October 08, (THEWILL) – The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) recently threatened to embark on a strike nationwide in protest against the deplorable condition of federal roads across the country.
NUPENG was reacting to an accident, a petrol tanker explosion in fact, at Koko junction, near Ologbo, on the Benin-Warri Expressway.
Eye witness accounts claimed that while trying to navigate a failed portion of the road, a tanker laden with petrol fell on its side and spilled its content, attracting some residents who went on to scoop the fuel. In the process, the tanker exploded, killing scores of people and injuring several more.
Many lost their lives in the ensuing inferno, burnt beyond recognition and property valued at millions of naira, including cars and trucks, were destroyed. The sad event occurred on October 1, the same day that Nigeria celebrated 63 years of political independence from British colonial rule. The general mood across the country, which was not entirely buoyant as it were, was further dampened when the news of the tragedy broke. The entire nation was plunged into deep mourning.
In a public statement, NUPENG blamed the incident on the nonchalant attitude of the country’s leadership and its insensitivity to the poor state of federal roads.
“This was an accident that waited so long to happen” the union said, claiming that its leaders did make some efforts on different occasions to avert it by embarking on palliative measures to shore up failed portions of the road but in vain.
The Benin-Warri Road incident captures the exact situation on Nigerian roads today. Nigeria has about 195,000 kilometres of road network, perhaps the largest in West Africa, and federal roads constitute a sizeable chunk of this figure. Unfortunately due to poor maintenance and low quality materials used for repairs, the general condition of the roads is fast deteriorating.
With very little effort on the part of the Federal Government to rehabilitate the failed ones, federal roads have virtually become death traps. According to data released by the Word Health Organisation (WHO), the World Bank and Nigeria’s Federal Road Safety Corps, deaths resulting from road accidents are on the rise in Nigeria. About 42,000 people die in road accidents, described as the country’s third-leading cause of overall deaths, annually.
The WHO says that Nigeria has an estimated 1,042 deaths a year for every 100,000 vehicles, one of the highest rates of road fatalities in the world. Sadly most of these deaths are not only avoidable but also caused by bad spots on federal roads.
It goes without saying that there is a preponderance of failed roads and bridges across Nigeria. The current Minister of Works and Housing, David Umahi, noted this himself during his recent tour of federal road projects across the country. Based on his findings, the minister blamed the deteriorating condition of the roads on contractors. He accused contractors of using low quality materials to construct roads, a fact that has always been too obvious to Nigerians, which has also constantly ensured that the roads remained in a permanent state of disrepair.
Contractors have always posed a serious challenge to road development in Nigeria, no doubt. This is evident in the number of failed roads, estimated to be about 260 by no other person than the Works minister himself, and bridges. Government must find a way to deal effectively with any contractor that constitutes a clog in the wheel of progressive road development. Henceforth, contractors must be thoroughly screened before they are given approval to handle road projects. Emphasis must be on competence and integrity. In addition, the National Assembly should consider introducing a law that will sanction contractors for poor handling of road projects.
For a minister that is saddled with the unenviable task of revamping the country’s road infrastructure, Umahi sure has a lot on his hands. Hopefully the minister will do well to permanently address the issue of buck-passing between the Federal Government and the states over the repair of failed federal roads. The matter became a subject of deep concern recently, following the reactions of the Governors of Delta and Edo States to the October 1, 2023 tragic incident on the Warri-Benin Road. Both governors had blamed the incident on the deplorable condition of federal roads.
Needless to add, despite an alarming rise in fatalities caused by road accidents, state governments have lately been reluctant to take up the responsibility of rehabilitating failed portions of federal roads in their respective states. The excuse usually given for this attitude is that the Federal Government no longer refunds monies spent by the states on repair of federal roads. This is counter-productive and should be discouraged.
State governments ought to be reminded that the safety and security of people living in and transiting through their states is their constitutional duty and the maintenance of all roads, federal or not, in their states is part of this duty.
Umahi has recommended the use of concrete pavement technology in road construction in place of asphalt. Concrete pavement, the minister noted, is not only cost-effective but also guarantees durability. If adopted as a policy, roads in Nigeria will last 50 years at least. This is a welcome development and a radical departure from the norm.
Now is the time for the Federal Government and the states to wake up to their responsibilities. Nigerians have suffered enough. They deserve some respite. This is the time to revamp the country’s declining road infrastructure.
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