Editorial
World Family Day: Matters Arising
The global community last Wednesday celebrated the International Day of Families, in line with United Nations General Assembly Resolution 47/237 which proclaimed May 15 every year as a day to foster and strengthen family units to function effectively for societal development.
The annual observance which began in 1994 was primarily aimed at attracting global interest and attention towards supporting families, as a vital component of societal growth and to equip them properly, to nurture the young, care for the old, and foster strong communities built on tolerance and dignity for all.
This year’s theme: “Advancing Social Integration and International Solidarity”, is most apt, timely and appropriate, especially against the backdrop of increasing threat to global peace arising from religions extremism, fundamentalism, faith-based hatred and indeed terrorism and other social vices ravaging various parts of the globe.
As the nucleus for character building and moral upbringing of the child the family must play its fundamental role to encourage tolerance, understanding of one another, despite our differences in social, religious, political and cultural background.
As the basic unit of the society and the bedrock for societal development, the family has a sacred role to mould the child’s early life and character into such moral strength that enables the child to resist negative peer group influence and other anti-social tendencies, which in his youth could be detrimental to global peace, security, co-existence, cohesion and integration.
Regrettably, however, most families have, for far too long reneged on this and fallen short of society’s expectation, and the society has to pay dearly for deviant behaviours of the child. This must not be the case.
This is where governments come in. To make the family function optimally towards ensuring societal good, governments across the country must equip it through the provision of functional education, technical knowledge, basic health needs and fashion programmes and policies to proactively address poverty alleviation.
Like governments, non-governmental agencies at all levels should also strive to correct the glaring anomaly of weak family structures by ensuring adequate access to social, health, and educational services through their programmes to help check the hindrances that seek to deprive families of opportunity to plan a better future for their children.
Infact, all stakeholders must show sufficient commitment to support and strengthen the family units to enable them play the roles ascribed to them by the society by addressing the challenges facing them, particularly at this time of socio-economic and security challenges.
Evidently, the socio-economic exclusion of the families from policy formulation to execution has, no doubt, posed a clear and present danger with its attendant dis-equilibrium which occasions increasing criminality, violence and other anti societal behaviours.
It is important, therefore that all do understand and appreciate the unique challenges that families face so as to formulate policies and programmes suitable for them, especially in the face of alarming poverty among various families.
Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development: Hajiya Zainab Maina, struck the right chord when she said, the more we understand and appreciate the implications of poverty, particularly, the impact of poverty on the family and society, the better we can design policies in ways that are proactive, comprehensive, effective and functional.
The Tide agrees but regrets that successful Nigerian governments’ educational policies geared towards uplifting the Nigerian child and families have failed to yield commensurate results. An example is the 6:3:3:4 education system aimed at providing technical and vocational skills for the child just as various poverty alleviation polices of successive dispensations have failed to achieve desired objectives which is perhaps why unemployment and poverty rate still pervade amongst Nigeria families.
As the world celebrates the family day, we expect that government and non-governmental organs at all levels will move beyond the traditional funfair often associated with annual observances and property articulate programmes that truly defend and strengthen the family structure and ensure its expected nurturing and sustenance of enduring values like integrity, fear of God, love for state and nation among the children, to grow and become good citizens and dependable adults.
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.
