The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Bad roads

  • Bad roads and their toll on our economy

    Bad roads and their toll on our economy

    Sir: Drive anywhere in Nigeria, and it won’t take you long to find evidence of a broken system: cracked highways, cratered city streets, and rural roads that are somehow impassable. For decades, the conversation around bad roads has centred on inconvenience and traffic. But there’s a deeper and less talked-about consequence, and this is the toll these bad roads are taking on our economy.

    Road transportation remains the backbone of commerce in Nigeria, and over 90% of goods and passengers are moved by roads, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Yet, many of these roads are in poor condition, making delivery times slow, increasing fuel costs, and the lifespan of vehicles drops dramatically. So, who pays for this inefficiency? The consumers, business owners, and the government all lose in different ways albeit.

    A 2022 report by the World Bank estimated that Nigeria loses about $1 billion annually due to poor road infrastructure. This includes losses from increased travel times, higher vehicle operating costs, and goods damaged in transit. Can a developing economy afford such a loss year after year? Especially when capital budgets are shrinking and inflation is rising? This and is clearly NO.

    Let’s even consider the agricultural sector. Farmers in Benue or Taraba often struggle to get their produce to markets in Lagos or Port Harcourt due to inaccessible rural roads. And the result of that is definitely food waste. The Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute even estimates that up to 40% of food produced in the country never reaches the final consumer, largely due to transportation and logistics challenges. Isn’t this concerning, particularly for a country not free from food shortage?

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    In urban areas, the economic cost translates to lost productivity. Workers spend hours in traffic jams caused by bad roads. This isn’t just about time, it’s about GDP. How many work hours are lost daily due to roads that were either poorly constructed or left unrepaired for decades? How much value is drained from the economy by this everyday inefficiency?

    We need to talk about inaction. The federal and state governments often announce ambitious road projects, but completion rates remain low. According to BudgIT’s 2023 report on capital projects, over 50% of road projects funded between 2015 and 2022 were either abandoned or under-delivered. Yet mouth-watering amount were budgeted for these roads. At this point accountability should not be elusive in such a critical sector.

    To surmise, fixing Nigeria’s roads is not just a matter of convenience, it’s an economic imperative. The country’s future competitiveness depends on how efficiently goods, services, and people can move. Shall we continue to tolerate the quiet economic sabotage that these bad roads inflict, or will we finally see infrastructure as the foundation of growth it truly is?

    •Babatunde Yusuf, maplebyautos@gmail.com

  • Bad roads

    Bad roads

    • Nigerians should take advantage of dedicated phone lines to report to govt

    Whether or not they like President Bola Tinubu’s order to rehabilitate federal roads across the country, Nigerians should, at least, be glad that they now have dedicated lines through which to report bad roads to the government.

    Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, said in a press statement last week that the president was not unaware of the dilapidated road infrastructure that he inherited on his assumption of office on May 29. He added that he had directed that the roads, which spread across all parts of the country, be fixed for easier and smoother movement of men and goods, and also to save man-hours lost on the roads.

    The roads in question include the Makurdi-Nsukka 9th Mile Road, East West Road, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Benin Bypass Road, collapsed bridges of Enugu- Port Harcourt Road, Abuja-Kaduna- Zaria-Kano Road and Gombe- Bauchi Road, among others.

    According to Umahi, President Tinubu has approved N300bn supplementary budget for the ministry this fiscal year, out of which N100bn is for palliative works on federal roads across the country and N200bn is for continuation of inherited ongoing projects and a few new but critical road projects.

    We do not envy the Tinubu administration, especially with the funding gap of over ¦ 6 trillion from most of the inherited on-going road projects in the country. But the good thing, as the minister noted, is that the president has decided to take the gauntlet rather than wring his hands in frustration. Nigerians did not elect him to offer excuses; they did so because they trusted in his capacity to deliver.

    The dedicated numbers to call with regard to monitoring of the roads are: 08030986263, 08037086137, or 08106423197. According to the minister, Nigerians should feel free to photograph and report all poorly constructed roads through the dedicated phone lines. “The Federal Ministry of Works will document such reports, verify and take effective action to correct such infractions”, the minister added.

    This is an opportunity for Nigerians to say something when they see something, particularly concerning federal roads in the country. It is a good opportunity that they should grab with both hands.

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    We commend the government for this initiative. It is equally heartwarming that the minister promised that action would be taken on such genuine complaints received. We however want to see this in action because our problem is usually not about lack of good initiatives but in putting them into practice.

    We are however uncomfortable with the idea that “The Federal Ministry of Works shall also periodically recognise publicly those who made such reports that are genuine in a public engagement forum to be hosted quarterly by the Federal Ministry of Works”. This proviso may put off some people who are only interested in performing their civic responsibility without expecting any form of reward or recognition. The right of such people to anonymity should be respected while erring contractors involved should be publicly sanctioned.

    For far too long, many contractors have taken Nigerians for a ride. They collect money for projects that they never intended to start not to talk of finishing. Many deliver sub-standard projects after greasing the palms of government officials, who in turn certify the projects as having been delivered to specification.

    In all of these, Nigerians are the losers.

     Roads are too important social infrastructure to be abandoned. The Federal Government must walk its talk on these vital assets.

  • Why we’re filling up bad roads by cripple and friend

    They are partners, one a cripple and the other, able-bodied; and their job is to fill up bad spots on the Badagry axis of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, for gratification from appreciative motorists. Simeon Akusu spent time with them.

    MUHAMMED is a disable young Nigerian who has refused to be liability onto himself and community. Together with his unemployed partner, Hamusat Ibrahim, he has decided to impact on his environment in his own way, making up for the almighty federal government, where it is visibly failing.

    Though of Northern Nigerian origin, but resident in the Muwo/Badagry axis of Lagos, Muhammed, a cripple and his partner, Hamusat, have over the past months taken it upon themselves to fix the dangerous potholes and craters that liter the now collapsed Lagos-Badagry Expressway. In effect, they have eased the headache of motorists and passengers on that axis. In return, the beneficiaries have reciprocated in cash, dropping them naira bills of various denominations, which have in turn become daily earnings and means of survival for the men.

    And this, they have been doing with mere sands, broken stones and shovels.

    Speaking with The Nation, Muhammed said the idea was birthed during the rainy season when they usually pack sand from road side and distribute to people whose home, shop or street suffer erosion. Most times, all they needed were sacks for bagging the sand, shovels and a wheelbarrow. It was from there that they graduated to filling up bad spots on the busy highway.

    According to some commercial vehicle drivers spoken to, the two men started the exercise around June 2018. Semiu, a commercial bus driver who plies Mile2 to Badagry said, “The guys probably devised this method, when they realised that begging for alms was no longer lucrative. I think they started working on the express about 10 months ago, when they realised that demand for their previous service of filling up erosion spots was no longer in high demand and people were no longer giving alms like in the past. But people appreciate their present vocation, and road users, both private and commercial, reciprocate by giving them stipends.”

    When asked how they learnt to fill the road so well and what challenges they face, Muhammed said, they didn’t need any real training to fill the roads other than to just make them passable for commuters, “We really don’t need any training or experience; we just fill the road to make it passable for vehicles.”

    His partner, Hamusat, however said the major challenge they are facing is the police. “Most times, the police come to stop us, but we don’t give up, because we know we’re not committing any crime and what we’re doing is beneficial and may even save lives.

    “Because we work in the sun, sometimes, we develop fever. That is the only other challenge, but we take care of that with agbo (herb mixtures) and get stronger.”

    Another thing that this reporter observed is that the two men hardly stay in one place. On finishing with a spot, they move further up to another bad spot and another. Sometimes, the rain comes and wash off their effort at spots they had already worked on, and they move back to fill it up again.

    Just as one began to wonder if the men have any relationship or filial commitment, one of them picked a phone call and this reporter soon overheard the familiar Hausa word for spouse, yanrinyan. Asked if he is married or in a relationship, he smiled and nodded slowly. “I have a wife and kids. That is why I work tirelessly to put food on their table. That’s why I take so much risk,” he said.

    However, with the recent moving of heavy road construction equipment to MTN/Mosafejo area of the expressway and bits of grading taking place, it looks like these gentlemen may in months be out of work. The rumour is that the government has awarded contracts for repair of the road.

    What then would be their means of livelihood? This reporter asked.

    “Until then,” Muhammed said, shrugging his shoulders, “we’ll keep doing what we’re doing.”

  • Protest rocks Anambra over bad roads

    The Recover Nigeria Project (RNP), in conjunction with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and National Union of Nigerian Students (NANS) yesterday shut the Enugu/Onitsha expressway to protest the incessant deaths due to bad road.

    The group leader, Comrade Osita Obi, who addressed reporters, said the group decided on the protest to let the government know the rate of deaths on the road.

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    He said: “This is just a small portion, which will not take 50 bags of cement, some stones and workers to fix, but it has remained like this for years, and many people have died on this spot. The governor uses this road, senators and top politicians from Anambra and beyond all use this road, yet they pretend not to see the rot on this spot.

    “Just yesterday, I was almost hit by an articulated vehicle here, and several accidents had happened here within the week. We cannot continue to fold our hands.”

    Obi called on the state and Federal governments to start work on the failed portion, saying failure to heed the plea would lead him and his group to return for a bigger protest.

  • Protest rocks Anambra over bad roads

    The Recover Nigeria Project (RNP), in conjunction with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and National Union of Nigerian Students (NANS) yesterday shut the Enugu/Onitsha expressway to protest the incessant deaths due to bad road.

    The group leader, Comrade Osita Obi, who addressed reporters, said the group decided on the protest to let the government know the rate of deaths on the road.

    He said: “This is just a small portion, which will not take 50 bags of cement, some stones and workers to fix, but it has remained like this for years, and many people have died on this spot. The governor uses this road, senators and top politicians from Anambra and beyond all use this road, yet they pretend not to see the rot on this spot.

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    “Just yesterday, I was almost hit by an articulated vehicle here, and several accidents had happened here within the week. We cannot continue to fold our hands.”

    Obi called on the state and Federal governments to start work on the failed portion, saying failure to heed the plea would lead him and his group to return for a bigger protest.

    Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU), Nnamdi Azikiwe University chapter, Steve Ubaro, who also mobilised his members for the protest, said a professor was in an accident on the road while returning from work.

  • Terminal operators: bad roads, traffic killing ports

    Bad roads and the menacing Apapa gridlock are frustrating operations at the nation’s seaports, the Chairman, Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), Princess Vicky Haastrup, has said.

    She said the situation is a monumental national disgrace, lamenting that it is frustrating operations at the ports.  She said terminal operators were working under the harshest business environment, despite the huge investments they have made towards the development of the ports, wondering why successive governments  allowed the port access roads to degenerate until they became impassable.

    She said: “The situation in Apapa, particularly as it relates to access to the port is a monumental national disgrace. How can a sector that has such huge potential and that generates billions of naira for government be left to so degenerate? Government is looking for oil but we have a sector that has the capacity to give you all the revenue you need yet the sector is suffering. Why has it not been attended to?”

    The STOAN chief said the large number of tank farms located within Apapa has also compounded the chaotic gridlock, while more licenses are still being issued to new tank farm owners.

    She also urged the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing to urgently reopen the bridge exiting Apapa at Leventis/Area B, which has been shut down for several months without any visible sign of work being carried out on it.

    “Without reopening that bridge, the inflow and outflow of trucks will remain a major challenge in Apapa,” she said.

    Also speaking, the Africa Communication Manager of Maersk, Augustine Fischer, said the poor condition of roads in and out of the Apapa area remains a major blight on port operations in the country.

    He said the two seaports in Lagos handle more than 60 per cent of goods imported into country. While the volume of cargoes imported into the country has been on the rise —increasing from about 35 million metric tons (mmts) in 2006 to more than 80 mmts 12 years later —the roads through which these goods are taken out of the ports to their final destinations have gone from bad to worse.

    “The poor road condition coupled with lack of parking lot for trucks and proliferation of tank farms in Apapa, means these trucks have to spend days – sometimes as much as 10 days – to cover a short distance of less than five kilometre to enter the port to drop off, or take delivery of cargo.

    “The resultant effect is a backlog of cargoes at the port. Cargoes that should ordinarily exit the port within three days after discharge from the ship could remain in the port for as long as 21 days, waiting for trucks.

    “The best solution to the Apapa traffic congestion is to fix the roads and seek alternatives to cargo evacuation. The port has increased in efficiency and capacity but the port access roads have deteriorated progressively since they were built,” Fischer said.

    He said while the Federal Government is working to address the road condition especially as it affects the Wharf Road, which is the major road leading into the Apapa Port, and has also flagged off repair of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, there is need for some immediate short-term measures to address the plight of commuters and ensure free flow of traffic on the roads.

    The short-term measures that government can take to address the gridlock, he said, include fixing alternative roads, such as the Leventis road, “which many now rely on to exit the port city”.

    Also speaking on the gridlock, the General Manager,  PTML Terminal, Tin Can Island Port Complex, Tunde Keshinro, said: “As Nigerians, we all know that for our ports to attain the desired efficiency, the roads need to be at that great and functional level, which unfortunately is not so.”

  • Former VC attributes accidents to bad roads

    Pioneer Vice Chancellor of the Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED), Prof. Kayode Oyesiku, has attributed most of the road crashes in the country to bad roads.

    Oyesiku said this at the 3rd annual Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE) conference held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

    He said road crashes were also caused by abandoned road projects.

    Oyesiku cited the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway as an example of a major highway that had been under construction for about eight years.

    He said the majority of fatal crashes recorded on highways  within Lagos and Ogun states were caused at diversions where construction was ongoing.

    He urged the governments to always ensure the prompt release of funds for road construction.

    The don advised the Federal Government to encourage rail transportation to reduce pressure on the roads and make them durable.

    The TRACE Corps Commander, Abdulfatai Olaseni Ogunyemi, said “the conference is a platform to generate ideas, fashion out ways, strategies, techniques to rebrand and reposition the corps towards curbing all forms of indiscipline and menaces causing crashes on the roads”.

    He said the exercise should be a platform expected to equip the middle level officers with the requisite know-how to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness.

    He said: “TRACE was established by an enabling law of the state House of Assembly as the government traffic agency saddled with the responsibility of ensuring safer roads for the users within the state”.

    He said the corps personnel had been from time to time exposed to different levels of training, retraining, capacity building, workshops and seminars aimed  at bringing about professionalism that would guarantee effective service delivery.

  • Ogun communities protest bad roads

    Anti-government protests erupted yesterday at industrial areas of Atan, Agbara and Igbesa in Ogun State.

    Residents, small business operators and community leaders marched on the streets over the deplorable state of roads in their communities.

    The protesters, in their hundreds, said they could no longer live with the worsening roads, following alleged negligence by the state government.

    They also accused the state government of deliberately inflicting havoc on them and their socio-economic activities by abandoning the road repairs in the area.

    The angry protesters, who were at the Lusada junction of Agbara Road, also carried placards with various inscriptions, such as: “Let our tax deduction count, give us good roads”; “Osinbajo, save Agbara/Igbesa/Lusada”; “Bad road is aiding insecurity in our communities” and “No good roads, no massive votes in 2019.”

    The communities said they had been suffering untold hardship due to bad roads for nearly a decade.

    According to them, the last palliative measures on their access roads were carried out by the State Road Maintenance Agency (OGROMA) under Gbenga Daniel’s administration.

    The Otunba Amona of Igbesa, Chief Adewunmi Durojaiye, who spoke on behalf of the protesters, accused the state and Federal governments of insensitivity to their plight.

    The community leader threatened to ensure that there would no votes for the government, if the roads were not fixed soon.

    Durojaiye regretted that despite the fact that the areas generate about 85 per cent of the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), the zone remained largely neglected in the provision of socio-economic infrastructure.

    The Igbesa chief alleged that industries in the area were relocating to Sagamu due to the bad condition of the roads.

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    He said: “This is a warning protest and we are here because of the deplorable condition of the roads. The state government is trying to relocate all the companies to somewhere in Sagamu.

    “This is a 15-kilometre road to Atan that the government cannot do. This government is deceitful. They came here in 2015 with caterpillars when the election was coming with a promise to build the roads, if they were re-elected. But as soon as they got our votes, they abandoned the project.

    “There are no good roads here, where they get the large chunk of their revenue. But they are constructing 10 lanes from Abeokuta to Sagamu. How do you explain that? It is unthinkable and unacceptable. Therefore, our clarion call to government is to fix our roads.”

    Also, the president of the youths, Comrade Jide Aina, threatened total shutdown of the roads, if the government fails to begin construction work on it in the next one month.

     

     

  • FESTAC residents cry out to Fashola over bad roads

    Festival Town Residents Association (FTRA) has appealed to the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, to include rehabilitation of the roads across the federal housing unit in the 2019 budget so that the Federal Housing Authority in FESTAC can have a pool where rehabilitation and construction of roads within the estate can be taken care of.

    Speaking with journalists recently, president of FTRA, Shola Fakorede, said that residents in the town have continued to groan under years of neglect of their roads by the federal and Lagos State governments.

    He stressed that most of the roads have been abandoned since 1977 when FESTAC Town was built and are increasingly becoming a night mare for most residents in the area.

    He noted that FESTAC suffers from a terrific abandonment by the governments. “There are no functional infrastructures. Public infrastructures that still exist are in appalling conditions. Notable of these infrastructures are the network of roads,” Fakorede said.

    He asserted that driving on the roads in FESTAC are very bumpy and unpleasant expeditions – no thanks to the various roads there that are replete with crater-size potholes, eroded road surfaces and collapsed portions of some roads.

    He posited that the entire roads in the community, as well as basic infrastructure in the community, are completely in deplorable conditions and urgently need the quick intervention of the federal, Lagos State government and the local government.

    He noted that although FESTAC Town is being managed by the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), it is very obvious that FHA is handicapped by funds to provide the infrastructural developmental needs in the area.

    Fakorede disclosed that the resident association has held several meetings with FHA and the challenges they have are huge, adding that the agencies cannot do anything on their own and more worrisome is that fact that there are no provision for them in the budget to take care of their infrastructural needs.

    Fakorede said that “as the resident association, we have spent ¦ 88 million to repair some of the bad roads and built a convent for the people. We cannot do all the roads, we are paying ground rents every year to the Federal Housing Authority and is incumbent on them, the state government and the local government to help repair the bad roads.”

    He claimed that the association has written to some of the private organisations in FESTAC to carry out their social responsibility but they have not yielded to its call, adding that the association will begin to picket those organisations until they see the need to help at this crucial hour of need.

     

     

  • Ijede residents appeal to LASG to repair bad road

    The council of chiefs and residents of Ijede, have appealed to the Lagos State Government to repair all the bad roads in the community.

    They made the appeal in an interview with our reporter, on Thursday at Ijede Palace in Lagos.

    The Regent of Ijede, Chief Aliu Musediku, said the deplorable state of the road had adversely affected economic activities in the community, especially the only road that connects the community to the city.

    According to the Regent, the condition of the road has also led to the rising rate of auto crashes experienced by commuters coming and going out of the community.

    “We want the state government to help us repair the roads, if you want to go from here to the metropolis you will spend at least three hours on the road due to its deplorable condition.

    “Sometimes, while the drivers are trying to avoid potholes, accidents are caused in the process.

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    “When the present government led by Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode, came into power, we wrote to him concerning the road and he promised to repair it, up till now nothing has been done to alleviate the sufferings of our people, ” the Regent said.

    Chief Musediku explained that the deplorable state of roads had also discouraged some of the residents from doing business and some had relocated from the community to other areas.

    Mr Taiwo Oredoyin, a resident of the community, commended the state government for its efforts on road construct but urged them to prioritise major roads linking one community to the other.

    Mr Wasiu Ogundeyin, a commercial driver, said that the deplorable condition of the road had damaged their vehicles; a development he noted which made the drivers to spend unnecessary money in the repair of their vehicles.

    He added that the bad roads were the major cause of traffic gridlock in the area, and there was an urgent need to address the problem, while commending the state government for work done so far.

    “Ambode has performed but we urge him to do more because that is the only way the people can enjoy the dividends of democracy,” he said.