Ogbaru Road 

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The Igwes of Ogbaru

State of Ogbaru Road

By Paul Nwosu
Wednesday, December 10, 2003

The Works minister seems as one willing to dare where others have failed. IF I may ask where are the engineering   representatives of government, charged with the supervision of roads found, if not in the Ministry of Works. And we are told that out of the 65 directors, 45 are from the South East. The Minister must have been under some kind of pressure to mitigate his earlier proclamation but the truth does not hide. Even as he was trying to placate certain interest groups with his retraction, he was also quoted during his working tour of the federal infrastructure and roads in Enugu State, as calling on the people to form vigilante groups to monitor the execution of their roads. In very clear language he warned the “Igbos to desist from relying on their kinsmen occupying top positions in the ministry” saying they are not representing them efficiently.
Senator Ogunlewe should stop his futile attempt at covering up the obvious. Even before he made public his finding, we, the masses, already know that the deplorable state of our roads might not have been unconnected with the hanky-panky between top Ministry technocrats and dishonest construction firms.

Ogbaru  road

This brings me to the pathetic case of Ogbaru road which has been a victim of fake certification of work completion and ungodly neglect by the state authorities for decades.
When the Federal government announced the approval of N600 million to rehabilitate the major roads and bypasses in the South East, we expected Ogbaru road to be included. Apart from the fact that Ogbaru road was formally adopted as a federal road by the immediate past Minister of Works, Chief Anthony Anenih, the road is a strategic bypass into Onitsha -- Owerri road (through Ekwusigo, Ozubulu) and Rivers  State through Ndoni. So, for the Federal government to have thought about rehabilitating bypasses in the South East without Ogbaru road must have been a gross mistake.
As soon as you cross the Niger bridge into Anambra State, Ogbaru road, to your right, is the first major road bypassing Onitsha and its nightmarish traffic situation. The road immediately presents a convenient short-cut for those who have no business entering Onitsha town or travelling to Enugu or Anam/Aguleri axis. The road runs through to Atani, the headquarters of Ogbaru Local Government Area, then Osamala an Ogwu Ikpelle from where it crosses into Rivers State at Ndoni.

From Atani, Ogbaru road is connected to Onitsha-Owerri road at Ekwusigo Ozubulu, through a link road built by the colonialist Royal Nigeria Company for evacuating cash produce through their port on the Niger bank. The road is now completely in ruins from many years of neglect and effects of erosion.
The advantage of this road to Owerri bound travellers is that they can go through Atani/Ekwusigo road and continue their journey to Owerri without being bugged down with Onitsha traffic. But apart from this exit, the big take on the Ogbaru road is the passage it provides into Rivers State through Ndoni to which, but for the accident of geography, is basically an Ogbaru community. In effect, the larger implication of a rehabilitated or reconstructed Ogbaru road is that it will provide another good short-cut into Rivers State without bothering to go through Imo or Abia states.
Though government has named Oba, Nnewi, Uga, Orlu roads to be the beneficiaries of this initial N600 million vote for the rehabilitation of South Eastern roads, the Ogbaru-Ndoni and Atani-Ekwusigo roads deserve to be immediately reconstructed if the benefit of government’s intervention on South Eastern roads would be

maximized. Any road networking that does not take into consideration the Ogbaru bypass is bound to continue to put vehicular pressure on the rehabilitated roads.
Constructed 32 years ago by the venerable Ajie Ukpabi Asika at the end of the civil war, Ogbaru road was meant to create access into Ogbaru hinterland, fondly referred to, as the state's food basket because of its rich soil which grows some of the best species of yam/cassava tuber, vegetables, fruits and abundant fish due to its close proximity to the Niger river.
The road was also supposed to be forerunner of what the oldman hoped would eventually become a strategic link between East Central State and Rivers State through Ndoni who are culturally affiliated to Ogbaru.
No sooner than he left office, maintenance of the road became a subject of buck passing and game playing by subsequent state governments.
A number of times we were told by impeccable sources that funds were budgeted to rehabilitate the road but all we saw on each of these occasions were a few tippers of laterite that were washed off with the first couple of rains. At a time our people were compelled to make representation to the government, but they were told that the book have it that Ogbaru road had been constructed.
This was the era of the military when people were not expected to ask too many questions. So our emissaries picked up their walking sticks in disbelief, thanked their hosts, and left.
At a stage, when there was no lie to tell again, the state shrugged the responsibility of the road off its shoulders claiming it is a federal responsibility because of its inter-state nature. It was at this point that the road was abandoned and it gradually disintegrated out of existence. All that is now left of this model road is nothing but what looks like an overseized bush path with vestiges coal tar here-and-there.

Miles back from civilisation Today, the road represents miles back from civilisation and the tragedy of it is that the abundant food harvested in Ogbaru hinterlands can no longer be evacuated easily to the urban centres because commercial pick-ups cannot venture into the hinterland for obvious reasons. Farmers now resort to evacuating their farm produce in canoes, through the Niger River. A number of times, these canoes have capsized due to inclement tide resulting in huge losses, and where they are landed successfully, the farm produce are sold at aggravated costs.

What looked like a respite came at the turn of our new democratic dispensation. Following the unrelenting lobbying by our Ogbaru Federal Constituency representative, Hon. Okwudili Uzoka, the former Minister of Works, Chief Anenih, in a widely publicised move, gave his Ministry’s approval to take over the Ogbaru - Ndoni road. He assured our law maker that Ogbaru road will be amongst those to be reconstructed in the 2001 fiscal year.

The news sparked off jubilation prompting our leaders to write a letter of appreciation to the former Minister. We waited in vain. His tenure ran out and we didn’t see even a tipper of asphalt deposited on the road in the name of Federal Ministry of Works. But we are not blaming him. Perhaps his soul was willing but his budget was weak.
Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe has taken the bull by the horn. He appears set to bring succour to the long suffering South Easterners. He came across as a man that is set to right the decades of wrong. One willing to dare where others have failed. And for this, he will always have our support and prayers.