•Motorists kick as royal father seek FG’s intervention
By Cosmas Omegoh
This is not the best of times for roads in the South-East and South-South regions. They are facing the fury of the rains and failing with every drop of water from the skies. Their condition has forced a royal father in the area to describe the situation as catastrophic.
Ordinarily, the rains are Providence’s gift, which comes to refresh the earth, bringing life to communities of plants and animals, for, without the rains, the earth would be parched; everything in it would be scorched.
When the rains are slow in coming or fail to come, disaster looms; plants and animals suffer, without water, usually eainwater, they risk death and extinction.
Any wonder then why the late Afrobeat music maestro, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, once said water, no get enemy, also implying that the rains have no enemy.
However, in many parts of Nigeria, the rains are the roads’ mortal enemies. Many roads, particularly in the former Eastern region, are under the onslaught of the rains at the moment. Once the rains begin to pour down in heavy sheets at the peak of the season, the roads suffer unspeakable harm.
One can imagine the pain and agony of commuters in the South-East and South-South regions, who panic every year with the approach of the rains. Memories of the agonies of the past when the rains wreaked havoc in the area leave everyone with a sour taste in the mouth.
Investigations by Daily Sun showed that each time the rainy season attains full flight in the area, many roads are either washed away or submerged; craters emerge and potholes widen and deepen. Sometimes, depending on the intensity of the rains, some roads are cut into two or more parts, with gullies left behind after the water dries up as sad reminders of the fury of nature. Motorists who are condemned to use such roads often seeth with anger as they navigate through muddy waters.
Recently, Daily Sun gathered that most of the roads in the East were constructed in pre-Independence times. Shortly after the Nigeria’s Independence inn 1960, the Eastern Nigeria regional government added to the network of roads, opening up more communities in the area. However, an overwhelming number of those roads have deen better days. There is hardly any of such roads that is motorable enough, except some of the most recent ones, such as the Onitsha-Owerri dual carriageway. The rest are begging for rehabilitation.
The condition of the Enugu-Onitsha expressway, for instance, is awful. It sickens the mind and has been in that state for long. At some point, the Niger Bridge end of the road through Upper Iweka, in the heart of Onitsha, to Awka, the state capital, was ian eyesore. Many lives and properties were lost in the area. The stretch of road represented all that was wrong with Anambra State and the South-East as a whole. Motorists and commuters lampooned the state government for failing in its duty, not knowing that the facility was a federal road, under the purview of the Federal Government.
Over time, things got worse, and motorists had to abandoned the road for the old, snaky Onitsha-Enugu road, which was also bad but better by miles.
One-time Commissioner for Information in Anambra State, Mr. Tony Onyima, once told Daily Sun that when the condition of the road became a clear source of embarrassment to the state, it took a bold step to rehabilitate it: “The Anamabra State government, under the watch of Chief Willie Obiano, decided to embark on reconstruction and rehabilitation of the road, at least for the good of Anambra State indigenes and many others that plied it on a daily basis.” The state government chose to rebuild its own end of the road up to Amansea on its border with Enugu State, hoping to collect a refund from the Federal Government later. Now, a good part of the road is in excellent form, featuring flyovers and ring roads.
This reporter observed that it is the Enugu end of the road, which terminates at Ninth Mile corner, that is still a wreck. Heavy-duty trucks carrying agricultural produce from the North, for daring to use it, are often seen trapped in the mud, with their drivers marooned, waiting for alternative trucks to evacuate their vehicles’ cargo. In some places, what is left of the road is completely taken over by herds of cattle shepherded by ubiquitous herdsmen in the area.
Perhaps nothing better can be said about the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway, another important facility in the two regions. The road cuts through Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo and Abia states before ending in Rivers State. It is an important artery of the East. At inception, it was an engineering masterpiece but now it degenerated to a nightmare of mud, gravel and sand.
Between Lookpa and Okigwe, the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway features several failed portions, especially at Ihube town. From Okigwe to Umuahia, many failed portions are dominantm and the road has been that way for years with nothing done to repair it. Several failed portions too dominate the Umuahia-Aba axis down to Port Harcourt. And the road worsens every time it rains.
Another road in the former Eastern Region whose condition is pathetic is the Ikot Ekpene-Itu-Calabar federal highway. This reporter was told that motorists are virtually forced to go through the valley of the shadow of death every time they use the road, which has been the macabre theatre of road crashes, automobile breakdowns and loss of travel hours.
Similarly, the Ikot Ekpene-Aba-Owerri road is in a terrible condition, which compels many travellers from Akwa Ibom to make a detour to Ikot-Ekpene-Umuahia road en-route Lagos.
“We prefer going through Umuahia, through Imo, Anambra to Lagos,” Mr. Aniefok, a commercial bus driver with Akwa Ibom State Transport Company told Daily Sun, “It is an old road with several bad spots, but we still prefer it; what else can we do? At least it saves us time compared to going through the Ikot-Ekpene-Aba road which is very bad.”
The Owerri-Anara-Okigwe road is increasingly becoming derelict, a sad reminder of its pre 1977/78 status before it was re-constructed. A commercial bus driver, Ebuka Okorie, who plies the road said: “The road is terribly bad now. Once it rains, many bad spots at Atta, Akabo, Amaraku, Anara all become worse; the road becomes practically impassable, forcing us to go through various villages and communities in order to avoid the bad areas.
“Sometimes, we collect as much as N1,000 from passengers going to Anara because we must pay the youths who block the roads so that they would allow us to pass through.” The usual fare for a bus ride from Owerri to Anara is N200.
It is the same story for the Ihiala-Orlu-Anara-Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene road. Constructed in pre-Independence times, it got a facelift once after the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War, sometime around year 2000. Since then, the road has proved a viable alternative for many motorists travelling from Cross River and Akwa Ibom states to Onitsha and beyond. But now it has fallen into a disrepair. At Isu community in Isu Local Government Area, the road has long been cut into two and abandoned. Motorists have to beg villagers to use their access roads to avoid the failed portion. The erosion-prone spot at the approach of Orlu has also worsened. There are several failed portions between Orlu and Ihiala.
No palliative measure on the road has worked. Often, youths of various communities prevent motorists from passing through their areas with some demanding money to grant them access. From Isseke, in Anambra State, motorists prefer to go through the community roads built by the Peter Obi administration.
“This is what we suffer every rainy season,” Osaretin, a commercial bus driver attached to the Libra transport company, told Daily Sun. “What does it take to repair this road for the good of the people?” he wondered.
Meanwhile a tradition ruler in Ukwa Local Government Area, Abia State, Eze (Dr.) Roland Asobie, has described the state of the failed roads in the area as a “catastrophic disaster.” Eze Asobie, a former Commissioner in old Imo State, now the traditional ruler of Amakama Autonomous Community, made the declaration during a visit to some of the federal roads in his domain.
The royal father urged President Muhammadu Buhari and his Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, to come to the South East, particularly Ukwa and see how people are suffering because of the horrible state of the roads in the region.
FRSC lauds Peace Mass Transit, as firm re-trains 2, 000 drivers
From Petrus Obi, Enugu
The management of Peace Mass Transit transport company recently sent about 2,000 drivers to the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) for re-training.
The Commandant at the Commission’s Academy in Udi, Enugu State, Kenneth Nwaegbe, noted that the objective of the 23-day training was to remind drivers of Peace Mass Transit of the essence of safety on the roads. He said the objective was achieved.
Speaking at the passing out ceremony of the driver’s re-certification training, Nwaegbe said the drivers went through thorough medical tests, classroom lectures and practical driving tests at the driving range of the FRSC Academy. He said the drivers acquired new knowledge and skills.
In his remarks, the Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of the FRSC, Boboye Oyeyemi, who witnessed the event, said he was pleased with the management and staff of the transport company for maintaining a zero-accident record for almost two months. He urged them to continue treading the same path.
He charged the drivers to show their newly-acquired knowledge to the world.
His words: “If we can retrain 2,000 drivers from one organisation, I know we have saved many lives. Some of the accidents on our roads are not drivers’ faults, but there is what we call defensive driving. Thus we organise such training to make drivers to be more responsive. And from the latest reports, I think there is a positive disposition with respect to road attitudes.”
He said the FRSC would train drivers of other transport firms, noting that 65 per cent of road accidents involves commercial vehicles.
“Peace Mass Transit has installed speed limit devices and I was privileged three months ago to have commissioned 300 factory-fitted buses. In terms of compliance with the policies of government, the company is responsive. The only aspect is the human aspect, which is 81 per cent responsible for the crashes. The company has now handled that, and it is worthy of emulation.
“Speed limit compliance deadline starts on October 1, 2016. The use of sub-standard tyres is being tackled. These are critical things that should bring down the crisis in the next four months, so that at the end of the year all of us will go back to the village celebrating and return for the New Year.
“There was an error in crash records. I admitted the errors and ordered that the correct ones be published. And there was an insinuation that the FRSC would suspend or ban Peace Mass Transit from operations. But we never contemplated that. Instead, we are going to partner them to ensure that observed lapses were corrected,” he said.
Chief Executive Officer of the Peace Mass Transit, Dr. Sam Onyishi, said his company had been training and retraining its drivers for the past 18 years: “The first one we had, I was a driver then and I still have the certificate from that training. But we never had a total one involving all drivers. It took us money to be here, 20 days for 2,000 drivers. You can calculate the money sacrificed, but we are more concerned about the safety of our passengers. We have lost funds but results show it’s not wasted. Money should not be an issue when safety is concerned because life is worth more than gold.
“As a management, we have done our bit. It’s now left for the drivers to do theirs. It is for them to go out there and show the difference from those who have not been retrained. No other transport company has done this. We popularised three passengers per seat. We introduced speed limit devices and now we are the first to introduce the training and retraining of all our drivers.
“We will continue to partner with FRSC because our relationship with them has yielded positive results in the company.”
Onyishi said he would consider employing female drivers: “because we are gender-sensitive and women are sometimes more careful than men. So we are going to create an enabling environment where they can work without abuse and for people to have respect for them,” he stated.
He also promised to improve the pay of the drivers if they could continued with the no-accident record in the weeks ahead.
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