One of the Federal Government projects

By Temitope Ajayi

Yesterday, Olajide Abiola brought fresh attention to the level of deterioration of our inter-state roads. I want to again contribute to the conversation. Sometimes in October, i travelled by road from Abuja to Ogbomoso. Two days after, i did Ogbomoso back to Lagos.

The experience on the road was terrifying. 

The stretch of roads starting from Abuja-Minna, Minna- Bida, Bida-Kutigi, Kutigi up to part of Jebba and to Mokwa are beyond terrible. Trailers, carrying goods, that majorly ply these routes to connect Northern and Southern Nigeria easily fall off the roads while meandering through the gullies and craters. 

The only respite we had was between Mokwa-Ilorin which was recently reconstructed and Ilorin to Ogbomoso. Ogbomoso-Oyo and Oyo-Ibadan roads suck energy and lives out of the living every day. On the trip back to Lagos, i asked my companion if Federal Government will ever get money to fix all these roads that can be concessioned and tolled. 

This is just a section of the country cutting through three states connecting parts of North Central to the South West. Let us imagine the six geo-political zones of this country have such terrible network of Federal roads. 

Obviously, there is little annual budget circle can do to remedy this ugly situation even if every kobo in Federal Government budget is spent on roads for the next 20 years.

We must have honest conversations around our development issues devoid of needless emotions.