IT is difficult to tell what must have kept Ore end of the Lagos-Benin expressway undone up till this time. It is one riddle which may require more than mere exertion to determine.

Engaging the services of a clairvoyant may not be a bad idea, if in doing so, all delinquent former Ministers of Works will be excused of failure on account of spiritual encumbrances. I presume this will assuage the pains of hapless users who ply the difficult road daily.

This portion of road has for many years defied many an administration and rubbished a sequence of Works Ministers who attempted its rehabilitation. The level of devastation wrought on the road by rain water that percolates in neglected potholes and ditches makes Ore about the most treacherous road in the country today. Daily report shows that the volume of traffic jam on the road is comparable to no other.

A journey of one day now gets completed in two. And travellers must set out at dawn if they hope to reach their destinations in good time. There is always the danger of being trapped in the gridlock, exposed to inclement weather and frightening uncertainty. There is also the creepy feeling of mugging from hawkers streaming out of the shacks that abut the expressway.

But the greatest irony of the decay of this road is that some distance away, an unblemished stretch of road traverses from Benin to Asaba. This makes the neglect of Ore portion both strange and worrisome. The carnage it generates is also scary. It worries many a traveller that the loss of lives on the road has not provoked the Federal Government to action.

Explaining the non-responsive attitude of government in fixing the road may be the common failing of mankind never to anticipate a storm when the sea is calm. Maybe until the road becomes completely impassable shall the state intervene?

There is no significant difference with the politics of constructing another bridge across the aging Niger. Avoidable deaths are often treated with levity. Deaths on our highways should challenge any reasonable government to effect a change. But like the nagging problem of Boko Haram, governments in all the three tiers are rarely proactive. They prefer responding to situations rather than controlling them, especially when those situations are unavoidably severe.

About five ministers have since the advent of this democracy presided over affairs in the Ministry of Works with little to show for their efforts. Anenih, Ogunlewe, Anibaba, Adebayo and Daggash all failed to make any major impact. The road has remained bad save for some palliative work done on it without avail.  One minister (not Works) was reported to have shed tears when she visited the area and saw the rot.

However, like others before her she also did nothing. But she would be excused of ineptitude since that was not her direct charge. But it shows that government is not unaware of the danger posed by the decay.

Today, Mike Onolememen has been appointed Minister of Works. The question on the lips of everybody is whether he will endeavour to make any difference? Or whether he will like others before him, fail in his duty or worse still, attempt another palliative measure?  There is no doubt the task before him is enormous. What, with the decay of major federal roads across the country. Coupled with that is the problem confronting the housing sector. The country is currently faced with the problems of collapsed and collapsible buildings, killing Nigerians in their dozens.

His appearance in the hallowed chambers of the Senate during the screening exercise gave a glimmer of hope. He, like Barth Nnaji, Allison-Maduaeke, Okonjo-Iweala, Ashiru, Aganga, and a few others, emitted some sparks of confidence.

Hopefully, his tenure won’t contradict the saying that an unfaithful wife can be determined from the bold and flirtatious looks in her eyes. For no doubt he evinced unusual savvy about the problems bedeviling our public works and their solutions, citing his pedigree as a worthy anchor. His first six months in office will prove his mettle or lack of it.

Beyond this, he should also take a hard look on some other federal roads in the country like Enugu-Onitsha, Enugu-Port Harcourt, Aba-Port Harcourt, Aba-Ikot-Ekpene, Makurdi road, etc and see how they can be salvaged. It is doubtful if others not mentioned here can claim relative advantage. The decay is everywhere, but that of Ore is quite pathetic because of the volume of traffic it commands.

Any minister without vicarious pains of users of this road may not understand the urgent need for action. The pang of travel is worse during festive periods when travellers move in droves and some unfortunately sleep on the road days on end.

Unfortunately, not much is reported about the neglect of this busy road. Privileged Nigerians rarely go by road. They fly instead. The humiliating experience is not felt across the board, but among the lower class. All the noise about insecurity in the country today is because the bombs of the Boko Haram are indiscriminately unsparing. The poor as well as the rich get killed.

Nobody is spared. None is out of harm’s way yet the place of bombing is neither defined nor distinct.

Ore road is gradually becoming a byword for failure, a Waterloo with several Napoleons (ministers) in its haul. Among travellers, especially those from the Eastern part of the country, Ore may well represent a twin disaster area. Apart from the hellish experience of travelling on the road, Biafran misadventure at Ore also evokes a feeling of loss. Here, Colonel Victor Banjo, leading Biafran soldiers in their quest to take Lagos failed to make further advance and retreated with great many casualties.

The disarray in the camp of Biafran soldiers saw a lot of straggling soldiers shot and those who billeted got extirpated. Historians are sharply divided on what brought about the reversal of fortune for the fledgling republic. This is a topic for another day.

The task before the new Minister of Works, is challenging but is achievable. What he needs is the political will to do what others before him did not venture so as to endear himself to Nigerians. Success and failure are already in competition as to which will prevail in the days ahead. Most of those before him followed the beaten path and ended up as footnotes in our history.

Mr. BY EJIKE ANYADUBA, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Anambra State.