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State of Ogbaru Road
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 Daily Independent Online.
* Wednesday, December 3, 2003.
Who will
save Anambra Roads?
...As
everything falls into a state of disrepair
and decay
By Okey Maduforo
Special Correspondent, Awka
Chief Adeseye Ogunlewe, Minister of Works and Housing, paints
a picture of a no-nonsense man. His face was full of anger and
disappointment as he unleashed threat on workers at the road
construction site. He had been on a working tour of the South East
geo-political zone and his visit to the office of Consolidated
Construction Company (CCC) at Oba was all it took to showcase the
personality of Ogunlewe.
"How can you tell me that a project that was flagged off a
year ago has not gone half way? We have released funds enough for
the project to take off in full swing, but what I have seen so far
is a disappointment. You don't have an asphalting plant, you don't
have blueprint with which you can operate, all you did was to go and
buy vehicles without any earth-lifting machine and you say you are
working. I have once suggested that two or three companies should
come into the project, but you refused. I must tell you this
contract will either be reviewed or revoked," Ogunlewe said.
The CCC was ranked 17th best in the world and despite public
criticism by stakeholders from the South East about the status of
the company, President Obasanjo defied all and entered into contract
with the company.
Governor Chris Nwabueze Ngige may have been biding his time
to give President Obasanjo a full dose of his anger and bottled up
emotions about the condition of roads in
Anambra State. He
wasted no time in lashing out at the Federal Government when the
President's Special Adviser on Legal Matters, Chief Ojo Maduekwe,
represented the Federal Government at the 7th Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe
Memorial Lecture in Onitsha.
"Ojo Maduekwe said he spent five hours travelling from
Enugu to Onitsha
due to the poor road network. I am happy he is seeing it. You have
not seen any thing yet. You passed through the express road and you
are complaining. You need to go into the communities and see for
yourself. I must state that Anambra State may have been singled out
by the Federal Government for punishment and marginalisation.
“We have no motorable road in Anambra and the worst are the
federal roads. But I must announce here that next week we shall
commence the construction of five roads in the state with the sum of
N6 billion and three o of the roads are federal roads. We shall
apply to the Federal Government for a refund. If you pay, we will
accept but if you don't we don't even care. All we are saying is
that the Federal Government has not been fair to
Anambra State and
this is most unfortunate. We have resolved to carry our cross and
help ourselves since you people have abandoned us. We must construct
those roads, no matter whose ox is gored," Governor Ngige stated.
Anambra
State has become a pilgrimage centre of a sort. Within three months,
no fewer than seven committees of various kinds have visited the
state with a view to finding a lasting solution to roads in Anambra
State and the celebrated case of ecological problem in the area.
Ironically, such visits ended up in public pronouncements and broken
promises. The state to which Anambra roads have been subjected to
politicking speaks volumes. On November 7, 2002 President Olusegun
Obasanjo flagged off the dualisation of Onitsha-Owerri highway the
same day he launched his campaign for a second term in office.
Political observers in Anambra State are of the view that Obasanjo
deliberately chose to flag off the road dualisation in order to
curry political support from the people of Anambra State; an area
that has been traumatised by the politics of discord allegedly
played by President Obasanjo against the late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo and
Dr. Alex Ekwueme. According to the National Chairman of the All
Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Chekwas Okorie, "Obasanjo
is not ready to carry out the project. All these are window dressing
aimed at fooling the South East. Why didn't he award the contract to
Julius Berger or Strabag? The CCC is a lowly rated company and
nothing is known about them. This man should not deceive us in the
name of road construction.” The present development has vindicated
Chief Chekwas Okorie and others who saw deceit in Obasanjo's
proposal to dualise the road.
Such is the fate of most roads in
Anambra State. The
Agulu-Ekwulobia-Uga road, which was constructed by Master Holdings
Construction Company, a local contractor, has become something else.
A contract awarded by the Federal Government with a view to
allegedly compensating the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party
Board of Trustees, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, two years ago is as good as a
decade old. Worse still, the road that links Imo and Abia states has
given way; no thanks to the notorious Agulu gully erosion. When the
gully started threatening the road, the state government under Dr.
Chinwoke Mbadinuju made several representations to Aso Rock on the
need to check the onslaught by the monster erosion, but the appeal
fell on deaf ears. It got so alarming when only a vehicle could pass
the spot at a time. Two months later, it became a death trap and
today motorists don't use the road anymore.
Also among the endangered roads is the Nimo-Neni road
constructed by Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju and commissioned by President
Obasanjo during his three-day state visit in February 2002. A major
part of the road has been lost to erosion. The state government had
in 2002 tried to arrest the devastating effect of erosion only to
behold yet another devastation on another section of the road.
Today, the Nimo-Neni road is a tourist attraction! Besides these two
major roads, the rest of
Anambra State is a
landscape of rustic city. It is not in doubt that
Onitsha
has the highest number of high rising state-of-the-art buildings in
the entire South East. It is also an undistorted fact that
Anambra
State is the heartbeat of commerce and industry in the geo-political
zone. But it is indeed mind-boggling and more or less shameful that
it has the worst network of roads. Most of the roads in question are
earth roads that spanned several kilometres. At Nnewi South Local
Government Area, the Nnewi-Ukpor road is like a bush path with
frightening valleys on both sides.
As at today no fewer than 76 people have lost their lives
through accidents on the road. A visit to Ukpor, according to Mr.
Azuka Nnadi, a bus driver, is like a journey to hell. "I don't like
going to Ukpor. I am a bus driver and I like money; but I won’t go
to Ukpor at any price. Sometimes I wonder if government remembers
them. Ukpor is one of the food baskets in Anambra, but going to
Ukpor is like going to hell," he said.
Nnewi South Local Government Area appears to be the worst
hit. Towns like Osumenyi, Ekwulumili, Utuh, Orsumoghu and Ebenato do
not have access roads. In Osumenyi, the hometown of Chief Nicholas
Ukachukwu who recently recovered his senatorial seat from Dr.
Ugochukwu Uba, their worst nightmare is the rainy season. According
to Ukachukwu, "Nnewi South has no road and it is bad, look at
Osumenyi, the last time we saw a grader here almost twenty years
ago. All we do is self-help effort. The community goes into fund
raising to grade the roads and no assistance from government.”
Also top on the list of areas affected by bad road network
are Idemili North and South Local Government Area. The communities
have resigned to fate. Besides Nnobi community that is located by
the major Nnobi-Nnewi road and Nnobi-Ekwulobia road, towns like Alor,
Ogidi, Abatete, Umuoji and Uke are at the mercy of gully erosion. A
trip to Alor on a motorcycle costs between N80 and N150. Roads in
the town have been on the state budget for years, but nothing has
been done. Uke, another town in Idemili North, shares similar
experience with Ogidi and Abatete. According to Chief Okey Muo Aroh,
former chairman, Idemili North Local Government and now special
assistant to the governor on Assembly Matters, Abatete is worse off.
“When I was the chairman, we tried to grade roads and construct
water channels for easy flow. We also made representations to the
state government, but nothing happened. We have also written some
non-governmental organisations for assistance, yet we are the way we
are. The Federal Government should look into Anambra roads and
increase our allocation," he said.
Dunukofia Local Government is about the smallest council in
Anambra
State, both in landmass and population. The six communities in the
local government have all their link roads in bad shape. The Ukwulu
- Nawgu – Enugwu-Agidi road is in a state of disrepair. An area that
is largely populated by farmers, it has more of roads which link Oyi
Local Government Area. An attempt was made at constructing
Nawgu-Isuanocha road three years ago, but it all stopped at earth
work. During rainy season, inhabitants of the area hardly use
vehicles as the topography worsens. Ukpo, the local government
headquarters, has a link with Abagana, the headquarter of Njikoka
Local Government Area and some part of Oyeagu town. But a trip to
the area shows a high level of neglect and desolation. Clems Ezika,
former council chairman of Dunukofia Local Government Area, told
Daily Independent that due to his membership of the All Nigerian
Peoples Party (ANPP), the Mbadinuju-led government was reluctant to
do anything about the road network in the area.
"It was difficult then. Most of the motorable roads were done
by my council in conjunction with community associations. But the
problem of zero allocation has not been to our advantage,” he said.
If zero allocation is the problem of Dunukofia Local Government, one
wonders what may be the barrier in constructing the
Nnewi-Ozubulu-Ihembosi road, an old link road belonging to the
Federal Government that cuts across Nnewi North, Nnewi South,
Ekwusigo and Ihiala local government areas. The construction of the
road would, to a large extent, reduce the level of traffic on
Onitsha-Owerri road.
According to Chief Gabriel Chukwuma, the proprietor of Gabros
Football Club and Beverly Hill Hotel, located at Ozubulu-Nnewi road,
"a tourist attraction and holiday resort like Beverly Hill Hotel
needs a good road. I chose that area due to its position in this
part of the country and a road of such nature needs urgent
attention, not just because of my hotel but for owners of cottage
industries and allied agric firms. The road used to be the only link
to Ihiala and even some part of
Imo State, but
promises and proposals made ended up in government book shelves.”
The
inhabitants of Atani and Oguikpele in Ogbaru Local Government Area
have lost confidence in governance. Not only have they resigned to
fate, they have also forgotten the idea of having good road network
in their area. Worst still, Ogbaru Local Government is another food
basket of
Anambra
State. The riverine town is more of a swamp, cutting across the
shores of River
Niger. A visit to Oguikpele reminds one of the Ogoni town in
Rivers
State. Successive governments in the past merely visited the area
with a sack full of promises. At the visit of Chief Adeseye Ogunlewe
to
Anambra
State, it was difficult to get into Ogbaru due to bad road.
The
minister was short of words at what he saw. His aides and retinue of
contractors were bewildered at the state of the road. It is even
more interesting because the road belong to the Federal Government.
It was announced last four years that work would start on the road,
but regrettably it became one of those fairy tales by politicians to
woe unsuspecting members of the pubic.
Their
fate is like that of a cockroach, while Ogbaru broods over their
state of hopelessness, the Achala-Oba Ofemili-Okpuno, Amansea,
Umuawulu, Nibo, Mbaukwu and Amawbia towns in Awka North and South
local government areas paint a picture of a forgotten people. These
towns appear to have been forgotten by government. But Chief
Amuluonyenaego of Umoawulu has been able to tar most portions of the
road in his area. According to him, it was part of his effort to
assist government.
Meanwhile, Governor Chris Ngige's road project is giving the
state a ray of hope. He recently embarked on the construction and
rehabilitation of five roads and if anything, there appears to be
light at the end of the tunnel. However, all these depends on the
machinations of Chris Uba's followers, who may want to do all they
can to frustrate him.
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