Yuletide: Fix bad roads instead of building new ones -S/East commuters tell FG

Commuters in Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu have urged the Federal and State governments to prioritise fixing of dilapidated roads instead of building new ones especially as the yuletide is fast approaching.

They made the call in a survey by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the deteriorating state of roads in Nigeria and needs for maintenance.

NAN reports that some spots and portions of Enugu-Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway, the Enugu-Awka-Onitsha Expressway, 9th Mile-Nsukka and 9th Mile-Udi-Oji River-Amansea Old Road among others have failed.

These spots and portions are currently causing traffic gridlocks and carnage of trucks and articulated vehicles conveying goods leading to financial losses and endangering lives of Nigerians that ply on these roads.

Olu Omotayo, President of Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network (CRRAN), told NAN in Enugu that most of the existing old roads within the length and breadth of the country nationwide were near impassable.

Omotayo said that the development discouraged transportation of goods and humans as well as increased cost of goods.

He said, “I cannot get the rationale behind the wisdom of the government to start building new roads, when the existing ones have failed in every part of the country you go.

“One should think that it might be more reasonable to first fix the existing roads our people are using daily before going into building new ones and spending hugely on them”.

A commercial motorist, Jude Onu, appealed to the Federal and state governments to declare a state of emergency on failed roads to ameliorate suffering of Nigerians and save commercial vehicles the daily and continuous wear-and-tear on the roads.”

Cordelia Ukwu, a businesswoman, called on President Bola Tinubu; Minister of Work, David Umahi and Federal Emergency Roads Maintenance Agency to urgently declare emergency palliative repairs on most Federal roads in the state.

Another commercial truck driver, Chisom Ikedife, noted that the bad portions on roads cause trucks and articulated vehicles to burn expensive diesel waiting in traffic gridlocks.

“These failed portions of the Federal Roads, when fixed, will ameliorate hardships we pass through buying very expensive diesel needed to power our trucks,” Ikedife said.