With more than a thousand portholes on the Nnamdi Azikiwe expressway in Kaduna, a state in northwestern Nigeria, citizens, especially motorists, from interstate travellers to residents plying on vehicles, motorbikes, tricycles, bicycles, and foot walkers, count a flow of blood from road accidents that resulted in the loss of human lives and properties.
Every year, the number of deaths from road accidents increases in Nigeria. The deplorable condition of roads across the country has rooted out the menace that constantly consumes lives and properties. Citizens’ safer journeys are not guaranteed, especially with the high rate of insecurity bedevilling parts of the country.
From previous data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), about 1,834 Nigerians died from road accidents in the first quarter of the year 2022, out of a total of 345 recorded in the country.
Citizen’s plight and plea
One can imagine where the country’s budget goes, especially with how the roads keep getting worse; even if they are patched, they barely last because of the substandard equipment used in executing projects by the contractors and triggered by the corruption of the public officeholders in the country, Muhammed Jami’u, a Kaduna-based vulcanizer, laments.
According to him, highways and city roads are the constant routes of millions of Nigerian citizens, who mostly acquire private vehicles or hire a commercial car, tricycle, or motorbike as a means of transportation to a destination.
But you can imagine the government doesn’t care to fix the only means of transportation for an average citizen, Jamiu continued.
I am a vulcanizer; my life is always at risk while working to earn a living on this highway. A car can crush me over the state of the deplorable road, and I don’t have an alternative but to do my business activities on the Nnamdi Azikiwe Highway.
To be frank with you, at accountable times, I saw people dying from accidents in this place and on this road; why won’t the government fast-track the road reconstruction for the safety of citizens?
Although I heard the federal government handed the Nnamdi Azikiwe Expressway to the state government with funding for reconstruction, if that’s true, then the state is responsible for the causalities and deaths recorded as a result of this deplorable road. He added
However, like many others, Abdulrashed Adamu, an articulated vehicle driver, and Malam Zayyana Batsari, a taxi driver, both struggling to repair their vehicles, recount their encounter with several portholes and Nigerian securities on a trip to their various destinations while granting an interview to Daily Episode.
According to Abdulraahid Adamu, the difficulties we are experiencing as a result of deplorable road conditions are highly unimaginable; you can see for yourself that we are replacing a burst tire that was damaged as a result of potholes.
On a constant route, I convey goods from Lokoja to Kaduna, and I always count accidents, dead bodies, and lost properties on every journey, which is so unfortunate.
However, some of the securities and tax officers on the highways always take advantage of the bad roads to extort money from us, even now we are rushing to meet up so no one can come to do otherwise.
For the situation we find ourselves in, at all costs, we must ensure we don’t stay on the roads to fix our vehicles, even though they are constantly having challenges because of the bad roads.
For the time being, the burst tyre cost about N100,000; we must not continue the journey without replacing it, or else both we and the company will count heavy losses, and the securities and tax officers are not helping matters either.
My appeal to the government is for them to consider our single demand. We know we can get everything, but at least we deserve a better road. Abdulrashid added
Like Abdulrashid, Malam Zayyana Batsari, a taxi driver on a journey from Abuja to Musawa local government area of Katsina state, noted that his car is faulty because the roads are in poor condition; the road has been damaged to the point where some vehicles can only be pulled out of the portholes with external support.
Several vehicles are crashing on the road. For this journey, I damaged about three tires from Abuja to Kaduna, which is terrible. The roads are extremely bad, especially from Kaduna to Lokoja, and people are indeed suffering.
Not only the bad roads but also security and tax officials are making life more difficult for motorists and travellers; sometimes, vehicles crash while diverting or fleeing security.
I am appealing to the government to fix all the damaged roads in the country and build a mechanism that will stop security from extorting money from drivers. He added
Several times, many citizens expressed concern and called the attention of authorities to fix Nigeria’s damaged roads, but to no avail, an elderly man, Malam Rabi’u Adamu, recounts.
We are calling on the government to ensure the safety of citizens by fixing the damaged roads because of the high rate of deaths and injuries from the persisting road accidents resulting from the deplorable conditions of the roads.
Fixing the road will alleviate the suffering of citizens, especially motorists, passengers, businesses, and those walking on the road. He added.
Authorities concerned about fixing the roads decline comments while Daily Episode correspondents try to have their say regarding the state of the roads.
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