The causalities are not only those who are dead: they are well out of it. The casualties are not only those who are wounded: though they await burial by instalmen. The casualties are not only those who have lost persons or properties, hard as it is to grope for a touch that some may not know is not there….
Above is an excerpt of a poem written by a foremost African poet, John Pepper Clark,who took the literature world bystorm in the 70’s with his poem titled “The Casualties”. This poem came to the literally centre stage as a result of its satirical expansion of the meaninggiven to those referred to as the casualties of the Nigerian civil war. The theme of the poem centres on the non-conspicuous casualties of the Nigerian civil war, though, but it no doubt expands the literature meaning on what the word “casualty” entails. Human’s actions are accompaniedby resultant effects many of which might be too subtle to notice. On September 2, 2019, Julius Berger Nigeria plc embarked on the closure of partial section of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway which is one of the busiest roads in West Africa.
The closure stretches from karabus-stop down to New Garage where Lagos and Ogun states share boundary. Without any touch of hyperbole, millions of commuters who ply this road on a daily basis have been subjected to untold excruciating hardship which I believe could be well averted if properly managed. Who are the casualties of the government’s political ineptitude? I will like to borrow from the elaborate interpretation of the meaning of casualties in J.P Clark’s poem by concluding that they are many, far beyond what we can contemplate, however, because we can’t hear each other speak, because whether we know or do not know the extent of the effect of government’s deficiency of ingenuity, we are characters now other than before.
Mr. Bright (not his real name) lost his job as a banker after being reprimanded for coming to work late. He was defenseless and could not justify his reason which was basically as a result of massive road rehabilitation going on in that ever-busy road. Mr. Bright is not the only one cut torn in this pitiable hapless situation as many have lost their jobs due to journey of an hour which has been compounded to a 5-hour journey. The casualties of this decayed road rehabilitation are many of the people who have been rendered unemployed because of the government’s poor approach to tackling one of our perennial problems.
Aside from the above, the casualty of the poor road maintenance and management is the states’ Internal Generated Revenues (IGR) which have suffered downturn economic retrogression. It is universally accepted that the transportation system is a crucial factor for sustained economic growth and prosperity of a nation. There is no doubt that a good access roads network to major cities in a state would increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the state. The casualty of thismoribund ongoing construction is not confined to those forcefully relieved from their places of employment, rather it also involves those riders and passengers of the “uncovered metallic docile” whose lives are exposed to immortal danger certainly unbecoming of any responsive government.
In 2008, research carried out by Demurger on research of transport investment and growth indeveloping economies examined the data of 24 provinces of China between 1985-1998 and points out that theinequality of transport infrastructure is one of the main factors leading to growth inequality across the provinces. In South Africa, a research on time series analysis for investment intoroad infrastructure and economic growth posits to the fact that road infrastructure and economic growth have a symbiotic growth relationship, by the former boosting the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the state and in effect raising the marginal products of the production factors.
The casualties of this prolonged decayed infrastructure are not limited to the set of people highlighted above, rather the government at all levels as an institution of the state also suffers retrogressively economic deficiencies. In every developed country, it is a known fact that traffic congestion and accident indexes have a proportional economic ratio on loss of valuable production hours and manpower which in the long run lead to geometric decrease in economic growth.
On January, 2018, a research carried out in Washington, United Sates by a New World Bank Study, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies found that reducing road traffic death and injuries could result in substantial long-term income gains for low- and middle-income countries. The fact thata state is the miniaturized version of a nation, therefore, it stands to reason to state sociologically that a decline in the GDP of a state would have a substantial negative effect on the country’s GDP. Hitherto to this research, there seemed to be no direct link in the study of impact of road safety on economic impact.
At the conclusion, it was recorded that the impactsof road safety, free traffic flow and road management have a proportionate effect on economy prosperity, citing strong examples between developed and developing countries to wit: China, India and Tanzania, Thailand respectively. This research quantified how investments in road management and safety form a great significant percentage on human capital development. In its conclusion, the study finds that countries that do not invest in road safety or management could miss out on development index anywhere between 7% and 22% in potential per capital GDP growth over a 24-year period.
Therefore, policy makers are enjoined to prioritize proven investments in road safety.The cost of inaction is estimated to be more than 1.25 million deaths a year globally, diminished productivity and reduced growth prospects.
The casualties are not only those trapped in the hectic traffic, who are forced to bear with the risk of being dispossessed of their belongings, maimed or even killed, rather it extends to their loved ones who have to giraffe and strain their eyes for the sound of the arrival of their “trapped relatives” whose time of return is yet to be ascertained. The casualties of the government’s ineptitude and mismanagement go beyond the heard or seen complainants, rather it encompasses the voiceless victims, the economy, the worn-out infrastructure and the likes.Roads are the arteries through which the economy pulses.
No developed country can shy away from the fact that by linking producers to market, workers to jobs, students to school and the sick to hospitals, functional passable roads are no doubt, a very sacrosanct developmental agenda. In a civilized and advanced nations, where massive road constructions are carried out with utmost accountability and diligence, alternative roads are provided as a short-term solution to traffic congestions, so as to alleviate the hardship of the road users which are uncalled for.
In conclusion, Lagos, Ogun and other dependents states on this road might be the worse hit, thus be the prime casualties of the ongoing protracted rehabilitation which is long overdue. For these two states where road taxesare forming a good percentage of their total IGR, however, it is submitted that these states’ IGR, which form 32.6% of the total IGR of the country between 2013 -2018 might have a debilitating effect on the country’s total IGR as a result of the palpable situation of being misruled by a phenomenon known as circadian rhythm of political ineptitude.
Balogun, Legal Practitioner, writes from Lagos