Editorial
Checking Carnage On Our Roads
The recent crashes recorded in Nigeria’s aviation industry may result in temporary pressure on road transportation across the country, but the question must be asked if the roads are safer?
Only last month, the Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC) released a report that Nigerian roads are the second most deadly in the world with the figure of deaths running into hundreds of thousands of road users annually. Clearly, it is the single most deadly means of transportation in Nigeria.
Hardly any day passes without reports of a road carnage in one part of the country or the other. In some cases, stories of the deaths and their causes are simply unbelievable. And instead of the trend dropping, many more Nigerians are sent to their untimely graves.
Just last week, an accident involving a petrol tanker somewhere on the Lagos – Ibadan Express Way affected more than 20 vehicles and resulted in scores of deaths. These deaths are avoidable. The authorities and every other stakeholder should be worried.
The negative impart of deaths resulting from road accidents on the economy can hardly be quantified. Nigeria cannot possibly make much progress on her transformation agenda, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the vision 20-20-20 if such carnage persists.
Even the electoral process that is at the base of our democracy is threatened by the death –trap that our roads have become in recent past. Incidentally, Nigeria is not the only country where road transportation is in major use, but why the country’s roads have become so deadly demands answers.
Until recently, the cause(s) of road mishaps were within human configuration until some social misfits added a demonic slant to the ill. A clear example was the armed robbery on a luxury bus, in which passengers were ordered to lie down on the road only to be run over by a trailer.
As mindless and inhuman as that isolated incident appears and the gloomy picture it paints of our road transportation system, we do think that quite a lot of accidents on our roads are avoidable. The state of roads in parts of the country has continued to take the blame for a lot of deaths, but the reason why so little is done to change the situation, cannot be understood.
In addition to the many trunk “A” roads, linking major sections of the country, like the East/West road that are in perpetual ruins, many states have carried on like nothing was wrong when roads in their cities degenerate to death traps.
Apart from the accidents that these roads cause, the nation loses a lot in damage caused to vehicles and goods.
Also disturbing is the attitude of road users who give very little or no attention to the road-worthiness of their vehicles and indeed safety of other road users. Some drivers do not only overload their vehicles, but also often operate under the influence of alcohol and not to mention that several do so without due training and licensing.
These issues are not insurmountable. Government cannot pretend to lack the authority to regulate the sector effectively or lack the funds to build sustainable roads.
It is true that the Federal Government once banned the importation of very old vehicles along with used motor tyres to check road accidents the inforcement of such ban remains to be seen.
But present realities indeed call for more proactive steps. In fact, the country needs to declare a state of emergency on the sector and in good time. Also, the many agencies charged with ensuring safety on our roads must be up to their duties.
Furthermore, government must take steps to employ technology in the administration of operations on Nigeria roads. There should be a dependable national data base on drivers that will enhance the implementation of sanctions on erring motorists in every state of the country.
It is noteworthy that, some states have raised agencies to improve the administration of traffic. But the emphasis seemed to have weighed more towards monetary returns than instilling road safety culture.
The danger on our roads must be addressed quickly with a view to bringing down the carnage and saving the nation from further heartbreaks.
There are moments in the life of a legislature when plain speaking becomes a public service. Senator Adams Oshiomhole provided such a moment on the floor of the Senate when he accused the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, of manifestly neglecting critical federal arteries in Edo and Delta States, and implored his colleagues to prevail on the Minister to adopt a more equitable and genuinely national approach to road infrastructure delivery. It was blunt, it was uncomfortable, and it was necessary.
The specifics of his complaint deserve restating. Drawing attention to the recent approval of some 20 new road projects despite the parlous state of existing ones, the former Edo State governor lamented that Nigerians cannot travel from Benin to Warri, Benin to Asaba, Benin to Auchi, or Auchi to Okene without encountering severe distress. He alleged a deliberate omission of these corridors from the national budget in the last three years, save for palliative interventions directed by President Bola Tinubu through tax credit arrangements. His question — “What have we done wrong?” — resonates far beyond the chambers of the National Assembly.
We lend our full and unequivocal support to that call. The Auchi-Benin Road, for instance, has been in a deplorable and near-impassable condition for several years, turning what should be a two-hour journey into an all-day ordeal of broken axles, extortionate fares, and despondent commuters. The media have, on multiple occasions, chronicled the suffering of motorists, traders, and students who ply that route. To describe it as a federal road today is to stretch the meaning of the term beyond recognition.
This pattern of sidelining is not confined to Edo or Delta. Even here in Rivers State, the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Works has left much to be desired, particularly along the Eleme axis of the East-West Road. That road, which ought to be a flagship of federal presence in the Niger Delta, has remained in a wretched state for long. Those who use it daily — workers at the Eleme Petrochemical Complex, the two refineries, Onne Port, and the countless ancillary industries — can attest to its deterioration. Work has proceeded in fits and starts without the sustained urgency such a strategic road demands.
The Eleme stretch is not a mere intra-state byway. It is the gateway to the nation’s economic jugular. According to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s 2023 Highway Condition Survey, only about 35 per cent of the country’s 36,000 kilometres of federal roads are rated as being in good or fair condition, with the remainder classified as poor or very poor. The East-West Road, conceived in the 1970s to bind the entire Niger Delta, remains unfinished in critical sections more than four decades after. If it had been treated as a priority, the perennial gridlock, carnage, and economic loss on the Eleme-Refinery junction would have long been consigned to history.
The irony is as painful as it is glaring. The Niger Delta remains the goose that lays the golden eggs. Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [NEITI 2023 Oil and Gas Audit] show that the region still accounts for over 78 per cent of Nigeria’s federally collected export earnings and about 65 per cent of total government revenue. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS Foreign Trade Report Q4 2024] similarly confirms that crude oil continues to dominate export receipts. By every metric of equity and economic logic, a region that sustains the national purse deserves first-rate consideration in the allocation of infrastructure, not afterthoughts and tokenism.
Road infrastructure is not largesse to be dispensed by favour; it is the skeleton upon which commerce, cohesion, and citizenship hang. When contracts are concentrated in one geopolitical zone while other zones are left to contend with craters, it erodes trust in the federation itself. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update [June 2023] estimated that poor transport connectivity inflates the cost of moving goods by up to 40 per cent and costs the Nigerian economy an estimated $1.5 billion annually in lost man-hours and vehicle maintenance. If we profess to be one country, then equity must be the compass that guides key institutions before any project is executed. Development must spread round, not pool in one place as though other regions do not matter.
There is also a grave security dimension that can no longer be ignored. The deplorable condition of federal roads has become a veritable enabler of criminality. The NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey reported over 2.5 million incidents of kidnapping-related occurrences nationally, with transport workers identifying bad road spots as prime ambush points. When vehicles are forced to crawl at 10 kilometres per hour through failed sections at Auchi, Sapele Road, or Eleme, they become sitting ducks for armed gangs. Fixing bad roads, therefore, is not merely about convenience; it is about safeguarding lives.
By his intervention, Senator Oshiomhole has hit the nail on the head and reminded Minister Umahi of a fundamental constitutional truth: public office is held in trust. The Ministry of Works is not a personal estate where contracts are awarded according to whim or political convenience. It is a national institution funded by the collective resources of Nigerians, including the oil and gas rents from the very communities whose roads are now neglected. The Minister must demonstrate balance, transparency, and a pan-Nigerian outlook in the distribution of projects that impact the daily existence of citizens. Selective neglect breeds suspicion, and suspicion is corrosive at a time when the nation is preaching unity, oneness, equity, and justice.
Consequently, the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and assert its oversight powers with vigour. Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] empower the legislature to investigate and expose any maladministration in the execution of federal projects. If an office holder is not acting rightly, it is the duty of the Senate and the House of Representatives to call him to order. Oversight must not be reduced to budget approval ceremonies; it must translate to field verification, public hearings, and insistence that the Federal Character principle, as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the Constitution, reflects in road awards.
Let the Auchi-Okene, Benin-Warri, Benin-Asaba, and Eleme East-West gangways be restored to motorable dignity. Let priority be given to completing existing, economically vital roads before embarking on new ones. If those who, through their resources, sustain the federation are sidelined in the distribution of tangible dividends, it tells poorly of our nationhood. Bad roads must be fixed, and they must be fixed now, with fairness as the guiding standard.
