Nigeria looks like a place surrendered to the devil and mischief. So nothing seems to be working. Everything seems to be in the form of decay and death. The citizens are not patriotic. They are rather selfish and greedy. They are rather cloak in the wheel of the state’s progress. That is why the State called Nigeria is in a state of progressive retrogression. Perhaps this happens because the right people are ignored or sidetracked at the instance of desperate politicians whose only politics is to subvert government fund and siphon same at the behest of their personal needs and agenda.
I knew when the dualisation project of Abuja to Lokoja began in 2008 or 2007. To be succinct Abuja is the capital city of Nigeria (home based estimated at 140 million people) by the controversial census figure of 2006.
Let me take you from Benin City. From the city of Benin, the cradle of ancient civilization, one continues to have his car or bus hitting the pot holes until you finally get the Okpella, the home of Amodu Shuaibu; Okpella is the home of pot holes and the most dangerous road in Nigeria. You will continue to hit the ground till you get to Okene, the Ebira stronghold. Between Okene and Lokoja is night marish. The road is car damaging and lives consuming. Then between Lokoja and Abija the road is a complete death trap. Several lives have gone along this axis.
If you decide to go to Abuja through Enugu, you find out the danger in passing through 9th mile and Ogbulafor or Nsukka axis of the road. From Otukpo to Anyingba passengers always say their last prayers. Between Ajeokuta and Lokoja you will appreciate the worst road in Nigeria only second to Benin Ore Road.
What is the cause of this shameless situation. When the Abuja/Lokoja was awarded in 2007 or 2008 nobody knew that by this time in 2010 that contract is still foot dragging or snailing and begging for its completion.
From Abaji the road has only 4 to 5 kilometers nearing completion, while the route continues to suck human blood.
What surprises me is that all the roads linking Abuja to the Northern States are properly dualized. And their dualizations were done long ago. Not today. However, it is the roads that links the Federal Capital Territory from the South that are not dualized. Conversely, it is the Southern part of this country that is well endowed with both human and natural resources.
Projects on the roads linking the city with the southern part of the country are usually bedeviled with constant abandonment and total neglect.
The Federal Government awarded the dualization project under construction from Abuja to Lokoja the only Northern State (Kogi) which has not got the benefit of such dualization to the capital city of Abuja. There is however, no plan by the Federal Government howsoever to link any state in the South to Abuja.
Nobody cares about that. And nobody (our big brothers) in the South cares about that.
Even those in the national Assembly of the Southern extraction have not bothered to ask questions about the copious and patent marginalization. In any event, the people who get consumed by the bad position of the roads to the South are mainly Southerners. These are the people that Senators and members of the House of Representatives are to represent. This is the irony or paradox of the people of Southern Nigeria.
Chief Tony Anenih in 1999 was the Minister of Works. When he left Senator Adekeye Adeseye of the Yoruba extraction look the mantle and yet nothing was done to solve this problem. Chief Ojo Maduakwe headed the transport Ministry and lastly Mrs. Dizeani-Maduakwe headed the Ministry and the only thing she did was to visit the Lagos, Benin Ore Road and expressed shock. Before her, Dr. Abiye Sekibo of Rivers State has been there in that Ministry of Transport and yet today these roads are still death traps. It is quite appalling that the people of Southern Nigeria take more than it takes to leave Lagos for London to get to Abuja. This is quite unbelievable. But it is the home truth. If it takes 6 hours to London from Lagos and it takes about 13 hours from Port Harcourt to Abuja, is it not sad indeed?
The fundamental cause of all these is that one, the Federal Government has not decided to solve the Southern Nigerian problem of building a good road network to link them to the capital city of Abuja. All their concern is to ensure that the North is properly lined thereto. Again, our Southern brothers who have had cause to be on the saddle in the various Ministries (Works and Transport) have over the years done little or nothing to solve this problem.
Unfettered greed and insincerity, unpatriotism and lack of concern for the plight of the people is another root cause of this unfortunate abandonment.
For those who have so much money they have decided to fly but the coffins in the sky of Nigeria and indeed the world over is a great threat even there in the high sky.
When next you wish to travel from the South to Abuja declare a 7-days fasting and prayers before embarking on the journey. But can our brother Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan intervene to help his people?###
Barr. Gideon Kpoobari Girigiri
08036784327
