Nigerian Roads: Highway to Death
Road accident as second highest killer of Nigerians
Road accidents have been identified as the second highest source of violent deaths in Nigeria, only coming second to the infamous Boko Haram terrorist group. According to the World Health Organization, every one in four road accident-related deaths in Africa occurs in Nigeria. This figure makes Nigeria 2nd in the ranks of road accident occurrence amongst 193 countries.
The cliché that Nigeria is the largest oil producing nation in Africa, with nothing to show for it, has lost its awakening effect. Yet, Nigerians continue to demand answers to the numerous questions that plague our tired minds.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
We know that the Federal government allocates a certain portion of the national budget to roads, works, and housing, annually. Thus, the questions that is being posed is why have Nigerian roads remained in their dilapidated state?
Insufficient budgeting for roads?
In 2004, President Obasanjo announced the government’s three-year plan of rehabilitating and completing unfinished Federal roads. This plan was never actualized. In September 2015, Arc. Mike Onolememe made a comparison between Nigeria and Zambia: Nigeria has five times the roads in Zambia, yet, spends less than 50% of what Zambia spends on roads annually.
President Buhari’s administration allocated 202 billion Naira to roads, in contrast to a “paltry” 18 billion Naira budgeted by the Jonathan administration. In October 2016, Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Works, Power and Housing declared that no new contracts for the construction and rehabilitation of roads will be approved in the near future. The reason for this was attributed to the unpaid and unfinished contracts for a number of 206 roads, that were awarded by past administrations at approximately 2 trillion Naira. In other words, there is an alarming deficit when you compare the 202 billion to 2 trillion naira. One of the biggest challenges of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency is the lack of funds. Yet, Nigerians wonder about what became of the budget allocated to road since FERMA’s inception in 2002.
Nigeria: a brutally abused, victim of domestic violence
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });
Nigeria can be likened to a brutally abused victim of domestic violence. It would take an average Nigerian worker 1,638 years to earn the yearly salary of a Nigerian senator. Yet, more lives will be lost due to a “lack of funding” for the construction and maintenance of Nigerian roads. The cost of doing business will continue to increase and the average Nigerian will keep suffering from the direct impact of a slowed economic growth. For far too long, our government has used the excuse of a lack of funding, to get away with atrocities and a neglect for their duties.
With enough funding, we can address problems that plague or road systems be it lack of maintenance or human factors resulting from ignorance. The problem, however, is not the lack of funds, but an absence of a transparent and accountable government. We can only hope that this current administration does what is right.
Authors:
Sanusi Shehu, Mechanical Engineer
Toluwani Adekunle, MBA
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });