By Helen Ovbiagele

My sense of  duty was jolted last year when someone told me that because of the piece I wrote on my experience in July on the state of the Benin/Lagos road, members of her family who were going to travel  by road to the eastern parts of the country for a wedding, decided instead to go by air, even though it bore a great hole in their pockets.

The media is supposed to educate, inform and entertain, but when something you’ve written actually influences the decision that a citizen makes, it dawns on you that you don’t just write for the sake of putting pen to paper, but you have to do so with caution, and with as much accuracy at your disposal as possible.  You don’t want to drive people into a panic, but at the same time it’s important for them to know what they would be undertaking.

Both the print and electronic media, through write-ups, photographs, and news reports, did their best for many months to draw the federal government’s attention to the deplorable condition of that very busy and very important road in the country.   The volume of vehicular movement, including many heavy duty vehicles, like fuel tankers, trailers of all sizes, and lorries, is unbelievable.

After many feeble attempts by the government, over the years, to  ‘repair’ with sand, a road which needed complete rehabilitation, the current bosses in the Federal Ministry of Works decided to get serious and embark on some serious work of rehabilitation in some parts of that road.  We thank God for this and it is to the credit of this team that this work is being done during their tenure.

I had the opportunity recently, of assessing how much work has been done on this road, after I saw a piece in the paper praising the Minister for Works, for making the road a lot better.

The claim is true.  There’s been tremendous improvement in the state of that road.  So much so that it’s possible to do the trip in about four and a half hours.  I’m sure commercial vehicles do it in less than that.  What’s more, serious work was still going on, on the Lagos/Benin side when I travelled on it.

Still, there’s still a lot of serious work to be done on that road before we can sit back and call it a Trunk A road in the country again, like it was in the mid-nineties when late General Adisa was federal minister of Works.  I’m sure it’s possible to achieve that high level again, if the Ministry keeps on top of the situation; insisting on top quality work, and sending reliable and honest experts to go monitor and assess the work being done, from time to time.

ORE JUNCTIONS
On both sides of Ore 1 & 2 junctions, there’s still a lot of work going on there which needs to be handled very well, in order to have a properly rehabilitated road which will withstand the rainy season this year.  There’s still unhealthy traffic build-up at those junctions in spite of the presence of the traffic wardens there.  Sometimes, the build-up is so chaotic that these ones are unable to cope, even with the help of some volunteers, and it becomes a fight for the fittest, or the roughest!

These stops are the most time-wasting spots on that road at the moment.  It isn’t a place for the faint-hearted or gentlemanly driver, and this is most unhealthy for all concerned.  Even if you’re not driving, you emerge from the mess, totally exhausted and upset.

I agree that it’s the extensive road work there causing this malaise at present, but the situation can be well-managed if there’s properly-marked official diversion.  I don’t know what the role of the FRSC should be in this, but they do have a camp close to Ore 1 junction.  Once, many months ago, at the height of  the distress on that road, I saw them preventing vehicles from turning a one-way road into a two-way road as they approached the first junction.

This worked then, and there was an orderly queue which made the chaos at the junction less tangled, and vehicles were at least able to crawl past it. Those junctions need to be manned  properly from a solid well-lit traffic shelter built in the middle, even when the road is restored to top form.

BRIDGES
From Shagamu, right down to Benin City, all the bridges, without exception, are in very bad condition and this poses huge danger to the lives of all roads users.  Many bridges on that road are without guards as the railings have been ripped off by vandals, or badly damaged when vehicles veered off the road and rammed into them.  One is tensed while driving on these bridges; not to mention the plight of the villagers who have to walk on them (including women and children); some of them carrying heavy fire wood or farm products.

I’m not an expert on road rehabilitation, but shouldn’t the bridges be restored to make them safe, at the same time that the rehabilitation work is being carried out?  To some of us non-experts, we would expect the work to be carried out, portion by portion; with work on one portion being completed fully before moving on to another portion.  With our history of lack of accountability and lack of adequate supervision of public projects, won’t the issue of  rehabilitating the bridges be ‘overlooked’ or ‘forgotten’, when the project is declared finished?

I hope on completion of the project, the construction company and ministry officials will not start arguing about whether or not the rehabilitation of bridges were included in the contract at the onset.  The squabble would then fall on the ground without the issue being resolved, and the danger to lives will remain. Common sense demands that drainage and bridges should be part of a project/contract on road repairs, and this should be properly emphasized while drawing up the contract.

SELECTIVE REPAIRS.
I don’t know the modalities for this project, but it seems this road is going to be rehabilitated only in parts.  Right now on both sides of the road, there are ‘jumps’, as parts of the road, particularly the Benin/Lagos side, where some portions are patched, there’s a jump over some bad portions, and then work is carried on further down the road.  If this is deliberate, it is childish on the part of whoever made the decision.

It’s like leaving a part of the pot you used in cooking unwashed; thinking that no-one would notice.  We shouldn’t be told by those in charge that they mean to return to those bad parts they skipped!  Why jump over them in the first place?  These portions are a hindrance to smooth travel on this road right now as you have to slow down when you happen suddenly on them; not to mention the risk of an accident when a vehicle is going at top speed, thinking that the road is fine.

REGULAR & RESPONSIBLE INSPECTION
The minister should please ensure that he sends out responsible teams to go inspect this road on both sides at regular intervals, and proper progress report submitted to him.  On a lighter note, since the honourable minister is from Edo state, he can stop at any motor park in Benin City incognito, to ask drivers who use that road about its state and what part needs further attention. They would give him a very accurate report, I’m sure.

CONTACT POINTS
For a busy road like that, telephone numbers and camps where motorists can make reports/get help, should be well-displayed in a conspicuous place on the border between the States through which it runs.  Who do we ring up when there’s a fire or an accident on that road?

I saw a vehicle burning up almost in the middle of the road on the side Lagos/Benin, with nobody in sight.  Motorists just managed to edge past it and were on their way.  I just wondered!  What if a loaded fuel tank suddenly happened upon it?