Editorial
A Case For The Visually Impaired
The sorry state of the visually impaired in Nigeria and nations across the globe came to the front burner of international discourse again last week as the world paused to mark a day to excite global consciousness on their subject.
Observed as White Cain Day in the United States in 1964, the day has since been adopted by the United Nations (UN) owing to its universal relevance and spread.
Consequently, each year, the UN ensures that it arouses international awareness on the plight of that fringe of humanity with visual challenge using a carefully chosen theme, “Keeping the Blind Walking.”
This theme could not have been more apt, especially against the backdrop of several causative factors and a number of intervening variables that conspire to discipline the physical effort and activities of the blind and the visually impaired in the society.
Nigeria actually has cause to worry, giving the grim statistics of persons with visual impairment across the country and how the sufferers swell the number of destitutes on the street.
Even as the population of the visually challenged steadily grows in Nigeria, efforts at addressing the all-important issue and taking care of affected persons appear to be invisible on the radar of government plan.
It needs not to be restated that sight is one of the most important needs in life. Often, affected persons become a burden on society and in most cases, something of a nuisance to their immediate environment because society has no deliberate plan to manage them.
Perhaps, it should also be noted that the visually impaired are not totally useless. In fact, they have abilities that society can draw from. Government must develop their potentials and drink the special contributions from such persons. There must be special schools to develop their skills. For the rest of society that have not come down with it, let there be good hospitals.
According to science, the causes of visual impairment are varied. They include environmental, nutritional, abuse of drugs, health complications and more. But the worst of it all is that in Africa, it is still driven by poverty, ignorance and superstition.
Here in Rivers State, the number of blind street beggars swells daily. However, knowing that most of the blind beggars come from the Northern part of Nigeria, government ought to have done a study to identify the rare causes of blindness with a view to eliminating it and limiting human misery in this area.
It is however heart-warming to note that some corporate organizations have started programmes to make more Nigerians have access to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (cooking gas) as the use of firewood is also suspected to affect the eyes. Government would need to support and expand this laudable initiative.
The Tide commends the UN for throwing light on this subject and providing some kind of assistance, material and otherwise. It is now on the conscience of governments and indeed the civil service to give expression to this compelling social need.
It is a shame that in 21st century Africa, eye problems still constitute a huge challenge. At a time when science on the subject has also grown, there cannot be any reason why the governments in Africa cannot have a handle on the problem.
We demand that the issue be treated with the seriousness it deserves even in Nigeria and stop this avoidable pain and stigma.
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.
