TRANSPORT: Reducing Road Carnage in Nigeria

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Nov 21 2002 (IPS) - Every year, when Christmas is approaching, the Nigerian Road Safety Commission launches campaigns for road users throughout the vast West African country.

The commission hopes to reduce accidents on the road when city dwellers travel home for Christmas and the New Year.

Kayode Olagunju, who heads the Lagos branch of the Commission, has urged drivers to take it easy in the run-up to the festivities.

In neighbouring Ogun State, drivers have also been urged to exercise caution on the road.

Analysts say it is not the fault of drivers, or over speeding, overloading, or mechanical faults, but poor network of roads that are littered with potholes and gullies.

The total length of Nigeria’s highways is 194,394 kilometres, out of which the paved portion, mostly bituminous surface treatment, is 60,068 kilometres, including 1,194 kilometres of expressways. Unpaved road measures around 134,326 kilometres.

The roads are so bad that a journey between Lagos and Benin – with a distance of about 320 kilometres, which should take less than three hours – now takes more than five hours. From Lagos to Ibadan, a short distance of about 141 kilometres, also takes almost two hours.

‘’When the late General (Sani) Abacha’s regime privatised the 26 tollgates erected on the expressways, we were told that the money collected would be used to repair roads. The toll is still being collected but right in front of the Ogere tollgate, on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, is a very deep pothole cutting right across one section of the dual carriageway,” says Dele Akinwunmi, a passenger.

He says motorists veer onto the other lane to avoid causing damage to their vehicles. ‘’It is really an eyesore. Millions of Naira are collected every month, but the government or whoever is responsible for collecting the money is deliberately refusing to repair the damaged portion of the road,” he says.

Biodun Lawal, who commutes between Benin and Lagos, has described the expressway as a death trap.

‘’It is a death trap. Many lives have been lost due to accidents caused by potholes and undulating portions which throw careless drivers off the road into the deep gullies on the sides of the expressway,” says Lawal.

The poor stretch of the expressway, especially on the Benin-Lagos road, have become safe haven for armed bandits who ambush motorists, who drive at snail’s speed to avoid causing damage to their vehicles and accidents, especially at night.

President Olusegun Obasanjo, too, is not happy about the state of the Nigerian roads.

‘’If I should say the truth, I will say I am indeed ashamed of the deplorable state of our roads. I believe there is a lot to do on our roads. We have ignored the aspects of maintenance and repairs and that is responsible for the state of the roads across the country,” said Obasanjo, during a meeting in his hometown, Abeokuta, recently.

He complained that a bill he had sent to the National Assembly, about 10 months ago, to set up an agency to handle road maintenance, has yet to be debated.

‘’Without an agency to handle roads maintenance, it would be very difficult to hold anyone responsible for the deplorable conditions of our roads,” he said.

The government said it had spent a whopping 200 billion Naira (about two billion U.S. dollars) on the construction and rehabilitation of roads between 1999 and 2001.

Garba Ali, Junior Minister of Works and Housing, says the government was committed to providing good network of roads for movement and services. He says passengers rely heavily on road transportation as a result of the collapse of the rail system.

Drivers – from the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers – have threatened to go on strike, or boycott Nigeria’s ‘’killer roads”.

‘’It amounts to fraud when government collects money and tolls and does not use it for the purpose it was meant for. Government should either stop the collection of tolls or maintain the roads,” says Joseph Akinlaja, General Secretary of the Union.

Jerry Gana, Minister of Information and Orientation, told journalists in Abuja, the administrative capital of Nigeria, in August that the rehabilitation of the Lagos-Benin road has been awarded to an Italian construction company at the cost of 1.7 billion Naira (about 17 million U.S. dollars).

But, local drivers, who ply the highway, claim that work has not yet begun.

‘’I passed through the road last week and I have not seen any sign of work. The contractors are not even on sight and the only noticeable thing is that gravel has been dumped on some spots. But because of rain and heavy vehicles, the gravel has been pushed into the muddy soil and some motorists have to push their damaged vehicles across the bad portions,” says Philip Areh, who travels to Benin every month to visit his family.

‘’I do not know why government decided to award a contract for such an important road to unknown contractor. Christmas is just around the corner, when traffic on the route will more than double, and yet nothing has been done to correct the state of the road. It is not just speed or overloading or carelessness that causes accident on our highways, potholes and gullies on the highway are also to blame,” says Areh.

Statistics, compiled by the Federal Road Safety Commission, show that 7,769 people were killed – in 12,954 road accidents – during 2001. The figure indicates an increase of 1,174 or 28 percent against 6,055 recorded – in 11,788 road accidents – in 2000.

Worried by the state of the Nigerian roads, the House of Representatives Tuesday overwhelmingly adopted a motion calling for a probe into the activities of the Ministry of Works and Housing from 1999, when the Obasanjo administration came to power.

The minister, Tony Anenih, will appear before an ad-hoc committee to be constituted by the House over the manner in which budgetary allocations to the ministry were spent since 1999.

The government has announced that it has spent 300 billion Naira (3 billion U.S. dollars) on road repairs since May 1999.

Mohammed Kumalia, an outspoken legislator, says the ministry has not demonstrated sufficient efficiency, in spite of the more than 43 billion Naira (430 million U.S. dollars) released to it in the 2002 budget.

TRANSPORT: Reducing Road Carnage in Nigeria

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Nov 21 2002 (IPS) - Every year, when Christmas is approaching, the Nigerian Road Safety Commission launches campaigns for road users throughout the vast West African country.
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