By Ohereome Nnanna

THERE  is  hardly a better word for the phenomenon than tragedy. The two organs of the Federal Government created to construct and maintain federal roads nationwide have, in their abject failure to deliver on their mandates, thrown the nation into untold misery, and oftentimes mourning.

About two years ago, the Onitsha-Enugu Expressway, which had been in tatters for over 10 years, finally gave birth to a gruesome accident. A fuel tanker fell into a large pothole at a junction near Awka, emptied its incendiary petroleum contents on the road, which caught fire and roasted over 75 commuters in buses and cars lined up behind the tanker.

Bandits waylaid innocent Nigerians on a failed section of the Benin-Shagamu Express one night last year and started searching the occupants of a luxury bus.

Those with money were allowed to stay on board. Those without were ordered down and told to lay flat on the tarmac. At gunpoint, the driver of the bus was forced to crush them repeatedly.

They had to pay a price for their poverty, and the Federal Ministry of Works (FMoW) and its agency, the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) had, through their dereliction of duty, contributed their “humble quotas” to that grisly saga.

Everywhere you go in this country, roads owned by the Federal Government are in ruins. We have no rail services. Under the circumstances of sanity and patriotic service delivery, road maintenance would be absolute priority to every regime.

But here in Nigeria, the opposite is the trend. And the worst neglected roads include some of the most economically and socially-relevant trunks to ordinary Nigerians who have no alternative to move around.

The number one expressway in the country, quite obviously, is the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway. It leads to the nation’s foremost seaports: the Apapa Ports and Tin-Can Island Port, through which about 80 per cent of goods and about 100 per cent of petroleum products imported into the country pass to the rest of the country.

Apart from the fact that this road leads to the nation’s foremost international airport (the Murtala Muhammed International Airport ) it also harbours five large industrial parks in its stretch. Trailers and tankers from all parts of the country, especially Northern Nigeria, converge on this ever-busy road to load fuel and goods for bridging inland.

It is here that the Nigeria Customs Service generates about 60 per cent of its annual revenue target. Some of the most influential newspapers in the country – Vanguard, The Guardian, Thisday, SUN and Champion – have their corporate headquarters here. Surprisingly only Vanguard and sometimes,

The Guardian, take the pains to crusade for Federal Government attention on this road, while others nap while they suffer. If these media giants should combine efforts to save this road not only as a social responsibility but also to preserve their businesses, no regime can continue the neglect.

When media attention is turned on FMoW and FERMA, they often resort to theatrics and mischief. You will recall how Mrs Diezani Madueke as Minister of Transport, had performed an act fit for Nollywood when she assumed office in 2007.

She put on fanciful construction gear, went to a failed portion of the Benin-Shagamu Express and started to weep uncontrollably. That was all. She was rewarded for her performance by being posted to higher grounds, first as Minister of Solid Minerals and now Minister of Petroleum Resources!

Media campaigns fell on the deaf ears of Dr Mohammed Hassan Lawal, who succeeded her in office. It was not until tanker and trailer owners called for his removal and issued a strike notice that Lawal panicked and went on tour of Lagos federal roads, including the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway.

A few cosmetic patchworks were done to tide over last rainy season. The road has again collapsed, the worst being at Berger Bus-stop, where a series of deep holes are waiting for a fuel tanker to fall and reap another grim harvest in deaths and loss of hundreds of tankers, trailers and the used cars on sale there. Lawal has since been named in a N50 billion contract fraud.

FERMA reacted to an outrage report by Vanguard when, penultimate Thursday, it denied responsibility for the maintenance of the road.

According to a statement issued by FERMA’s Maryam Sanusi, the Federal Government had already awarded contracts for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of designated portions of the express to Borini Prono and Julius Berger.

Berger has denied, saying no such contract between it and the Federal Government exists. Is someone lying to us? Has it come to something that low?

Incidentally, Julius Berger, which has its premises on the failed Berger Bus-stop, has done nothing in form of corporate social responsibility, to alleviate the suffering.

FERMA is one organisation that has never impressed anyone. It was conceived in bad faith and born in mischief. Before FERMA was the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), which was established by the Abacha regime to intervene in addressing the collapse of federal roads, a mandate it carried out excellently.

But when President Olusegun Obasanjo was elected he maliciously scrapped PTF and formed FERMA, which was primarily deployed in Lagos in a vain attempt to drive then Governor Bola Tinubu out of power.

Unlike the old Public Works Departments (PWDs) , FERMA never attends to potholes when they are developing. It waits until gullies on road surfaces become multi-billion naira contracts before moving in to perform their cosmetic remediation.

And now, it denies responsibility for repairing the Apapa expressway because it has gone beyond their scope. Would the alleged contracts to Julius Berger and Borini Prono have been necessary if FERMA had attended to the potholes when they were minor cracks?

Sanusi Daggash, the Minister of Works, MUST GO! FERMA must be scrapped and PTF brought back. FERMA is useless!