By Mike Ebonugwo & Chinenyeh Ozor, Nsukka

No thanks to the long neglected and indeed highly degraded Nsukka-Oziedem-Nron-Ezikolo-Abbi-Nimbo road, most indigenes of some five communities of Uzo-Uwani Local Government of Enugu State endured another round of bitter experiences travelling to their respective villages during the last Christmas and New Year celebrations. The road is said to be one of the major and oldest roads in the old Eastern Region and old Anambra State. These communities are in Enugu North Senatorial zone of the state.

About 109 villages in these five communities depend on the road. The road is considered particularly important because it leads to the major markets of Oziedem, Nrobo, Ezikolo, Abbi and Nimbo communities. The inhabitants of these communities are predominantly farmers and their economic sustenance derives from farming activities and trading.

•Communal efforts to fix road

According to a prominent business man, academic and son of Abbi community, Professor Mathias Ofili Ugwudioha: “Roads to these communities and villages have been completely damaged and these people cannot access their communities through motor vehicles. They use motor cycles popularly known as Okada to access their homes. The indigenes who return from different parts of the country usually park their cars in Nsukka town and use motorcycles to travel to their communities and villages. These people seem to have been cut off from the rest of the state.”

To underline the very poor state of the road, the Enugu State governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, was said to have described it as the worst in the state during a meeting with leaders of Uzo-Uwani local government area, The governor was said to have come to these conclusion based on the findings of a committee he set up on his assumption of office to ascertain the state of infrastructure throughout the state. The committee’s report claimed that the road is indeed the worst in the state.

Perhaps, hardest hit by the poor state of the road is Abbi, an agricultural community which is blessed with a beautiful and enchanting landscape made so by rich green vegetation and rolling hills. The land which stretches for miles in different direction is a delight to the inhabitants on account of its fertile soil that has made the area a farmer’s paradise and by extension, a veritable food basket of the state. That was until recent Fulani herdsmen attacks in neighbouring communities that led to loss of lives and destruction of farm lands.

However, before the problem of herdsmen attacks, the people have, over the years, more or less been at the mercy of sustained soil erosion that has become a curse to the area.

To make matters worse, the  Nsukka-Oziedem-Nron-Ezikolo-Abbi-Nimbo road which is their  only link to the urban cities of the state has since the end of the civil war been rendered impassable after years of neglect which left it in a state of disrepair. For the residents of the community to reach Nsukka urban town, they have to go through Ukpabi Nimbo, which is an agonising route, apart from the enormous cost it entails.

Apart from this, the road has over the years become a death-trap as there have been instances where some exhausted travellers succumbed to death while in transit to Nsukka. Such tragedies usually occur while the unfortunate victims were being conveyed on commercial motorcycles to their destinations.

The poor state of the road is particularly telling on the Abbi farmers who find it difficult conveying their produce to other places in Enugu State and beyond. In most cases, the farmers have no choice but to transport their loads of farm produce to Nsukka by carrying them on their heads, a slow and laborious process. On account of this, a large percentage of the cash crops end up perishing.

Also, the prolonged neglect of the road has led to existing public institutions at Abbi being abandoned and inhabited by rodents. Unable to endure the rigor of plying the near inaccessible road, officials posted to the institutions had after a first visit on motorcycle gone back to where they came from never to return.

For some people, the deterioration of the road was hastened by sustained soil erosion. The usual downpour of each successive rainy season always end up creating yawning gullies and tunnels on the road, making it impassable for vehicles.

Successive Uzo-Uwani local government council chairmen each made the point of lamenting the unfortunate situation and appealing to both state and the Federal Government for help.

The state government road estimated at 12 kilometres connects about seven communities of Ozzi Edem, Akpa Edem, Edem Ani, Ezikolo, Nrobo, and Abbi and terminates at Ukpabi Nimbo. According to community leaders, several representations made to the appropriate quarters on the matter did not yield any fruitful response.

Speaking to Vanguard on the neglected road, the traditional ruler of Abbi community, Igwe Fidelis Eze said: “We drew the attention of past state governments to the road and the plight of Abbi community. We never got an encouraging response. But we are optimistic that the incumbent state governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, will do something soon.

“As a community, what we normally do before the rainy season starts is to troop out on a designated day to work on the road so as to make it possible for motorcyclists to continue to have access to our community. The road was last graded in the 1980s and ever since then no remedial or rehabilitation work has been done on it besides the communal efforts to make somewhat accessible by motorcycle”.

Also speaking on the highly degraded road, Emmanuel Udorji, a popular herbalist in Abbi had this to say: ‘We usually mobilise ourselves to tackle the erosion problem afflicting our community. It was for this purpose that we organised what we called ‘Abbi Road Day’”.

Vanguard gathered that during Abbi Road Day, people turn out in large number, old and young, to help make the road accessible for motorcycles to ply.

On his own part, Jerry Ugwu, a Port Harcourt-based indigene of Abbi, had this to say: ‘’The only means anybody can get to Nsukka from Abbi is by Okada(commercial motorcycle) at an exorbitant cost of not less than N1,000 and depending on how many passengers to be carried at a time by the Okada rider. This is why you have so many Okada riders plying the route. They are simply taking advantage of the situation to make hay.