Casmir Igbokwe
LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- Your Excellencies, Monday Okpebholo and Sheriff Oborevwori, the Executive Governors of Edo and Delta States respectively, I come in peace. I hope you and your nuclear, extended and political families are doing great?
I have been itching to write you this letter for some months now. But one thing or the other kept making me to postpone it. The urge became stronger when I travelled to the South-East last week to attend to some family issues.
As usual, I passed through Benin, the Edo State capital, and Asaba, the Delta State capital. To my greatest surprise and worry, the horrible state of some major roads in these two cities has worsened. Of particular concern is the Benin bypass and the Benin-Asaba Road.
Due to the state of the Benin bypass, many motorists now avoid it. Travellers can stay at a spot on that road for four to five hours. Some of them go inside Benin to come out at Benin-Agbor Road to continue their journey. Some of these inside Benin roads are not even better. Comparing them with the bypass is like choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea. What most drivers do is to connect with one another to know where there is better management of traffic. Some use their Google maps which direct them to routes less prone to gridlocks.
Many Edo roads have been in this poor state for years now. In October 2023, I had the same nasty experience travelling to the East through Edo. At some point, my driver took a detour and entered Ehor Road from the bypass. On getting to Benin-Agbor-Asaba Road, we encountered protesters who barricaded a section of the road to protest the horrible state of that road. There had been similar protests elsewhere on the state of some roads in Edo State.
The immediate past governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki, spent eight years giving excuses on why he couldn’t fix the federal roads in his state. He went to the ridiculous extent of mounting billboards on some failed federal roads in Auchi, Benin, and Ekpoma, which read, “Bear with us, this is a federal road.”
Obaseki is of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He had altercations with the Federal Government controlled by the All Progressives Congress (APC). The APC outwitted him and his candidate, Asue Ighodalo, in the Edo governorship election held in September 2024. You, Okpebholo, purportedly won the election.
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Now that Edo belongs to the ruling party at the centre, it is hoped that many, if not all the federal roads in that state will be fixed. Already, reconstruction work appears to be ongoing on Benin bypass. Last March, your Chief Press Secretary, Fred Itua, wrote that you had taken steps to attract federal presence in Edo and that it was yielding fruits. Among the good fruits are the dualization of the Benin-Ekpoma-Auchi-Okpella-Okene-Ajaokuta Road and the reconstruction of the 125-kilometre Benin-Asaba Highway.
It is shameful that this Benin-Asaba-Onitsha Road has remained in a deplorable state for years now. Travellers, foreigners and would-be investors face this road immediately they come out from Asaba Airport. Consequent upon the state of that road, motorists do not observe traffic rules anymore. They manoeuvre their cars to where the road appears to be better. Some enter inside some inner streets in Asaba just to avoid some particularly bad spots, only to come out to the same expressway not too far from the location of the bad spots. Due to these bad roads and the unnecessary delays they cause to motorists, I got to my house in Anambra State about 10pm on the day I travelled. Meanwhile, I left Lagos about 7am.
Part of what caused my misery was the rain that fell almost throughout that day, causing many accidents on the roads. In one particular incident near Ore in Ondo State, a truck knocked down about four other vehicles, causing serious gridlock that lasted for hours.
Dear Governors Okpebholo and Oborevwori, the irony of the situation in your states is that some of your acolytes say you are roadmasters. The immediate past governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, was the first to be nicknamed the roadmaster. Yes, he constructed some inner and rural roads during his time, but the gateway to his capital city was neglected. I remember advising Okowa in a piece in October 2018 to try and fix the Asaba end of the Onitsha-Asaba-Benin Road which was in a terrible state then. That was after attending the 14th All Nigeria Editors’ Conference in Asaba and listening to Okowa list his achievements, especially in road construction.
Like your predecessor, you, Oborevwori, have boasted of constructing many roads in Delta. I read the piece by your Manager, Communications, Jackson Ekwugum, in some publications last Friday. According to him, well-developed infrastructure plays a vital role in attracting Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs). He claimed you were constructing a total of 431 road projects, with a cumulative length of 2,595.56 kilometres across Delta State.
“Also, under construction are drains with a combined length of eight hundred and twenty-two (822.47) kilometres. By interconnecting the various towns and rural communities, including the riverine areas, through extensive road network, Governor Oborevwori is making the state an attractive bride for FDIs,” he said. He lambasted critics who questioned your recent investment drives to China and Brazil.
It is obvious Ekwugum is doing the job which he was paid to do. Otherwise, Nigerians would have wished to know the road these foreign investors will ply once they land at Asaba Airport. What impression will they have when they see the state of that road in the heart of the city?
The argument that these major roads are federal roads does not hold water. There are federal roads in some other states, but the state governments made them motorable in the interest of their people. In Anambra State, for instance, Governor Chukwuma Soludo does not know the difference between federal and state roads. He has reconstructed and dualized Amawbia-Agulu-Uga Road. This belongs to the Federal Government. He has commenced the reconstruction and dualization of another federal road, the Ekwulobia-Isuofia-Nnobi Road. Why didn’t Soludo abandon these roads because they are federal roads?
Ironically, Delta is an oil-producing state. It is among the states that receive the highest allocations from the Federal Government. In 2024, Delta was second to Lagos among the states that collected the largest share of federal allocations. Lagos received N531.1 billion while Delta received N450.4 billion. Rivers came third with N349.9 billion.
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For the first half of 2025, Delta received N299.96 billion, the highest allocation nationwide from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC). This represents more than the combined allocations to many smaller states. Delta was closely followed by Rivers at N264.90 billion and Lagos at N236.92 billion. Nevertheless, Lagos receives the highest total net allocation comprising FAAC allocation, internally generated revenue and value-added tax (VAT) inflows.
There is no reason any road in Delta or Edo or any state for that matter should be left to deteriorate before remedial action is taken. We have the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA). But given that there are many dilapidated federal roads in many states, the agency may have been overwhelmed by the enormity of work to be done.
Apart from the earlier mentioned roads in Edo and Delta, many other federal roads are in a state of total disrepair. One of them is the East-West Road, which cuts across Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states. These roads are prone to accidents and the attendant loss of lives and billion-naira worth of goods.
In sane countries, whenever a crack is noticed on any road, it is fixed immediately to avoid it spreading or getting worse. But here, nobody bothers to fix small potholes on these roads until they turn craters. At this point, it takes more money and more efforts to repair the roads.
I had advocated and will continue to suggest that states take up the responsibility of repairing federal roads. The Federal Government can construct the roads, but the onus to repair bad portions should rest squarely with the states where the roads are located. When this happens, Nigerians will hold the state with bad portions responsible if not repaired. At most, the states should apply for a refund from the Federal Government.
It is even surprising that Delta State which migrated from the PDP to the APC to connect to the centre is yet to enjoy dividends of being in the ruling party. Okowa and Oborevwori told us when they joined the APC last April that it was in the best interest and common good of their people. Also, they said, there was need for the state to connect to Abuja. I wonder when the state will begin to take its own slice of the federal pie.
It is also surprising that the Federal Government deemed it fit to award trillions of naira worth of contract to build such new roads as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway when the existing ones are in a state of total disrepair. It will be a tragedy if after wasting scarce resources on this highway, there is no proper plan on how to repair it when it begins to get bad.
While we continue to talk about bad roads in Nigeria, Rwanda recently launched the first self-flying air taxi in Africa. Media reports have it that the passenger drone is built to carry two people without a pilot. It climbed about 100 meters over Kigali in a short, historic demonstration. Rwanda is in partnership with China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) and a Chinese firm, EHang, in facilitating this project.
That is what it takes to have a visionary, selfless leader. Nigeria is yet to be blessed with such a leader. But your Excellencies, you can start by providing good governance in your states. This will go a long way in providing dividends of democracy to Nigerians.