To Nigerians who are seeing ditches and gullies where there used to be highways; to Nigerians stranded on some road as he spoke, Fashola sounded like an alien, at best

nor the concept of responsibility. Two months after Mr Mohammed’s statement, Fashola then announced in his report that the Works budget had leapt “from N18.132b in 2015 to N394b in 2018.”

Despite all those funds and good intentions and years and the proclamations, none of these projects has been completed. The construction of a footbridge across a few lanes of traffic takes us years and tens of lives. By that time, that bridge needs a bridge.

And so, at this time last year, we were actively, frantically constructing the LagosIbadan expressway (as we were the rail line), and as we had since 2009. We still are.

It is this denial mentality that has suffocated the Buhari government and given it such an inferiority complex that the manufacturing of excuses now appears to be the measure of achievement. No official feels a sense of embarrassment; even the head of government has been on another London bed in the past two weeks, taking the presidency with him!

As recently as 2017, a World Bank report on a $300m loan to Nigeria for roads showed that only about 15per cent of federal roads was in good condition, down from 50per cent in 1999. That means that at the time Fashola was undertaking his mythical 36-state tour recently, we were probably less than 10per cent making his tour impossible.

The bank observed that Nigerian roads suffer from “weak designs, inadequate drainage systems and deterioration as a consequence of a poor maintenance system/ culture…government policy stance in favour of new road construction and rehabilitation at the expense of maintenance; severe underfunding of road maintenance resulting in heavy road maintenance backlog; irregular releases of budgetary allocations resulting in incomplete road rehabilitation contracts and poor construction quality; and absence of a strategic planning process, coupled with a poor road management information system…”

If we are to avoid a situation where every federal minister owing apologies and roads defaults to bravado and insults at the end of each year, we must go back to a fundamental review of why we are going in circles and officials speak out of dizzy heads.

It is no more difficult to build a good road in Nigeria than it is to do elsewhere. The real problem is that this is far more about our collapse as a people.

Think about it: as bad as former President Goodluck Jonathan may have been, in September 2012 he made his top officials sign performance contracts towards enhancing performance and driving service delivery.

The difference is that we have lost the ability, even to aspire.

Feel any shame?