Benin-Ore: One hell of
a road
By IKENNA EMEWU (ikeroyal@yahoo.co.uk)
Saturday,
October 28, 2006
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•The
wonder’ road
•Photo: Sun News Publishing
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A worker with the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports travelled
to Owerri from Lagos to fetch his family after his transfer
to Lagos as the final lap of his relocation. He left Owerri
with the family early Monday morning (this week) and made
it to Lagos with four children and wife 10.pm the following
day. This a journey that should not have taken him not more
than eight hours.
A group of five men left Lagos Sunday morning, October 15
for the eastern part of the country in a deep grey 505 Peugeot
salon car with Ikeja, Lagos registration number. The occupant
of the front seat had health problem before departure, but
in the melee of the endless traffic jam, the man at the front
seat had a fit, some spasm and succumbed before help could
come. In fact, no meaningful help was anywhere nearby because
the man had been trapped inside the bush in the vain attempt
to find way to destination.
Saturday Sun was in the queue that lasted
six and half hours when the car blaring horn at full blast
zoomed past with a body shrouded with loin cloth all over.
The man at the seat directly behind supported the head of
the spent person with both hands to stop it from rolling over
as the seat had been reclined backwards to form an improvised
stretcher. The peculiar load of the car was noticed as the
driver jumped out of the endless line to make a faster move.
While people turned to scream venom at him for flouting the
rule, they would immediately notice the unusual burden at
the front seat, the freshly tied yellow palm frond on the
car and swallow their comments.
Unimaginable agony
Stories of agonies of travellers are beyond words as parents
with children traveling long distances get stranded with babies
screaming as a result of heat that edges towards suffocation.
Hundreds of thousands of the productive sector of Nigeria’s
economy burn their resourceful time everyday at the valley
of shadow of death that lies between Ore and Benin City on
the Lagos-Benin expressway, and it has been so for over six
weeks now. The major headache is that the crisis worsens by
the day. It has not touched anybody’s mind as one in
power with a duty owed the people to do something, albeit
in the interim to ameliorate the problem that has cost the
nation billions of naira in diverse manners.
After reading this story you may do yourself a great favour
to think twice before you embark on that trip that would take
you to this road. It has turned a spot where Nigerians wail
and weep for succour without anyone listening. Even if the
bushes all around have ears, they may lack the hands to take
action towards curbing this crisis. Moreover, the hoodlums
that feast on this problem will always pray that the party
will not be over because the prey will escape and there will
be none to obtain loot from.
The importance and centrality of this road to the nation as
the only major link between the west and east, south and part
of middle belt does not need explanation. Lamentations and
comments in the media have not been enough to move anyone
to a positive action to put this calamity behind us.
Valley of sorrow
The Ore-Benin road has turned a valley of countless ditches
and ponds. It has also been transformed into a cemetery for
vehicles where many have been laid to rest. A distance that
used to take about three hours hitherto has now turned an
endless rigmarole that leads to nowhere and with no definite
time.
It is common sight at the scene of this death trap to see
a man wailing over his goods that have been spilled after
a truck bearing it had somersaulted. Many have been victims
of such circumstances whose hopes have been dashed as trucks
conveying their goods could not make it out of the ditches.
While the goods are disgourged, those that are water-sensitive
are lost instantly as the pool of water all over the place
messes up the commodities or the torrential downpour would
immediately visit them.
“I know of a man who had been battling hardship for
years whose relatives loaned money to revive his business
only to lose the commodities here last week’, a man
told Saturday Sun. He simply identified himself
as Mr. Odion and narrated further that the person in reference
had a trailer load of food items procured from a factory in
Lagos. As the truck carrying the goods got trapped in the
mud, it eventually fell and threw out the entire content.
It was night and the sky later emptied its liquid content
on the goods, and what would have been left after some rescue
bid was lost to hoodlums who have found gold mine at the spot.
“I am sure that man’s condition has turned worse
than ever because he has now accumulated debt in addition
to his former load. Tell me, if we had a responsive and responsible
government in this country that understands the importance
of this particular road the economic life of this nation,
would this have happened”, he queried.
Okada option
Last Sunday when Saturday Sun embarked on a trip to see this
road that has made infamy, the smartness of Nigerians, that
same attribute that makes them resort to alternatives rather
than solving a problem, is seeing them through this calamity
while waiting on God. It is an ingenuity devised already by
Nigerian youths. The gist is that instead of you complaining
about the bad road just pay the extra fare to cover for the
bad road inconveniences you never caused, then at the point
you won’t go further, likely at Ofosu (Ohosu) disembark,
take a ready bike at about N400 token to Okada junction, and
thereafter board another vehicle that takes you to Benin City
for the continuation of your journey.
After listening to this smart story, Saturday Sun gave it
a try and it actually worked. With good bidding, you might
cut the bike fare down to N300. It makes it easy to pass this
stretch of about 10km that has turned the worst nightmare
any traveler would wish to experience. It would be left to
your guess how elderly people, children and even people sick
passengers, and also those that paid their fare with the last
money on them would venture this unfortunate adventure.
Retrogression
The true position of this calamity standing before millions
of Nigerians was summarised by the statement of an elderly
man in his 60s whom Saturday Sun travelled in the same bus
with. This elderly man introduced rather a humourous angle
to the entire drama that lasted six and half enervating hours.
He only posited that there are signs that we are moving backwards
fast.
“Since we can return to the old road we abandoned long
ago, is it not a sign that PDP is moving this nation in a
direction. It does not matter the direction of the movement”.
A journey from Lagos in the direction of Benin seems smooth
until you hit Ofosu. This is a point of discretion or indiscretion
depending on any of the two road options one takes. Veering
to the left into the Ofosu market takes you into a dilapidated
road that is so narrow as to have been built for one vehicle
at a time. It would amount to waste of words to narrate that
this old Lagos-Benin road that was abandoned over 30 years
is now practically impassable. The bridges are relics fit
for the museum which take a vehicle in one direction at a
time. As a reason, tollgates have germinated at these bridges
by the industry of the natives who have invented fast business
at the expense of millions of Nigerians.
To pass through this stretch of road takes at least four to
five hours depending on how lucky and the volume of traffic,
but give or take, it does not take less time. The villagers
have turned overnight traffic wardens and police. It is in
their powers to pass some number of vehicles in a particular
direction, while the other side waits. So the day continues.
New business city is born
The most prominent town along this road is called Aden (pronounced
without the ‘n’) All the villagers or so it seems
have turned road side traders whose turnover must compete
favourably with that of an oil sales outfit. Nothing conceivably
eaten is left out in their stock, and all go for extra prices,
even a pack of pure water with known price all over the nation
goes for between N10 to N15 depending on how cold it is.
The people of Aden are at the top of their times, and everybody,
even as at Sunday afternoon who had no stall by the side of
the road is fast erecting one. There is no doubt that the
forthcoming Xmas would be the loudest in the history of the
town. As the women are busy selling their roasted plantain,
boiled corn, peeled pineapple, drinks et al, the younger men
are plying their dexterity at the foot of the plank bridge
over Aden river where each motorist pays an average of N200,
depending however on the whims of the collectors at the moment.
From the volume of thousands of light vehicles that ply that
route everyday, the youths won’t be netting in less
than N500,000 daily. The mode of operation is that 50 vehicles
pass in a particular direction at a time, after which the
collectors bring down their nail-studded pole to create a
barrier for the other direction to commence movement. The
job goes on, day-in day-out.
Curses unlimited
The trip to this calamity site has driven home the truth that
Nigerian rulers are already immune to curses otherwise the
story would have been that those who are supposed to fix that
road and by extension all others are dropping dead one after
another. The curses come in all Nigerian languages and directed
to all managers of state for their purposeful refusal to fix
the road.
On getting to the scene, you will come to know that Nigerians
know the facts and figures involved in the mass looting that
flies about the Nigerian space. You will even hear unimaginable
facts, accusations and vile words whose sources would not
be imagined, all attributable to the rulers. Even a state
governor is cursed for the neglect of a federal road as this.
But after the verbal assault, the people still swallow the
bitter pill of despondency, helplessness and trudge on like
nothing is actually going wrong.
Nigeria we w(h)ail thee.
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