It is still two whole months to go and the ghost of Christmas is already hovering over the many Federal Government roads that take travelers, especially the Igbos, to Lagos and other parts of Nigeria. Christmas was the only period Eastern travelers occasionally slept on the road due to congestion.
Today, the story has changed such that what was known as a seasonal event is now a daily experience—travelers spending more money to come to Lagos, staying longer on the roads and ending up sleeping on the way because of the terrible and deplorable state of the roads.
Arguably, the South Easterners of Nigeria are the most itinerant race in Africa. Unconfirmed report has it that the Easterners, especially the Igbos, have the highest record of travelling from one point to another in Nigeria and beyond. They usually have reasons, ranging from the mundane or ludicrous to the sublime or elevated, for hitting the road at any given opportunity.
The Igbos of the South-East Nigeria are known for, and chiefly associated with trade and commerce; they are also known for close-knit family relationships just as they excel in familial bonding and return to their roots during festive periods.
This race is therefore, known to be on the road every day in pursuit of business and in this particular instance, they are seen either going or returning, night and day, mainly from Lagos, the nation’s commercial capital, where they go to buy or to sell local products.
The Easterners travel home oftentimes to attend family meetings; for marriages, burial ceremonies and other social engagements. Because of their penchant for going back to their roots no matter their accomplishments outside, many Igbo children go home for their secondary or tertiary education.
For these and more reasons, they are always on afoot. They are more on the roads leading to Lagos. Depending on their take off points, Owerri-Onitsha Road, Enugu-Onitsha Road, Asaba-Benin, Benin-Ore-Sagamu, and then Sagamu-Berger-Ojota routes are their sure-bets.
Coming to the West from the East through these routes used to be fun and pleasurable. It is no longer so. In recent time, it has been hellish traveling through these routes.
When Onyinye Chukwu, along with her colleagues, set out on her homeward journey to Lagos from Enugu where she is schooling, little did she know that the journey that started by 7am would keep her on the road till 1am the next day.
To her parents, the joy of having their daughter back after eight months away in school died after 8 pm and the poor girl was still far away in Ogun State, not at all within the approaches of Lagos.
“Our journey was smooth only for a brief moment from Enugu Park to 9th Mile. From here, as soon as we hit Enugu-Onitsha Road, we began to crawl and for a journey that would ordinarily last for two hours, we spent close to four hours. That was where and how our travail started.
“To make things worse, our vehicle broke down immediately we left Benin approaching Ore where the road was also terrible. We were trans-loaded to another bus and the new bus was not any better. Almost every step of the way after Ore, it was a slow, bumpy journey. But our experience on Enugu-Onitsha Road remains the worst,” Chukwu narrated to BDSUNDAY.
Peter Adiukwu is a driver with one of the big transport companies on East-West route. Last Sunday, Adiukwu left Umuahia in Abia State in the morning and reached his company’s bus station in Lagos by 10pm. “As at 5pm, I was already in Lagos at Berger Junction where construction is going on,” he said, predicting that travelling for this year’s Christmas would be a nightmare for Easterners.
According to him, there was no single good road in the whole South East and Abia State has the worst roads network in the region. “I wonder what the governors of the South East states are doing even if the federal government has turned blind eyes to federal roads in that of the country,” he said.
Virtually all federal roads in the five south eastern states are in utter ruin, making traveling within the region an ordeal. Painfully, vehicular movement in the east is never smooth. It is all skidding experience that often leaves vehicles and their owners in terrible state. It is either the bad roads send one to a mechanic or to a doctor or both. In extreme cases, the roads send people to early graves.
Whether it is a bumpy ride on Enugu-Onitsha or Enugu-Port Harcourt, Aba-Owerri, Aba-Port Harcourt, Aba-Umuahia, etc, the truth is that no federal road in the zone is in good condition. Efforts made to effect some changes have not yielded the desired result.
“But it seems the harder the push, the more adamant are those who grant the favour. Daily, the people struggle to maintain some level of sanity on the highly accident-prone roads. Reports show an accident rate of between five to seven deaths daily on these roads,” says Ejike Anyaduba, a public affairs analyst.
The deterioration of the roads has now reached critical stage where people can no longer understand why they should still be paying tax to the government. Temper is running high because people’s patience, like a taut muscle, has been stretched to its limit.
“What is more, everybody in authority is now an accursed of the people. Even the sane minds, blinded by anger and frustration, find it rather difficult to make a clear distinction on who to blame on the matter,” Anyaduba noted.
It was in the face of all these that the federal government, on August 24 this year, closed down the Akanu Ibiam International Airport Enugu, deceiving the people into believing that it would start the reconstruction of the airport’s runway immediately and complete it by December this year.
Despite his being “aware of the central nature of the airport”, President Muhamadu Buhari did not, until Thursday this week, 54 days after, approve the N10 billion requested for the repair of the airport.
The president’s approval was made known via his Twitter handle where he stated, “I have approved the sum of N10 billion for an intervention fund for the upgrade of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu. I have the assurance of the Minister of Aviation that the work will be done speedily and to the highest standards.
“Even as we have many items competing for our limited resources, we will continue to prioritise infrastructure investments in every part of the country. It is our responsibility to ensure Nigeria’s infrastructure is fixed; we will keep doing this,” the president assured.
For those at the corridors of power, what the president has done deserves applause, but Adiukwu is neither impressed nor amused. “The closure of the airport at a time when all the federal roads in the whole of South East are in deplorable condition speaks volumes about the underlying intentions,” he said.
Continuing, he said, “Besides the poor state of the roads, this action was taken at a time when insecurity in the region was at its peak. There were cases of kidnapping while herdsmen were busy killing everybody and everybody, including a Reverend Father in Enugu.
“The delay in starting work on the airport meant that the federal government did not attach importance to the security situation in that region. I may be wrong but I thought that given the importance of that airport to the entire region, the federal government would have given the repair quick attention,” Adiukwu said.
The South East travelers should really brace up for the worst during the Yultide season. The airport repair was supposed to begin in August and be completed in December. The delay in getting approval for the release of fund has just happened at the middle of October and approval does not always translate to release of the fund.
It follows that the completion of the repair work may be somewhere in March next year. This is just part of the grand scheme to marginalize and emasculate a people; unfortunately in this country, we play politics with everything, including the safety of life.
“Before Abuja airport was closed for repair, it was not only that fund was approved expeditiously for the work, Kaduna Airport which is the nearest to Abuja was upgraded so that Northern and other travelers could land there and commute by road to Abuja,” Adiukwu said.
“Owerri Airport is the best alternative airport to Enugu; we had expected that, at least, the roads connecting the two states should have been rehabilitated and made motorable before Enugu Airport would be closed. That was not done and so, we are being subjected to the pain and stress of traveling on road,” he added.
But when one blames the federal government for the neglect of the South East, there is also need to pause and ponder on what the governments and governors of the five states in the region are doing to better the lives of their people.
Given the business enterprise of their people, these states are supposed to form a formidable economic bloc that will be the envy of other states of the federation. Nothing stops the region from developing itself, if anything, the roads infrastructure to ensure seamless connectivity of towns and communities as the first step towards integration and shared prosperity.
“Conscious of the security situation in the region, nothing stops the governors of the five states from approaching the federal government with a view to partnering with them to hasten the repair of the airport. Yes, they would be doing that for all Nigerians, but more for the south-easterners,”, Pius Ekeoma, a social commentator, said.
Unlike governors in other parts of the country who come together when the need arises to defend their regions, South East governors are always indifferent, giving them away as people that lack touch with their people.
“The Southeast governors do not behave like true Igbo people. They act in ways that betray their conscience and portray them as self-serving and selfish,” said Mbazulike Amechi, frontline nationalist and first republic minister of aviation, adding, “men must be men; our governors are not acting like true Igbo people.”
Amechi spoke the minds of many Igbo people at home and abroad. It is a view generally held by Igbos and their friends that the South Eastern region has the potential to become whatever it wants to be. That it only demands the commitment of its leaders to develop the region, especially providing good roads network and building world-class markets.
“It does not matter how small they start. With that, they will start changing the narrative and the pitiable plight of their people in the larger society called Nigeria. If Igbo travelers have started sleeping on the road when Christmas is not yet in sight, what will happen when the road becomes very congested and don’t forget that it will be worse this year because a lot of people are not going to go by air,” Adiukwu lamented.
