Misery on the way to East

…As check-points compound travellers’ woes

It is Christmas, just a few days away. Expectedly, Nigeria and Nigerians will be joining the rest of Christendom to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ who, we are told, was born over 2000 years ago not just as Our Saviour, but also as the Prince of Peace.

The celebration means so many things to so many people. To some, it means a period of merriment, rest from the toils of 12 months of the year. To yet some others, it means getting nearer to God the Creator, hence the numerous church activities by both the orthodox and Pentecostal faithful during this period.

However, for the Igbos in the South Eastern part of Nigeria, Christmas means much more. In the whole of Nigeria and even beyond, this is the most itinerant race. Their young men, who are reputed for their industry, enterprise and ingenuity, are hardly at home. They are resident in every part of the country.

Christmas period, therefore, is a good one for them. They love Christmas and also love to celebrate it at home with their relations and loved ones. For them, it does seem that whoever misses celebrating Christmas in the East has missed out on life’s pleasures.

Beyond the pleasures, the Igbos love to have other engagements like marriages, title taking and burial ceremonies. Christmas provides a good time for these engagements which draw them home like the nectar draws the butterflies to flowers. The urge to travel for all these is almost irresistible.

This is also a good period for Igbos to discuss and carry out community projects such as building schools, hospitals, churches, among others. On their part, young men and women use the time to seek prospective life partners.

For these and other reasons, the Igbos must travel, but the urge and determination to travel are being dented by circumstances that they have to contend with almost helplessly. Apart from the terrible nature of the road and rising insecurity, the uncountable check-points mounted on the major route to the East by security agencies is making travelling to that region a nightmare.

Though these factors are enough to discourage travels, Igbos are still trooping home in large numbers. A visit to Maza-Maza, Jibowu, Ojuelegba, Ojota and other locations and bus stations across the country reveal that these Easterners are on their way home in spite of everything.

At the moment, one-way fare to the east by bus costs more than N35,000, which is over 100 percent more than what it was three months ago. This is an evidence of mass movement to the East for the Yuletide.

But, in an ironic twist, each of these travellers has ugly experiences to share about the countless checkpoints, particularly on Lagos-Benin-Onitsha Road, which is the major artery into the South-East.

“Roadblock and checkpoints mounted by uniformed men on Lagos-Benin-Onitsha Road and beyond are now making the journey to the Southeast stressful and expensive,” Jude Ugwueze, who took his family home from Lagos last Thursday, told BDSunday.

Ugwueze described travelling to the region as “a bouquet of misery heaped on travellers by fellow Nigerians taking advantage of the uniform bought for them with tax payers’ money.”

He further said that it has become a traumatic experience to travel to the Eastern part of Nigeria by road because, in most cases, what used to be 8 to 10-hour journey now takes up to two days before the traveller reaches his or her destination.

David Nwafor, another traveller, confirmed the menace of uniformed men at check points which are not up to a kilometer apart. He said that he lost count of the number of check points on this route, estimating the number between Lagos and Onitsha at 500, if not more.

As if extortion is the sole aim of this embarrassing situation, these checkpoints are more on the East-bound carriageway of this route and each of them takes money from all the commercial buses heading to the East.

“The amount is decided and kept. So, each motorist knows what to give at each point,” Nwafor said.

He recalled an incident when at a point the driver conveying them decided not to part with a kobo any longer because he had exhausted all that he had on him. “That caused considerable delay in our already late journey. So, we as passengers contributed money and gave to the driver to be giving to the security operatives at the checkpoints. It is as bad as that,” he lamented.

Besides the menace of checkpoints, the terrible state of the roads also adds to travelers’ misery as it helps to prolong their journey.

Read also: 20 fun places to spend Christmas in Nigeria on a budget

“Benin Bypass is a nightmare; there is no road here. I wonder what Edo State and the Federal Governments are doing about the suffering on this road. This is 4pm and we are still in Benin when we left Lagos as early as 6.30am. I am afraid we may not get to Onitsha before nightfall and I am heading to Owerri,” Daniel Alado, a Lagos resident going to the East, told BusinessDay on phone.

Alado said he could not get to Owerri that day as he had to sleep over at Onitsha and continued his journey the next day, wasting his time and at the same time incurring extra cost on hotel room and feeding.

Stella Ezike, another traveller from Lagos to the East, recounted an ugly experience, saying that in order to avoid the collapsed bypass, their driver had to take inner roads which did not only prolong their journey, but also exposed them to avoidable risks as their vehicle broke down in the middle of a forest.

“Going to the East or returning from there has become something else. It now takes two days to travel from Lagos to the East because before you reach Onitsha it is already night and to continue the journey does not make sense security-wise,” Ezike said when she spoke with BDSunday.