… Busy Contractors and Traffic Jams on Nigeria Highways

It is so disheartening travelling on Nigerian highways these days. You don’t just only face the possibility of running into a pot hole that may claim your life, you also stand the risk of being trapped in an endless number of traffic jams. Don’t forget that the ubiquitous and infamous herdsmen are also lurking in the corner to spring their surprise attacks on innocent Nigerians.

My interest today is on the road contractors that feel the only time they can work on the roads is in the day time. Does common sense not being so common a difficult thing to understand? It appears common sense really requires one having to go to the school of life to obtain it. How does one explain the obvious senselessness of keeping commuters on Lokoja expressway for four hours in the name of road construction. The Lagos inward lane on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is another eyesore. With petroleum tankers and cars jostling side by side in the gridlock, it appears this is a disaster waiting to happen. We only hope it does not. This is because the wailers we have in government won’t see this trouble until it blows up in their faces. I really pray fervently that we do not have another disaster of tens of roasted human bodies before the road contractors move their work period to the night time and allow people to commute in the day time!

It had been an endless and continued suffering for Nigerians. The roads are bad and they are being badly done. Let’s also think of the well being of the citizens. A lot of borrowing has gone into the so-called infrastructure development by the Buhari government. A lot of the suffering of Nigerians have also gone into it. A case where the roads are left to degenerate to the point that it causes the citizens to sleep on the highway is pathetic. This should also make the contractors to be considerate and construct the roads with the well-being of the commuters in mind.

Let the contractors be busy alright; but let them find a way round the the issue of commuters being trapped on the highways for hours. I doubt if this is the way roads are constructed in other climes. Nigerians may be the most ‘smiling and suffering’ people on earth (to borrow the term from our own Fela), but why rub it in the more. I am sure all it requires is to be creative about our road construction projects and we can still make Nigerians lives better as they commute.

But more importantly, let the roads constructed be of such high quality that we don’t need to continue the yearly ritual of new roads and rehabilitation of old ones (see our previous blogpost on that topic on this website). It is all so unnerving and saddening seeing the Nigerian commonwealth frittered away yearly in the name of road construction. And the trains can really solve many of these problems if we are serious to make them work, affordable and at long distances too.

#Nigerianroads #omolaranwabueze