Students of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, popularly called UNIZIK, are bemoaning the state of access roads to the institution’s campuses in Awka and Nnewi, reports FRANKLIN ONWUBIKO from Awka.
Words cannot quantify the hardship students of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, face on the deplorable Ifite-Amansea Road which connects the university to the Awka, the Anambra State capital, where many students live.
The road gets worse during the rainy season and most buses conveying students to school always break down, forcing the students to wade through muddy water.
Sadly, the state of the road is not new, as successive state governments had turned deaf ears to the plight of members of staff and students of the institution. In the past, the government placed equipment and heaped stones on the road, but it was never fixed.
Anambra State Governor Dr Willie Obiano reportedly visited the university sometime in July, during the monthly environmental sanitation and saw, first-hand, the suffering of students on the road. His promise of intervention was applauded.
Last week, there seemed to be a ray of hope with the arrival of heavy duty construction vehicles on the site.
But to the consternation of students, the vehicles only deposited heaps of stones and disappeared the next day.
Most students have taken to the social media to cry out to the government to come to their aid as the road is on the verge of being cut off by erosion.
A lecturer (name withheld) described the government’s promise as propaganda.
“I don’t understand why government should renege on words after promising to fix the road in time, after witnessing the plight of the students. The governor’s aides took to the social media to celebrate the promise and even posted pictures of the caterpillars, stating that work had begun. That is cheap blackmail and propaganda and it’s about time government stopped playing politics with issues that concern life,” he said.
A student, Ebuka Obueze, described the government as insensitive to the plight of students.
“This road has become a death trap. One practically gets stained passing through this route. It won’t cost the government a lot of money to work on this road, at least to ameliorate the sufferings of the students. How does one get to settle in class after the hurdles of getting to school through this bad road?,” Obueze asked.
A female student, Joy Okoye, whose hostel is directly in front of the worst part of the road, lamented that they are forced to stay indoors and miss classes because of the road.
“We hardly go out these days because the road is terribly bad. If not for the fact that UNIZIK students are calm, we would have long protested. If the governor truly has the students at heart, fixing the road won’t be an issue at all,” she stated.
The poor state of the road has increased transportation cost; while some drivers have stopped plying the route.
One driver, Arinze Obi, said some of his colleagues have abandoned the route pending when it is fixed.
“This is not favourable at all. This road has indirectly generated more income for the road side mechanics more than it has for us drivers. Imagine a scenario where one spends his income and even borrows to fix his vehicle on weekly basis, all because of this bad road. For those who still ply the route, they increased the fare at least to cater for the damages on their vehicles. The worst part of it is that, we still pay levies to ply the route. These levies should be utilized in fixing the road but that is not happening. Government should come to the aid of the students before the road goes so bad,” he said.
The situation at the other campus of the university located in the commercial city of Nnewi which houses the medical studies is also pitiable. The medical students have on various occasions cried out to the government and good spirited individuals for assistance.
