The Nation Newspaper

Tag: potholes

  • Plateau’s politics of potholes

    Sir: On September 17, it was a bright Monday morning in Jos. While passing through the city’s commercial district during the early rush hour, I came across a strange hold up around the British-America junction.

    I started looking for an answer to what might have caused this unusual event on a road plied by not only civil servants and students on a busy day like Monday but also passengers that enter or exit the city centre for various activities including trade.

    To my biggest surprise, I saw a few workers digging potholes (that were later repaired) on the other lane of the road – which they had closed to road users earlier – leaving the antiparallel commuters to use only one lane of the two-way road.

    “How on earth could a busy Monday be the best day of the week to conduct such pothole-patching operations? What happened to weekends – when there are fewer people plying the always-busy road? Why is it that the government was only interested in getting rid of these potholes that have brought much despair to people that ply this important road now?” I thought.

    “Or maybe they haven’t noticed the suffering of passengers and drivers alike that make use of the road on a daily basis?” I kept wondering while looking at the angry faces of students thinking they would be late to school; workers thinking they would be late to work and traders that would also certainly be late to their business endeavours.

    The honking, shouting and yelling of desperate commuters never stopped. People look infuriated at what was unfolding, although they can’t do anything. They just can’t fly to their destinations.

    After my 20 minutes-turned-40minutes tortuous journey, I was eager to come up with answers to my questions. But looking at newly displayed posters and banners of smiling faces along my route and groups of people dancing, singing and waving; I remembered 2019 was along the corner. And as usual, those holier-than-thou politicians that pretend to be caring for the masses during an election period are at it again – I guessed.

    About a year ago, at the height of suffering of communities bedevilled by dust generated from abandoned road project sites, I did write a piece titled “Jos stagnant road projects: ‘Everything is turning red,” highlighting the economic and health effects of dust; after hearing and witnessing the stories of frustrated people who were trying to cope with the new reality of living in a polluted environment, due to the fall-out of laterite used in the rehabilitation of road networks around Jos metropolis.

    In it I argued that, “The once deemed most successful government on the Plateau, headed by All Progressive Congress’ Governor, Simon Bako Lalong, should not throw all its hard work, in the vein of inclusiveness, peace and security, into a trash can over stagnant roads repair and reconstruction, that continue to frustrate affected communities, which many deem as mere political delay tactics.”

    Since February 2017, the awarded contracts for the repairs and reconstruction of major road networks with an average distance of 7 kilometres in “neglected” Jos communities is yet to be achieved. Residents that were rejoicing back when the roads project was commissioned are now nervous and frustrated, as they feel betrayed. They don’t want to witness a repeat of what transpired with the previous administration.

    Fulfilling promises, acting promptly and displaying honesty seems to be the only way the present government on the Plateau will regain the trust of those frustrated voters that continue to suffer under stagnant road projects taking a toll on their day to day activities. The ball is now in the government’s court.

    Patching of potholes won’t suffice. But concrete and a serious change of policy will. The Lalong government needs to do the needful – to be seen visibly on the ground – before it’s too late. Again, 2019 is just around the corner. The wise will take heed.

     

    • Labaran Yusuf, Jos, Plateau State.

  • Our Girls: Killers, Drugs and Potholes

    It is now four years + since our Chibok Girls were viciously kidnapped on April 15, 2014. However we await the release of the remaining Chibok girls and the Dapchi girl-child, 15 year old, Leah Sharibu. Is President Buhari’s team stopping the killings? No!!! In Adamawa, 12 people killed and 15 killed in a Zamfara village and life goes on. If Buhari will not take adequate containment measures, how can it end? Buhari should immediately empty the country’s barracks and transfer all soldiers to the state battlefronts to save the indigenous farming communities across Benue, Taraba, Plateau, Nassarawa States and 21 other attacked states. Soldiers have no right to be in officers and NCO messes and barracks when their C-in-C has informed the country that the herders’ attacks have sinister links with Ghaddafi terrorists confirming that we are at war by an infiltrating army in collaboration with known violent herders. This killing must stop before elections. President Buhari, this killing will stop your re-election. Far too many Nigerian voters have been traumatized directly and been attacked or forced to evacuate their ancestral lands by Fulani herder terrorists. Nobody will forget by 2019 election.  Unless Buhari creates a miracle, his ‘I am MR Clean’ will not cleanse him or his government of the ongoing tragedy of the herders’ terrorism and he will lose the election on ‘security’. Nowadays we talk of ‘security architecture’ so Buhari should review the ‘security architecture’ in every state and hamlet!

    The drug epidemic among the youth has finally hit the media and is highlighted by the outcry against Codeine containing cough mixtures and Tramadol. The vulnerable youth are educated and not educated, wealthy and poor. They mix these drugs with hemp, power drinks and other medications in an unregulated, unmeasured dangerous ‘Champaign Cocktail’ and drink ‘innocently’ from a soft drink bottle. Why? The usual suspects in every country – boredom, joblessness, availability of funds through stealing or scams or family money, and fads of peer pressure. Add medical treatment gone wrong, especially the misuse of painkillers, sometimes in collusion with medical staff. It is difficult to measure pain as it is a subjective personal perception prone to be exaggerated. There are too many important prevention steps that Nigerian leaders at every level have refused to institutionalize, thus forcing the whole country to abandon our responsibility to provide prevention to the youth, the physically and mentally challenged and the elderly. Already Ebola rears its head again. However it was expected that the Ministry of Education would involve the Ministries of Health, Transport, Sports, Youth and other ministries to come up with a ‘Life Skill’ Course Textbook teaching about the above topics. State and Federal Level must take such important educational information from co-curricular to curricular mainstream and include the subject ‘Life Skill Education’ as an examination tested subject.

    For many of our youth such prevention measures are too late. We failed them! Our ineptitude is now causing a serious drug use epidemic among our youth and young adults. This has arisen partly from stupid adventurism of youth and also for a lack of being taught the Dangers of Drugs’ as a classroom subject all added to a backfired culture cultivated by Corporate Nigeria creating ‘Instant Millionairism’ with no work done. Since 1994, 24 years ago, Educare Trust was probably the first youth NGO to pioneer an education programme in communities, schools and universities aimed at avoiding youth hazards captured in an Educare Trust acronym called  the SAD Syndrome= Smoking & Sex & Sickle Cell, AIDS & Alcohol & Abortion & Addiction, Drugs & Dangerous Driving and recommended to our Youth to be GLAD –Good Lungs, Abstinence, Diligent Driving and Democracy-Voting at 18. All this was done as a ‘Life Skill Project’ under co-curricular activities with willing schools numbering in the thousands and cooperative teaching staff and also on NTA, BCOS and elsewhere to reach a wider target audience comprising many millions.

    Certainly the time has come for not just NGOs but government Health and education ministry joint serious consistent drug surveillance and quarterly reports from such surveillance in student facilities, hostels and boarding houses. Governments must learn that government achievement is not just measured in statistics like financial figures on inflation and job rates. Students must be treated like athletes and have urine drug testing in and out of examination time.

    I want to ask us what type of evil animal are we that we have approximately 1000 major life-threatening craters and big potholes, some dug up every night, every night to criminally promote ‘go-slow’ and sellers’ business or actual vehicle crashes and robbery, on old sections of the Lagos Ibadan Road. They are begging to kill us and we are begging that ‘Road Surveillance and Repair’, denied us ever since the misleading hype of the 400 road engineers in 1999, be implemented by road crews filling temporarily such potholes and craters until contractor corporation or ministry of Works, deem it fit ‘to save lives today’ by filling these craters and bad patches, while waiting for the big bucks denied the road by an apparently greedy, selfish NASS. We do not even put Highway Code recommended ‘Warning Signs’ before major potholes but ‘FRoadSafetyC’ and Police checkpoints gather nearby. What work do they actually do?

     

    • NB: Uncover ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES for 2019 -SDG 16.  
  • Oyo embarks on massive road repairs

    Oyo embarks on massive road repairs

    OYO State government has declared zero tolerance on potholes, pledging to maximise this dry season to maintain all category of roads.

    The government urged residents to bear the discomfort when plying roads being rehabilitated.

    It assured them that the work will be ready soon as workers of the Public Works Department are to work day and night, including weekends, to fix the roads.

    Special Adviser to the Governor on Infrastructure Mr. Gbenga Akintola addressed reporters yesterday in Ibadan, the capital.

    The governor’s aide said Trunk A roads are federal, Trunk B state, while Trunk C local government roads.

    Akintola, who was with the Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr. Toye Arulogun, said the State Public Works Department was carrying out routine maintenance on Command-Apata-Odo Ona-Dugbe-Mokola-Sango-UI-Ojoo-Moniya roads in Ibadan.

    He said other roads undergoing maintenance include Molete-Oke-Ado-Oke-Bola-Dugbe-Ekotedo-Queen Cinema, Mokola-UCH-Gate with spur to Parliament Road, Secretariat-UI with spur to Government House, Customs, Awolowo, Osuntokun, Mary Hill and Challenge-Molete-Beere-Oje-Gate roads.

    The governor’s aide said the department had completed the maintenance of asphaltic improvement of Beere-Oranyan-Orita Aperin Road; asphaltic rehabilitation of Ogbomoso High School–Baptist High School Road (Phase I); reconstruction of failed double 3m x 3m x 11m box culvert on Akoko stream along Ilero-Iganna Road and provision of traffic signs around the State High Court at Ring Road and Iyaganku, Ibadan.

    Others are: asphaltic rehabilitation of Oroki-Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo (Phase I); asphaltic rehabilitation and underpinning of eroded concrete base of existing culvert outlet near Heritage Bank, Iyana Church and Oyeniyan Bus Stop on Iwo Road, Olodo Road; asphaltic rehabilitation of Ariyo box culvert approaches, Olorunsogo/Akanran Road, Ibadan and asphaltic rehabilitation of Idi Arere-Popo Yemoja-Oke-Ado with spur to Bode Market.

    The completed roads also included asphaltic improvement of Iyaganku-N.T.C. Road; asphaltic improvement of Eleta-Odinjo-Muslim Overhead Bridge; repair/reinstatement of vandalised steel barricade under Mokola Flyover at Mokola, Ibadan; asphaltic construction of Ologuneru Junction–Abanla–Alafara Junction and asphaltic rehabilitation of Oje Ibadan-Mobil, Yemetu Junction with spur to Adeoyo Hospital, Yemetu Road.

    Akintola urged residents to bear the discomfort, saying the department would ensure the maintenance was completed on time.

    He said: “We are strategic about our work and we have injected feedback mechanisms. We get enquiry and treat same with the utmost urgency the enquiry might require. We are on the road to make our roads better and we know there will be discomfort during this period but the discomfort is time-bound.

    “We want to maximise this dry season to cover a lot of grounds. The routine maintenance will be carried out across the state. Where we cannot engage in routine maintenance, we might resort to palliative measures. We appeal to our people to bear with us and get in touch with us, in case our attention is needed.”

     

  • Our Girls; Potholes; Total Body Exams; SDGs

    Our Girls are still missing since April 14, 2015. We pray for their safe return.
    As Europe enters winter, what would the death toll be if Nigeria had cold life-threatening harmattan with only 3,000MW when electricity is the only lifeline for warmth? Already 20,000Mw of the UN-recommended 150,000MW for Nigeria is an insurmountable by 2020, a Nuclear Physics Problem, for the violence-prone Nigerian scenario? Answer? Go solar. However ‘Nationwide Pothole Filling’ is a competence daring issues, not Nuclear Physics or stopped by violence. Nigeria’s potholes are created by Nigerian government’s active decision ‘NOT TO FILL THEM’. This is confirmed by the mad FRENZY TO FILL A FEW POTHOLES FOR VISITING ‘DIGNITARIES’. All Nigerians deserve an ‘EPIDEMIC OF POTHOLE FILLING’. Even broke Nigeria can ‘make straight our path’ and fill all potholes. POTHOLES ARE AN INHUMAN WRONG THAT MUST BE FILLED AS A HUMAN RIGHT. President BUHARI can answer the critics that he is slow, by an urgent ‘NATIONWIDE POTHOLE FILLING EXERCISE’.
    UN-SDGs Continued: Have you wondered why Nigerians seem to have taken a ‘vow of suffering for development’ in the midst of formerly available plenty? There is serious life, lived and suffered by the majority of hardworking honest Nigerians nationwide, beyond the gaudiness of debilitating politics that keeps Nigeria prostrate.
    The UN recognised this and created the MDGs, especially for suffering countries, to save those parts of the world afflicted with the disease ’Underdevelopment’ from its evil cause – the gluttonous political class. That political class seems happy to steal money meant to save the lives of the corpses of dead children, mothers and unemployed fathers without pensions while the same politicians accumulate single and double pensions for life for four years work. Is that not blood dripping from their mouths?
    Am I too harsh? Look at the example of a Black politician in America, Obama’s neck and his abdomen, and Michelle’s neck after eight years as American President and first family- the most powerful worldwide and compare them to the gaudy National Assembly (NASS) men and women roaming Nigeria doing the now familiar oversight functions for example. Are they receiving the traditional rumoured illegal ‘perks’ and double transport and lodging and inconvenience or bush allowance perhaps including girls from the ‘oversight-ed’ companies forced to ‘buy’ a favourable report or face public ridicule, the weapon used against whistle-blowers and those who fail to play ball? I am not harsh, just reporting the harsh and blood-spattered reality of Nigeria’s greed driven politics, bereft of higher moral goals, Olympian ideals of fair play and honest losing or winning. That politics even lacks the simple fear of God’s wrath for ‘padding’ aka ’criminal inflation of budget items’ which is contrary to the injunction not to ‘harm the hair on the head of one of these little ones’ through theft of the budgets for health drugs, education books and pothole free roads.
    There are human and humane challenges in every country, rich and poor, even Obama and Trump’s America. However poor countries are especially punished by the excessive financial and moral burden of a criminal visionless politics. Why is stealing a jail-able crime for the poor but a congratulatory event for the ‘Politicians Perpetuating Poverty Party’ PPPP???? Stealing should be a reprehensible and punishable crime for politicians too. Politics is inert, non-mobile. It is politicians who drive and manipulate politics for good or bad.
    As the world’s greatest ‘humane’ doctor, loving lawyer, peaceful policeman, endearing environmentalist, quickest tent builder and sociable social worker for the poor worldwide, except for some tragic events, the United Nation’s launch of the Sustainable Development Goals, UN SDGs, by the Secretary General is the next step in an unending Herculean struggle, against bad politicians, to save the poor. Unfortunately the majority of politicians may smile but are pathologically of evil character and intention. This fact should make us all ashamed and act to save our ‘Fellow Nigerian’ people, in spite of massive political Corruption, Incompetence, Negligence and Selfishness, CINS. Politicians celebrate serial failure-to-perform daily in parliaments, government houses and uncivil services. Hopefully most of that corrupt excess stopped under Treasury Single Account and Buhari. Vocal people are yearning for the ‘bad old times’ when corrupt money circulated to corrupt families and friends. Did you benefit corruptly during the Babangida to Jonathan era?
    Life skills are about health and social issues including knowledge of Breast Examination and Total Body Examination for every human monthly, blood pressure, violence, HIV/AIDS, human trafficking, dangerous driving, safe motherhood and that the sex of a baby is the responsibility of the male partner.
    An absence of life skills including the ‘moral compass’ causes a darkness impenetrable to the tiny torchlight of UN Goodwill Ambassadors, Special UN Days or tiny advert budgets of the UN, NGOs or media houses ‘allowing’ a CSR social message. Indeed some media outlets expect not-for-profit social messages to cost for-profit commercial rates.
    Let us not ignore the new media, the ‘social media’ with billions of hours of audio/visual social media streaming to a vulnerable mainly young audience eager to absorb the good, and especially the bad and ugly messages. What is the UN SOCIAL LIFE SKILL MESSAGE for today, changed daily, in 10,000 languages and in braille, worldwide on all social media outlets? It does not matter who delivers the life message, celebrity or blogger, child or geriatric, a Kardashian or Hamilton, Nollywood or Bollywood star. Just to create ‘HUMANE-ITY’ a HUMANE HUMAN RACE. To be continued wwwtonymarinho.com

  • Ado-Ekiti residents groan over potholes

    Ado-Ekiti residents groan over potholes

    Some residents of Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, have called on Governor Ayo Fayose to rehabilitate many roads in the state capital.

    They said the roads are becoming impassable as a result of potholes.

    The affected roads, according to them, serve as alternative routes following the ongoing flyover project on Fajuyi-Okesa area.

    They added that the condition of the roads has led to an increment in fares charged by taxi drivers, tricycle operators and commercial motorcyclists.

    Since the flyover project began about four months ago, motorists, motorcyclists and commuters make use of other roads to get to their destinations.

    The residents complained that they spent longer time than it used to be as a result of the potholes.

    Those going to Adebayo and other areas along Iworoko Road from Old Garage and Okesa now pass through Dallimore Street. Those going to Secretariat Road, New Iyin Road up to Basiri go through Ilawe Road and GRA.

    But some residents, who spoke with The Nation yesterday, called on the government to rehabilitate the link roads, which have been abandoned since the beginning of work on the flyover.

    Some of the affected roads include Oke Ila (in front of St. Andrews Anglican Church), Ajibade Lane (near St. Patrick’s Catholic Cathedral), Okutagbokutalori area of Okeyinmi and Mary Hills Road.

    Others are Kajola, very close to Oluyemi Kayode Stadium, Ajowa Market Road, Moferere-Agric Olope Road, Odo-Ado in front of St. Paul’s Anglican Church and Rosebud-Ori Apata Road.

    A resident, Dupe Esan, said: “These roads are in bad condition and we don’t know the reason why the government abandoned them. As they are doing the flyover, all these alternative routes also require urgent attention and we want them to repair them.”

    Tobi Afolayan said: “Since the Okesa-Fajuyi has been blocked, there is much pressure on these inner roads and many of them are in deplorable condition. Government must block all these loopholes because the effect is being felt on our vehicles.

    “The roads also require the attention government is paying to the flyover, because if they go worse, we may not have any place to pass again. Help us tell our governor to fill these potholes because the rains are here.”

     

  • Politicians must take potholes seriously. They kill people and business and taxes!

    Politicians must take potholes seriously. They kill people and business and taxes!

    Let the deaf hear. Potholes are a yardstick of political success. It is official. Do you know why we talk about potholes so annoyingly frequently in the column? It is because potholes are the symbol of national failure, destroying lives and businesses and making a mockery of going to school to learn about good governance, Internally Generated Revenue, Foreign Direct investment and tourism proposals and repositioning Nigeria using 20-2020 vision. Potholes are a simple assessment of the commitment of politicians, political parties and individual governments to a social and moral contract with the citizens. The ‘Politics of Potholes’ is not about ‘making straight’ the path to an LGA chairman’s country home or to a particular governor’s son’s wedding venue. Potholes are about failed responsibility to the people and about abuse or non-use of power. Potholes are not a game of ‘guess how many potholes are in my LGA, state or country’.

    Potholes are murderous and about human suffering and blood, human blood, not contracts. Are politicians and civil servants blind, misinformed or totally incompetent? The people bleed and see the blood on roads, cars, danfos and buses and staining the operating uniforms in Nigeria’s operating theatres where we remove the ruptured spleens and broken limbs of ‘Pothole Attack Victims’. Potholes are not about ‘excuses’ and inflated non-executed contracts and delayed budget. Potholes are about societal decay, incompetence and delay and the abdication of government’s responsibility to the citizenry. Nigeria is just one big ‘Government Neglect’ pothole in spite of sufficient funds to fix every road within one dry season since it refuses to work during the rainy season out of mental and engineering laziness not due to a lack of civil engineering capacity.

    Unfortunately, the most powerful ‘road user’ voices in the land are silent. We do not hear of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, NMA, NURTW etcetera, market women at their AGMs catching ‘anti-pothole fever’ and shouting about potholes. No country with our pothole achievements should have travel and entrepreneurship programmes. We are all held hostage in our own country, confined by the strictures of our potholed roads. For millions, daily travel is a nightmare for which serious prayers are needed to avert a disaster. Often prayers are not enough. And our government seems powerless to prevent the continued infliction of massive unnecessary pain on the collective psyche and physical bodies of the population. The deliberate clogging of the Ogere traffic artery on the Lagos-Ibadan road is a case in point and a recurrent national shame and security disaster waiting to happen. The trailers used to commit these terrible crimes are owned and registered by the high and mighty in the petroleum industry who are now donating to flood relief almost nationwide.

    That Ogere park is too often strangled by tanker and trailer drivers is not news, nor is it news about the impunity with which they do it. Only in Nigeria would that be a two or less lane road. Even Ikorodu road should and can easily be six lanes each side. No one will be brought to book for holding the nation to ransom for 11 hours. Since all the major players in the Ogere hold up are known, they should be fined by the federal government to act as a deterrent to their staff repeating such a crime against the citizens of Nigeria in future. We are used to students shutting down trunk ‘A’ roads for perceived transgressions. This new one where adults embark on similar activities is an unwelcome event that puts at risk millions of lives and billions of naira. A Boko Haramic conflagration in that circumstance would have had catastrophic repercussions. Only God can quantify the losses caused by such a decision. But who cares. It reminds us of the danger of putting police with ‘big shots’ to attempt to drive roughshod over the rest of us. We must also remember that in all likelihood, the shot tanker was probably wrongly parked causing unnecessary go-slow or full stop. Remember that the Ogere is notorious for indiscipline and obstruction just like its predecessor Sagamu. It was these same people’s fathers who blocked Sagamu to the extent that it prompted the building of the expressway in the first place. This was typical knee-jerk reaction and no long term plan to anticipate problems and build additional lanes in advance. Since then, 40 years the road has not improved, but it has deteriorated and in fact narrowed to its present sorry state where one tanker can paralyse the key artery out of the port city of Lagos. What a shame and we are not at war. By now in any forward looking country, there would be five major and several minor roads out of Lagos. But like they say, there are more bridges in river-less Abuja than in the whole of the rest of the country put together. Na wa O! Such selfish politicians cannot build a great Nigeria which is as weak as the smallest pothole.

    Now that potholes at federal level have been declared wanted dead or alive on or before December, let us pursue with equal vigour the execution of potholes on state and LGA roads. All Nigerians must renew ‘The Great Nigeria Anti-Pothole War’ and fight it to its logical conclusion-no more deaths. Nigerians must no longer accept rough and rubbish roads. Nigeria can afford and must provide standard roads.

  • FG orders FERMA to fill potholes by December

    The Presidency has directed the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to get rid of potholes on federal roads before December.

    The zonal coordinator South – South Zone 11 of FERMA, Engr. Jimoh Kajogbola, disclosed this at the weekend while flagging-off newly- awarded contracts for road maintenance in the zone at Illah, Delta State along the Benin-Asaba-Onitsha dual carriage way.

    He said maintenance of roads that were not under contract by the Federal Ministry of Works (Highways Department) would be executed through contracts and direct labour by the end of November.

    FERMA Executive Director in charge of Road Maintenance Services, Alhaji Garuba Mubi, said the agency has awarded over 50 major road contracts and no fewer than one hundred emergency road contracts to ensure that the December deadline given by the Presidency is met.

    According to him: “We are going for operation zero potholes and that will engage virtually the whole management. All of us will be involved; we are also going to be part of inspection of the contracts executed all over the nation up to December, 2012.

    “We are going to ensure that the contractors are done according to FERMA specifications and on schedule.”

    He added: “We are also going to ensure that the potholes are minimised or new zero before December 2012.

    “What we are begging essentially is for the National Assembly to graciously support Mr. President and consider the case of road maintenance and the time of work with the budget up to March next year”.

    He listed the contracts in the South-South Zone 11 made up of Edo, Delta and Ondo states to include: General repairs and pavement strengthening of the Benin – Shagamu (Ofusu – Ajabandele dual carriageway) awarded to Messers Sunny Bounce Resources; General maintenance repairs and selected shoulder reinstatement along Benin- Ekpoma – Auchi Road awarded to Messers Ffordiac and Pavement strengthening and shoulder reinstatement along Ewu- Uromi- Agbor Road, awarded to Messers ARC Marine & Civil Eng Ltd, among others.