ODE TO FASHOLA
Modestus Umenzekwe writes that the work’s minister is making many of the roads again passable GIVEN THE QUALITY OF WORK AND THE FRENETIC SPEED OF EXECUTION, PEOPLE NOW DRIVE FROM LAGOS TO ONITSHA IN A LITTLE OVER FIVE HOURS. JUST TWO YEARS AGO, THE SAME J
On Thursday, March 16, 2017, my father, Boniface Umenzekwe, was buried in my hometown of Achina in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State. Aged 90 years, my father, better known by the sobriquet “Ihenyirimmadu”, had died in January, 2017. Between the time of his departure and burial, I travelled countless times from my base in Lagos to Achina by road, to prepare for the funeral ceremonies which, in keeping with the culture of the Igbo people in Anambra State, were bound to be elaborate and expensive. I am the only child of my parents, so the burial and funeral arrangements fell on my shoulders. I still wonder how I could have coped with the humungous challenges if my father had departed a few years ago when the roads were in such a mess that many bereaved families stayed on the Lagos-Benin Road with bodies of their beloved ones for more than a day. And this brings me to the crux of this article.
The Lagos-Sagamu-Ijebu Ode-Ore highway has changed dramatically in the last one year. So has the Lagos-Ibadan highway where Julius Berger is doing a damned good job. This was perhaps the busiest road in the country, yet the Olusegun Obasanjo administration abandoned it for years. Both the Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan governments were running around in circles on this critical road. The quality and speed of the ongoing reconstruction work on this expressway must be one of the remarkable achievements of the Muhammadu Buhari administration which will on May 29 mark its second anniversary. Since I use the road extensively, I have no hesitation in praising the Buhari administration for doing the right thing. And I commend in particular the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, for exhibiting leadership and dynamism.
As already indicated above, it is not just on the Lagos-Ibadan section that massive rehabilitation work is going on, of all the roads I have been using extensively in recent times. If Julius Berger is doing a most impressive job on the Lagos-Ibadan road, Reynold Construction Company is arguably doing superior work on the Sagamu-Ijebu-Ore Road. Frankly, to call what is going on there mere rehabilitation is a gross understatement. It is even more than ordinary reconstruction. The thickness of the asphalt is far more than that used when the road was constructed the first time in the 1970s; probably this is in recognition of the enormous load on it now. State of the art drainage facilities are now being provided, channeling flood water from the road to appropriate places. This means that the road will last. Reinforced upstand kerbs are now replacing pipes and railings on bridges designed to prevent persons and vehicles from plunging into rivers, streams, rivulets and valleys. Upstand kerbs also help people with acrophobia, irrational fear of height.
Given the quality of work and the frenetic speed of execution, people now drive from Lagos to Onitsha in a little over five hours. Just two years ago, the same journey used to take at least nine hours. It was worse on Sundays even a year ago. It was usual to spend up to three hours on one spot in Ondo State where the road failed woefully or was under reconstruction. Nigerians’ impatience on the road and general rough driving habits used to result in traffic gridlock here, forcing many into driving on village bush paths. This chaotic situation was most pronounced on Sundays.
The failed sections of the Lagos-Sagamu-Ijebu Ode-Ore-Benin Expressway may be located outside the South-east geopolitical zone, but it would appear that it was people and businesses from this zone that bore the brunt of the messy state of the road. Most travellers who use the road are from the area, and the people from the place are the major investors in transport business, ranging from Ekene Dili Chukwu to The Young Shall Grow, to Ekesons, Chisco, ABC, etc. The very poor condition of the road forced them to change their business model. For instance, instead of investing in big luxury Volvo or Mercedes buses from Brazil, they switched to Toyota minibuses which our people curiously call Hummer Bus. While mini buses can manoeuvre their way through bush paths, luxury buses can hardly do so. In fact, luxury bus operators were forced by the almost impassable nature of the road to remove their front grills, thus distorting their aesthetics.
One is glad to report that Fashola is doing well also in the heart of the South-east. The Onitsha-Enugu highway is getting a serious facelift for the first time in some 20 years - since the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came to power in 1999. The Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway is being reconstructed, in addition. There is a tinge of irony in all this. For the five years President Jonathan was in office, not even one federal road in the South-east was fixed. Yet, the Igbo political operatives were fanatical over him, and in the process drove the Igbo people into a terrible political direction. They falsely claimed that Jonathan was Igbo. This shows the wretchedness of nepotistic and expedient politics. Portions of the Benin-Asaba Road and the Benin-Ore Road failed badly when Mike Onolememen from Edo State was the Minister of Works, and nothing was done to fix them. And lest we forget, under Obasanjo’s presidency federal roads in Yorubaland, including the Lagos-Otta Rd, fell into the worst state of disrepair ever. To repeat the obvious, Jonathan could not fix any federal road in his home state of Bayelsa, let alone Rivers State where he spent much of his life.
Today, it is a young man of Yoruba extraction who is reconstructing roads all over the country, regardless of the political leaning of Nigeria’s component parts. Fashola has always been very impressive. The good work he is doing is now cited by Igbo politicians for joining the All Progressives Congress en masse. As the saying goes in communication science, the best form of propaganda is to do the right thing. I am personally indebted to Fashola for energetically reconstructing roads which enabled me to prepare well for my father’s funeral. He will always be in our thoughts and prayers.