Nigeria is a wonderful country to live in. We are drama kings and queens. The top prize is taken by our ‘rulers’. They are the real deal when it comes to true drama.
Or how will you describe a government that budgets a huge amount of money to repair the same roads year in year out? Drama team, may sound more fitting, I am sure.
I was reading that the Federal Executive Council has approved NGN20.925 billion for road repairs and maintenance The Guardian (Thursday, 26 November, 2020, page 4). The question any sane person should be asking is that is it impossible to construct these roads and make them good enough that you may not need to worry about them for an upward of 40 years? What is wrong with our roads needing only surface and not heavy repairs every year or even every other year?
The Nigerian roads are appropriately named death traps. I remember that after Mr Adams Oshiomole persuaded Okpe people of Edo State to change to his party in order to do their road and they listened to him, the next time he was visiting Okpe for Okpe Day celebration, he came with his helicopter due to the deplorable state of the road rather than repair/reconstruct it. Nigerian politicians take the cup in deceiving people! At least, that road lasted for some years since Ogbemudia constructed it in the 70s before it was destroyed by heavy trailers when they found it the shortest way to go to Lagos from Akoko Edo in northern Edo State.
I wondered a lot about this situation of the roads not being well constructed when I used to be a lot on the road during the time I was undergoing my MA degree. At the time, it was the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) that was in charge of building the roads under Sanni Abacha; and of course, our current President was in charge of that agency. The funniest thing about it all was that as the Borini Prono company was doing the road, it was getting bad after them. I could not understand what the issue was. Is it that they don’t know their job or that the certifying agency was blind and could not see the bad portions following the road construction process? Were these contractors being paid for this job or they were just doing it gratias? At least, that would explain their modus operandi. I had the effrontery to stop to ask one of the staff of the company one day as I could not bear it any more. He was gracious to answer that they would still be maintaining the road. My amateurish question was: why not just do a solid job once and for all rather than do the road in a manner that will require heavy maintenance that will never allow you leave the construction site? Anyway, that road in question has remained perpetually under repair. Someone must eat, sha (as we say in my country)
A country that will rather be budgeting for repairs rather than calling to order its own workforce and make people account for their irresponsibility in the performance of their duties gets what it deserves. I think it is time that people be asked to do their jobs. And those not ready to be shown the way out. Some people celebrate mediocrity and this becomes an albatross to the system.
I was passing the Ibillo-Lagos Road recently when I went to visit my mom just before she passed on and found that the repairs of less than two years ago were already gone to hell. I did not pass there last year so I could not say whether it was repaired last year. The Okpella road captured in the article referred to above had been ‘dying’ for years. It is being avoided by motorists now as they have changed their route into Akoko Edo. This Akoko Edo Road too was an ATM for an ‘honourable’ member for years because it was always due for repairs annually. It appears the current honourable does not even have the time for the Auchi-Ibillo Road in Akoko Edo this time around – the depth of the craters on that road are car swallowing deep! Mind you, thismis also a federal road! That is an alternative road; so, let’s not imagine what the Okpella-Okene Road will be like at all. All I know is that people used to sleep on these roads due to traffic gridlock caused by very bad roads. Between Benin and Sapele, swimming oceans for cars delight fill the Edo side of the road. The manageable side is that of the Delta ‘roadmaster’ Governor territory. It is so saddening for the southern part of the country that road continues to remain a means of lining the pockets of our political actors rather than tools for development.
So, another cycle of pocket lining with billions of Naira. I forgot to let you know that the chunk (NGN14.528 billion) of the money above is going to Yobe State; and the governors of the North East just cried out about the unfair treatment meted out to the NE in the 2021 budget! What a world of irony we live in. For the records, for the Okpekpe road in Edo State, the amount is NGN991.851 million while the rest goes to Taraba. You can do your math, please.
However, the major concern beyond the equitability of the distribution is the seriousness of the money going to where it is meant to. A country with so much problems should be prudent. But that is not seen in the way we turn our road construction activities into the anticipation of their annual failure so we can turn them to a yearly means of milking our country dry of her meagre resources.
I feared this country the day I learnt that a contract to construct a simple tent to give shelter to students while they wait to take exams will be constructed in three phases. That day, I knew that except by divine intervention, there is not much hope for the country. Even the first phase was badly done. And I was told I could not complain as the contractor said he was not answerable to me but those that awarded him the contract. But complained vociferously I did because I felt that was not just right! So, dear people in government, is it not time we start holding our contractors and approving officers to account so they can construct roads that can last a minimum of 20 years for us in order to reduce the amount of human sacrifice we have to make yearly on our roads so our people can live long and our pockets will stop being lined with blood money!
Let’s hear your thoughts on this, folks!
#omolaranwabueze #beingreal #endbadgovernancenow
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