Who Will Save Nigerians From Their Roads?

All of October, we wrote about Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Nigeria’s President, including his visit to Germany to attend the partnership for Africa Summit.

And Olusegun Obasanjo, our former President, including how he surreptitiously inaugurated uncompleted power plants as his time ran out, to give the impression his government was getting things done.

We wrote about Patricia Etteh, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, now a sad symbol only of corruption and futility, swept away as October climaxed.  

We wrote about Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan; I even wrote about his wife, Patricia Jonathan, and the questions of probity she has draped around her neck.

We wrote about governors: present and former, coming and going, rising and falling, running or hiding.

All month long, the mass media published furiously about the men and women in power and position.  We are going to do so again this month.  We are fascinated by, and love to quote the powerful.

Before we fire up the November engines, however, I invite you to revisit October, and come with me to the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway (Route Zero).  Yes, it is the same major national highway where Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s car broke down recently, and he had to be helped out in another.  

On the morning of October 25, a deadly accident occurred in the Ogunmakin town area that involved a fallen petrol tanker and several unsuspecting vehicles that drove into it and were simply incinerated.  About 17 lives were lost.  

Three days later, at about 9 p.m. on October 28, another horrendous crash took place near the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) premises.  At least 30 lives were lost, a number that may have climbed up by now, but we will never know because most Nigerian newspapers being remarkably irresponsible, they often lose interest as soon as the first report is filed. 

Chris Alaba, a police officer, told journalists the tanker involved in the accident was trying to avoid a pothole on the road when it tipped over on its side.  The spillage of petrol caught fire.

It is sad that we lose nearly 50 lives on the same stretch of road in three days, and no reporter asks even the Minister of Works about it.  He does not visit the place, does not counsel survivors in any of the area hospitals, and does not utter a word of even of acknowledgement. 

President Yar’Adua is quick to react to the Supreme Court’s firing of the governor of Rivers’ State, but he says nothing about the carnage on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

The President goes to Germany to speak about globalization, but says nothing during his visit, or in Nigeria, about the destruction of his citizens on our highways. 

While in Germany, the President wisely awards himself a medical check-up.  I mean, why subject his presidential self to a similar experience at the hands of excellent Nigerian doctors at the UCH or the OOUTH, for instance, where the survivors of the war on Route Zero are being managed?

Let us not forget: Governor Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State did not acknowledge these accidents.  Neither did any of his commissioners. 

In Lagos, Governor Babatunde Fashola appears to appreciate life and health.  Earlier in the month, he played 90 minutes of a football match to celebrate Independence Day.  As the month ended and Route Zero guzzled the blood and hopes of many Nigerian families, however, he did not acknowledge the emergency.   

Nigerian newspapers routinely report on the chaotic traffic that has become the prime feature on this road since religious organizations such as RCCG and Mountain of Fire and Miracles decided to build prayer and convention camps on it.  Regrettably, short trips that used to take half an hour now routinely last hours, or even into the following day. 

Route Zero is not the only road on which Nigerians die in large numbers daily, ignored by their leaders.  But it is a wonderful example of the shameful policy of official neglect that our infrastructure suffers nationwide.  This road was a beautiful, inspiring highway when it was completed in the 1970s.  It has deteriorated steadily every year, and its accident statistics have mounted in response. 

It is a deep shame that this has happened.  While heads of government have enriched themselves and their wives and girlfriends, Nigeria has rotted in the sun.  Buildings have collapsed on Nigerians.  Planes fall out of the sky.  Badly or un-maintained roads claim lives daily, or make our people easy prey for armed robbers. 

If you consider the lifestyle of our previous leaders, one can only shake his head in sadness.  Ibrahim Babangida lives in incredible luxury, with a taste for Mediterranean splendor.  He enjoys travel by special jets.  But knowing that Nigerians despise him, he moves in a thicket of security wherever he goes. 

Similarly, Obasanjo loved late-model executive jets and helicopters.  But last June, only days out of power, he was caught in traffic on a Lagos street.  It is the same traffic that while he sought a second term in office in 2003, he swore he would bring to an end.  Once he had rigged himself into office, however, he did not honour any of those campaign promises. 

During his eight years in office, his government spent nearly one trillion Naira on road construction and maintenance, as I explored in this column on December 4, 2006.  As state and local governments, but more importantly, families that have lost relatives on these death traps, that was another official lie.  And so, Nigerians continue to be dismembered or roasted alive on highways.   

Unfortunately, the government has a major source of help in this inglorious achievement: Nigerian drivers who love speed and hate road regulations. 

I encourage the mass media to turn up the pressure on government officials.  It is not enough to report road crashes and the statistics of the dead, or even to write editorials.

We must avoid what may be characterized as road tragedy fatigue: the tendency to tire of reporting these accidents, or report them as routine.  The media must continuously publish accident information and statistics, along with actual government expenditure and action on transportation.  It must take the issues to government officials and ask the hard questions.   

We must avoid the temptation to place powerful government officials on our front pages and quote them on subjects on which they are comfortable.  In October, as on every month, we did that, expending energy on the Ettehs of this country while blood ran on our roads and governments took dying Nigerians for granted.   

And now comes December, traditionally our month of the heaviest travel.  This is when the federal government “works” quickly to restore the busiest roads, such as the Lagos-Benin Expressway, only to leave it to rot until the next Christmas. 

The government must give us better roads that are maintained and effectively policed (like the German autobahns).  Or simply build us bigger mortuaries.  Our families have no tears left.

Robot  Villager

# 1 Our (Nigerian) politicia...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 02.11.2007 12:20

akuluouno  Villager

# 2 Dear Sonala, Indeed, it is either our roads are modelled around the autobahns of this world or the 2008 bugdet should vire enough funds for the construction of world class and world size mortuaries. Accordingly I would enjoin all travellers to say the following latin prayer in their local languages before embarking on their journey. Morituri te salutant ( we who are about to die salute our leaders.) Thanks for capturing the journalistic perspective in your usual direct flowing prose. However we the people should not let government go scot free on the matter. Who actually is directly responsible for the maintainance of Route Zero. Has he represented the challenges on the road adequately to the higher authorities. What was the response from these higher authorities. I think it is time NGOs divide up our roads and take serious charge of calling Nigerians to attention with regards to their maintenance and welfare. Problem with route Zero and other major roads in Nigeria can be traced to Mallam Ali Monguno, erstwhile Chairman of the Nigerian Railway Corporation deliberately decided to incapacitate the railway system, acclaimed globally for its capacity to move deadweight cargo around, in a bid to satisfy the needs of private major road hauliers in the North such as Chanchangi and co in those days. The rest as they say wrt the state of the roads is history. FRSC is trying to change the morbid and suicidal attitude of Nigerian drivers, but they still lack capacity to attain their goals. Oncemore until our roads are modelled along the autobahns of this world in both structure and form, so long shall the mass of road users continue to walk the scylla and charbrydis that these roads have progressively metamorphsed into. :mad::mad::frown: Posted by akuluouno| 04.11.2007 10:48

Okey Ndibe  JJC

# 3 S.O., Thanks for writing cogently, and with characteristic eloquence, on the carnage on our roads. A mass media alert to their responsibilities ought to, as you suggest, call the agbada-flaunting government officials on their criminal neglect. I salute you for not letting us forget. Posted by Okey Ndibe| 04.11.2007 14:26

ttonjo  Villager

# 4 In fact, it is a disgrace the way our so-called leaders plays with Nigerians lives by misplacing their priorities every time at the expense of their citizens. It seems they don't care at all about the plight of Nigerians. I was talking to my sister in law who live in Lagos on Saturday when she narrated her terrible experience on Lagos-Benin Expressways. She told me that she left Benin for Lagos around 7am, but did not get to Lagos until 10.30pm. I joked with her that someone going to Europe at the same time, would have settle down at their destinations hours before she finally get to Lagos safely. What a sad DEPLORABLE SITUATION indeed. Posted by ttonjo| 04.11.2007 15:28

purple  Villager

# 5 You ask the question: Who will save Nigerians from their roads? Answer: Only Nigerians can save themselves from their own roads. No AU, EU, UN or anybody else will save Nigerians. It is no use looking elswhere for a savior. If and when Nigerians develop a robust backbone and our people decide that enough is enough we will save ourselves. Imagine if all the pastors and immams get tired of officiating at funerals of road accident victims and declare a sit in. Then imagine if hundreds of thousands of nigerians sit on the Lagos -Ibadan Expressway for 2 or 3 days with others taking their place? Will this get some attention to this carnage? Will Baba Go Slow and his rudderless Minister of Work get a life and do their job? Well we won't know the answers till we try. Writing tomes of articles on social problems is good. Becoming an activist and doing something about it is better. Thank you Posted by purple| 04.11.2007 15:39

JAGA-JAGA  Villager

# 6 The PDP ruled Nigeria for 8 solid years with the following achievements - Poor infrastructural facilties in place. - Reduction in availability of power supply. - Reduction in the number of motorable roads in Nigeria - Increase in carnage on our highways. - Increase in level of armed robbery and other related crimes. - Increase in the number of unemployed youths. - Increase in the number of government corporations disposed through questionable means. - Extermination of portable water supply at both urban and rural levels. - Increase in the number of politically motivated murder cases without apprehending the culprits. - .......... and many more acheivements of like manner. Yet this party called PDP told the whole world via Iwuruwuru's INEC that Nigerians returned this same party to power! Some thing surely must be wrong with either Nigerians or PDP. Surely, it is the PDP:sad: Posted by JAGA-JAGA| 04.11.2007 18:09

truthsayer33  Villager

# 7 =purple;2091816696>You ask the question: Who will save Nigerians from their roads? Answer: Only Nigerians can save themselves from their own roads. No AU, EU, UN or anybody else will save Nigerians. It is no use looking elswhere for a savior. If and when Nigerians develop a robust backbone and our people decide that enough is enough we will save ourselves. Imagine if all the pastors and immams get tired of officiating at funerals of road accident victims and declare a sit in. Then imagine if hundreds of thousands of nigerians sit on the Lagos -Ibadan Expressway for 2 or 3 days with others taking their place? Will this get some attention to this carnage? Will Baba Go Slow and his rudderless Minister of Work get a life and do their job? Well we won't know the answers till we try. Writing tomes of articles on social problems is good. Becoming an activist and doing something about it is better. Thank you Until we get to that level of activism perhaps NVS should publish the accident stats(monthly) and continue to seek answers from the ministers in charge. Posted by truthsayer33| 04.11.2007 19:15

Zanderlex  Villager

# 8 Please can anybody help me. What is wrong with privatizing these roads and placing toll gates such that money collected is used for their maintainance?. Posted by Zanderlex| 04.11.2007 20:33

JAGA-JAGA  Villager

# 9 =Zanderlex;2091816756>Please can anybody help me. What is wrong with privatizing these roads and placing toll gates such that money collected is used for their maintainance?. Privatizing these roads.....mmmh. Zanderlex my borther, this was done before I think during Abacha's tenure and nothing came out of it. Only some big duds who benefitted from such contracts and shared the proceeds with the minister and other powers that be so that's how it ended. Nothing tangible was achieved from it. If you try that same strategy now, in this political era; behold you have provided an easy avenue for redundant party men to make quick money and nothing would be achieved. Please do not go to that angle at all. It won't work especially with the current set up of our government. Period. Posted by JAGA-JAGA| 04.11.2007 22:32

udokaamah  Villager

# 10 =Zanderlex;2091816756>Please can anybody help me. What is wrong with privatizing these roads and placing toll gates such that money collected is used for their maintainance?. I completely agree with you, Zanderlex. Privatization is the way to go. In the United States, other than the Interstate Highways that were built by the Federal Government for military purposes, states routinely lease highways to private corporations overladen with investors cash and looking for long term investments. These corporations charge tolls for the lease periods (normally for a maximum of 99 years). I am aware that the state of Texas recently got about 3 billion dollars upfront for a 99 year lease of a 100 mile highway. Philadelphia went the same route too. In addition to the upfront fees which the states can get, they may also get some royalty payments on every profit made and a certain percentage of profit if the lessors make a profit pass a predetermined threshold. I am sure there are investors out there willing to plunk some cash into Nigeria's highways. Lets sweeten the deal for them. Posted by udokaamah| 04.11.2007 23:05

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