Sonnie Ekwowusi
17 November 2009
analysis
Lagos — We cannot over-dramatize it. Perhaps it is by over-dramatizing it or exaggerating it that wisdom will eventually prevail in the matter. We cannot simply wish it away either.
In fact no matter how we try to wish it away the nightmare continues to steer us in the face. Except you choose to fly to and fro Benin all the time, but even at that you are still directly or indirectly affected by the veritable nightmare- the untold vehicular traffic jam along the Benin-Ore highway.
Just last week I encountered the same nightmare. For hours and hours we were held up along the highway. Faced with the intractable vehicular traffic jam along the highway, countless commercial vehicles and rickety trailers started veering off the highway into the neigbouring villages in a bid to make the much-needed diversion that would see them out of the nightmare. But unfortunately we got trapped in one of the villages. One rickety trailer had fallen across the village path thus blocking it completely and making it impossible for our vehicle and other vehicles to find their way. Bowing to pressures from edgy passengers, out driver made a quick detour but before we knew it, we found ourselves in one closed alley. No further movement. As I watched I saw endless queues of motionless commercial vehicles and trailers that had entered the village. One after the other, the village area boys started coming out from their hideouts to extort money from the motorists.
A hot argument ensued in our Edegbe Toyota bus. First the driver wanted to calm us down with a home video. In deference to Nollywood star Nkem Owoh (Osuofia London) who had been kidnapped, one passenger suggested we skipped watching any home video film. Other passengers counter-protested. At the end, the driver slotted in an English movie. Next, the Bini man coming home after a long sojourn in the United States said that former the Governor of Edo State, Lucky Igbinedion was the most useless State Governor on earth. "Look, I am a U.S citizen. My wife is in the States. All my children are schooling in the States. I have lived in Texas , California , Florida , New Jersey , New York . I have never seen nothing anywhere of this sort where a sitting Governor can misappropriate all that belongs to the people", he said. No sooner had he finished than three Bini passengers challenged him to a battle of proverbs and wits in raw Bini language. Apparently feeling offended by the remark made by the returnee, one passenger hurled insult at him. "God punished your father", he said. Springing to his feet as if he was about to give the man a blow, the returnee responded: "god of thunder punish your father, your mother, your grandfather, your grand mother". By this time the bus air-conditioner had stopped working. We were sweating profusely. Hours and hours rolled past. When the pathway finally opened up we got to Benin very later in the evening. A journey from Lagos to Benin that ordinarily should last for three to four hours lasted for about 10 hours.
It beats the imagination why the government hardly appreciates the urgency in fixing the Benin-Ore Expressway. The point has been made over and over again in the last seven years or so that the Benin-Ore expressway is a nerve gateway that needs to be fixed urgently. Instead of moving in quickly and fixing the busy highway, we are constantly being entertained with one rhetoric or the other on how best to get the highway fixed. Shortly after the former Works Minister Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke shed tears on the highway, we all thought that the Federal government was finally going to re-construct the highway. But regrettably till date the highway is still in a very bad shape.
It is sad that most of our federal highways have not only become impassable these days, but have become veritable death traps. It is even sadder upon the realization that most of the fatal accidents on our federal highways are avoidable accidents. As I said earlier, it is difficult to understand why the government doesn't readily appreciate the urgency in fixing our federal highways. All what the government does is to make promises. But promises are not enough. We want action not sweet words. We are tired of hearing unfulfilled promises regarding the fixing of these highways. The federal government should re-order its priorities to include the regular maintenance of our highways. To be sure, the regular maintenance of the country's highways is the key to any meaningful development in Nigeria . Therefore the Yar'Adua government must act now and fix the Benin-Ore highways before Christmas. Come to think of it there is no big deal about fixing these highways. What is required is political will, sincerity and dogged commitment to duty. If the Lagos State government can reconstruct many roads in Lagos within such a short period, why can't the federal government, with its federal might, fix our federal highways?
But as I said on this page three weeks ago, we cannot continue to wait endlessly for a Federal government that may never come. Therefore we need to help ourselves. What stops the Ondo State government, for example, from commissioning some idle workers to fill up the potholes encumbering the highway? Why can't the State Governors, politicians and regular users of the highway get up and do something no matter how small. Christmas 2009 is around the corner. Many holiday makers would soon start traveling on the highway. With the present poor condition of the highway, it is not unlikely that many Christmas travelers would be trapped there or might be killed in multiple car accidents along the highway. Not to imagine the number of Christmas travelers who would be waylaid and robbed on the bad spots of the highway. So let the potholes along the Benin-Ore highway be covered to at least make it motorable before Christmas 2009. Human lives are precious. Therefore we have to fix the highway now to save human lives. The recent Umunya road carnage which claimed about 70 lives would have been avoided if the ditches that encumbered the Enugu-Onitsha highways were covered.
Then we have to do something to curtail the extortionist excesses of our highway police. I hope the new Inspector General of Police is thinking in this direction. He should try to rid the Force of these corrupt highway policemen bringing shame to the Nigeria Police. The police ought to be the friends of motorists and commuters. They should be willing to help accidents victims along the major highways. They should also be willing to assist in directing traffic and putting order along our Expressways.
We have to learn to put first things first. The first thing is that Vision 2020 or such flamboyant project is not the first thing. The first thing, for me, is in getting the Benin-Ore Expressway fixed or in fixing the country's electricity. Those still obsessed with this re-branding thing should try to understand that little things can make or mar a country. Nigeria may be beautiful, but if those little blemishes which disfigure her face are not promptly removed her beauty may hardly shine out for all to see. For example, the criminal activities of a few scoundrels in one small Cyber Cafe could rubbish the image of Nigeria . In the same vein, if our federal highways are left to rot away with little or no maintenance on them, how would foreigners appreciate the greatness of Nigeria?
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
