nothing wrong with mounting check-points on highways. In fact, it inspires confidence to sight cops on highways, especially one as crime-infested as the Lagos-Benin road, but it becomes counter-productive and indeed a national embarrassment if all the cops do is to demand bribe and sufficiently harass motorists,” Ugbechie noted.
Sharing the lane with the vehicles in the opposite direction is another significant component of the road that triggers accidents. The heavy presence of towing vans along the road attests to the recurrence of vehicular damages and accidents on the road. While some people are decrying the deplorable state of the road and calling on the government to fix it, some people, especially the owners of towing vehicles, seem to be making huge profit from the carnage and wreckage on the road. But it would be bewildering for the government to leave the road in its appalling state simply because a minute percentage of the populace are profiting from it.
Speaking with Business Day, Mike Oghene, a towing van driver, stated: “We [towing van operators] make money from the business to feed ourselves and our families, but we do not pray for accidents to happen...You know we are only here to help tow cars away from accident sites so that the owners can repair them and enjoy their cars again…Also, we help to clear the road so that damaged cars will not cause traffic hold-up.”
It would be recalled that the Minister of Transportation, Diezani K. Allison Madueke, during a tour of the road last year did not only express her dissatisfaction over the disrepair of the road, but also wept, and decried that the Obasanjo government spent over N450 billion on roads and yet there was hardly anything concrete to see. But no significant progress has been made on the road since her visit, thereby leaving many Nigerians to doubt the genuineness of her emotional outburst.
Also, many tongues have been wagging because of the government’s seeming indifference to the N300 billion that a former Minister of Works and Housing under the defunct Obasanjo administration received for road construction that never took place. The nation is still in the dark about the whereabouts of the money. Given that former head of state, Muhammadu Buhari was able to construct 13, 000 kilometres of tarred roads with only N67 billion, one would expect Anenih to construct more roads with the N300 billion he was given.
A cross-section of those interviewed lamented government’s inaction, despite the huge taxes being paid. “We hardly know where the huge revenue generated from taxes is going. Our lives are at risk each time we are on that road, and those who are supposed to be doing something are doing nothing. Maybe we have to stop paying taxes and mobilise ourselves to fix the road by ourselves,” voiced an angry transporter.
The Lagos-Benin expressway is not the only dilapidated road in the country, as there are several other roads across the nation that require rehabilitation, if not reconstruction. A recent survey stated that “the national road asset estimated at N200 billion is being lost at the rate of N80 billion per annum due to lack of maintenance while additional N53 billion is lost annually in vehicles operating costs resulting from bad roads. This translates to a loss of 5.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).”
The register and chief executive officer of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria, Funsho Korede, in a recent interview expressed concern about the dilapidated nature of the roads in the nation. “If there is any problem we have in the country, it is the road infrastructure and the transportation system,” he said, stressing that the disrepair of the roads implicitly tells foreigners that ours is a country where the value of human life or the loss of human lives is not given keen consideration.
Any people-oriented government cannot allow its citizenry to suffer unnecessary mayhem and bloodshed. Instead of channelling the nation’s resources into development-oriented projects, opportunistic public officers waste them on frivolities, leaving the large majority to gnash their teeth in over-boiling hate and utter frustration. The erstwhile government of Obasanjo deafened itself to the cries of the users of the road, remarked Vivian Okolo, an undergraduate. She also wondered whether the present government of Yar’Adua would be any different. She further observed that any conscientious government could not but listen to the heart-cringing outcries of its devastated citizens and promptly address their plight.
The presence of RCC on the Ore-Benin segment of the road gives the impression that contracts have been awarded and that the road would be fully repaired soon. However, the continuous deplorable state of the road and the perennial carnage littering it indicate that more needs to be done than just the mere award of contracts or oiling of hands with whooping sums of money. “The EFCC has done great things since its establishment, but I think it needs to look at the large allocation given to certain people to repair bad roads in the country as well as construct new ones. All those awarded the contracts or given the allocations should be quizzed by EFCC and then be made to vomit the money or get the roads fixed,” Ekpo Ekpo, a passenger that often plies the route, stated. Ekpo echoes the opinion of Balarabe Musa, the Chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, that EFCC’s widely applauded battle against corruption will lack credibility if corrupt public officers are not investigated and prosecuted.
Despite the touted slow-motion approach of the present administration, it is apt to note that the government has indeed instituted legal and regulatory parameters to enforce the public-private partnership, which will power the development of transportation infrastructure in the country, thereby mitigating and eventually terminating the carnage on the roads. The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission Act is the bedrock on which the construction and rehabilitation of roads will be anchored.
A cross-section of Nigerians believes that a huge amount of money needs to be devoted to road construction and rehabilitation. The Yar’Adua–led government has earmarked N73 billion for the road project, but, as pinpointed by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Housing, Ikechukwu Obiora, that amount is abhorrently insufficient.
Now is the time for the government to rush in and start fixing the road. When we get to the ‘ember months,’ many more people will use the road and that means more accidents and loss of lives are likely to occur. The number of lives often lost during that period alone can even surpass the deaths recorded in some wars.
The countless potholes and infuriating detours that adorn the road are the architects of a myriad of disasters recorded on that route.
Little wonder therefore that Ken Ugbechie, a Lagos-based journalist described the road as “a hellish stretch of bumpy, undulating artery interspersed with craters and ditches.” Several valuable hours that could have been put into productive service of the nation, are constantly being wasted on that road, because a journey that should normally last for 3-4 hours now takes twice the time or even more. The importance of the Lagos-Benin Road to the economic aspirations of the country does not need to be overemphasised. Apart from being the only link between the East and the West, it also serves as a vital medium for business transactions between various parts of the South-south.
Another deadly feature of the road is the poor drainage facility, which does not only lead to over-flooding during heavy rainfall, but also leaves the road prone to erosion, which further wears out the road, turning it into graves for unsuspecting travellers. The deplorable state of the road also exposes road users to the viciousness of daredevil robbers.
“When they storm the road, there is nowhere to run to, because the road is very bad. And what makes them rob us easily is that the potholes make us to slow down too much for them to run to the road and operate,” said Segun Ade, a driver, who has had a date with robbers on that route.
Aware of the untold nightmare that travellers face on the road, the government has deployed policemen to safeguard lives and property, but the question on the lips of many travellers now is whether the deployment of the police does not constitute a greater evil.
“It’s not every time that robbers rob us, but it’s every time we use the road that policemen…force money out of us,” said a commercial bus driver, who pleaded anonymity. “There's nothing wrong with mounting check-points on highways. In fact, it inspires confidence to sight cops on highways, especially one as crime-infested as the Lagos-Benin road, but it becomes counter-productive and indeed a national embarrassment if all the cops do is to demand bribe and sufficiently harass motorists,” Ugbechie noted.
Sharing the lane with the vehicles in the opposite direction is another significant component of the road that triggers accidents. The heavy presence of towing vans along the road attests to the recurrence of vehicular damages and accidents on the road. While some people are decrying the deplorable state of the road and calling on the government to fix it, some people, especially the owners of towing vehicles, seem to be making huge profit from the carnage and wreckage on the road. But it would be bewildering for the government to leave the road in its appalling state simply because a minute percentage of the populace are profiting from it.
Speaking with Business Day, Mike Oghene, a towing van driver, stated: “We [towing van operators] make money from the business to feed ourselves and our families, but we do not pray for accidents to happen...You know we are only here to help tow cars away from accident sites so that the owners can repair them and enjoy their cars again…Also, we help to clear the road so that damaged cars will not cause traffic hold-up.”
It would be recalled that the Minister of Transportation, Diezani K. Allison Madueke, during a tour of the road last year did not only express her dissatisfaction over the disrepair of the road, but also wept, and decried that the Obasanjo government spent over N450 billion on roads and yet there was hardly anything concrete to see. But no significant progress has been made on the road since her visit, thereby leaving many Nigerians to doubt the genuineness of her emotional outburst.
Also, many tongues have been wagging because of the government’s seeming indifference to the N300 billion that a former Minister of Works and Housing under the defunct Obasanjo administration received for road construction that never took place. The nation is still in the dark about the whereabouts of the money. Given that former head of state, Muhammadu Buhari was able to construct 13, 000 kilometres of tarred roads with only N67 billion, one would expect Anenih to construct more roads with the N300 billion he was given.
A cross-section of those interviewed lamented government’s inaction, despite the huge taxes being paid. “We hardly know where the huge revenue generated from taxes is going. Our lives are at risk each time we are on that road, and those who are supposed to be doing something are doing nothing. Maybe we have to stop paying taxes and mobilise ourselves to fix the road by ourselves,” voiced an angry transporter.
The Lagos-Benin expressway is not the only dilapidated road in the country, as there are several other roads across the nation that require rehabilitation, if not reconstruction. A recent survey stated that “the national road asset estimated at N200 billion is being lost at the rate of N80 billion per annum due to lack of maintenance while additional N53 billion is lost annually in vehicles operating costs resulting from bad roads. This translates to a loss of 5.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).”
The register and chief executive officer of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria, Funsho Korede, in a recent interview expressed concern about the dilapidated nature of the roads in the nation. “If there is any problem we have in the country, it is the road infrastructure and the transportation system,” he said, stressing that the disrepair of the roads implicitly tells foreigners that ours is a country where the value of human life or the loss of human lives is not given keen consideration.
Any people-oriented government cannot allow its citizenry to suffer unnecessary mayhem and bloodshed. Instead of channelling the nation’s resources into development-oriented projects, opportunistic public officers waste them on frivolities, leaving the large majority to gnash their teeth in over-boiling hate and utter frustration. The erstwhile government of Obasanjo deafened itself to the cries of the users of the road, remarked Vivian Okolo, an undergraduate. She also wondered whether the present government of Yar’Adua would be any different. She further observed that any conscientious government could not but listen to the heart-cringing outcries of its devastated citizens and promptly address their plight.
The presence of RCC on the Ore-Benin segment of the road gives the impression that contracts have been awarded and that the road would be fully repaired soon. However, the continuous deplorable state of the road and the perennial carnage littering it indicate that more needs to be done than just the mere award of contracts or oiling of hands with whooping sums of money. “The EFCC has done great things since its establishment, but I think it needs to look at the large allocation given to certain people to repair bad roads in the country as well as construct new ones. All those awarded the contracts or given the allocations should be quizzed by EFCC and then be made to vomit the money or get the roads fixed,” Ekpo Ekpo, a passenger that often plies the route, stated. Ekpo echoes the opinion of Balarabe Musa, the Chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, that EFCC’s widely applauded battle against corruption will lack credibility if corrupt public officers are not investigated and prosecuted.
Despite the touted slow-motion approach of the present administration, it is apt to note that the government has indeed instituted legal and regulatory parameters to enforce the public-private partnership, which will power the development of transportation infrastructure in the country, thereby mitigating and eventually terminating the carnage on the roads. The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission Act is the bedrock on which the construction and rehabilitation of roads will be anchored.
A cross-section of Nigerians believes that a huge amount of money needs to be devoted to road construction and rehabilitation. The Yar’Adua–led government has earmarked N73 billion for the road project, but, as pinpointed by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Housing, Ikechukwu Obiora, that amount is abhorrently insufficient.
Now is the time for the government to rush in and start fixing the road. When we get to the ‘ember months,’ many more people will use the road and that means more accidents and loss of lives are likely to occur. The number of lives often lost during that period alone can even surpass the deaths recorded in some wars.
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