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| Bad road In Lagos |
Lagos (AFP) - The dismal state
of Nigeria's roads is a constant source of exasperation for the
long-suffering population but a tongue-in-cheek campaign on social media
is trying to shame the authorities into action.
Posting under the hashtag #MyRoadIsWorseThanYours, Nigerians have been sharing examples of the country's worst highways.
Bomb
crater-sized potholes, roads resembling muddy rivers in the annual
rainy season and some unrecognisable even as public thoroughfares have
been posted online.
"Here's
one Lagos road (state governor Babatunde) Fashola needs to repair fast,"
says one tweet, with a picture of a motorcyclist navigating a flooded
road, with water nearly up to his saddle.
The
tweets have an underlying seriousness: when Africa's leading economy
and oil producer claims to have pumped 1.4 trillion naira ($8.5 billion,
6.75 billion euros) into infrastructure improvements since 1999, why
are the roads so bad?
They
have also helped balance out the pages of self-congratulatory newspaper
advertisements taken out by state governments, proudly displaying the
smooth tarmac of upgraded, traffic-free roads.
- Deaths, strikes, responsibility -
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| Waterlogged Ibafo Community School road is seen being abandoned by motorists, in Ogun State, southwe |
Olanrewaju Adenekan is a
clearing agent at Lagos' main port of Apapa. He is 51 but looks two
decades older and is in poor health. Both he and his doctor blame it on
his daily commute.
Adenakan
leaves his house in Sango-Ota, north of Lagos, before 4:30 am every day
to reach Apapa at around 9:00 am. The distance door-to-door is just 37
kilometres (23 miles).
"The
traffic situation is bad. I spend between four and five hours for a
journey that should take less than one hour," he told AFP.
Adenekan
owns two cars but prefers to take public transport because it is
cheaper -- and also because the badly maintained roads take a
debilitating toll on his vehicles.
"Nigerians
spend a lot of money on maintaining their vehicles because of potholes,
which damage tyres, wheel rims, shock absorbers and other components,"
said quantity surveyor Alani Amusa.
Time
spent in traffic jams is also dead time, robbing businesses of
productivity and effective workers. When they eventually arrive, they
are often exhausted.
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| Motorists drive along on waterlogged bumpy Ikorodu-Shagamu road, in Ogijo, Nigeria's Ogun State, |
Motorists stuck for hours in jams are sitting ducks for armed robbers.
And
bad roads mean more accidents. Nigeria had the highest road fatality
rates in Africa in 2010 at 33.7 deaths per 100,000, the World Health
Organization said in a report published last year.
Recently,
petrol tanker drivers threatened to go on strike if the bad roads were
not fixed, blaming potholes and gullies for causing accidents.
Nigerian
states and the federal authorities have been in dispute about who is
responsible for maintaining and improving the roads -- meaning nothing
gets done.
The Lagos State government for example has been at loggerheads with Abuja over reimbursements for repairs to federal-owned roads dating back to when Lagos was the country's capital.
- Corruption, under-funding -
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| Motorists drive along on waterlogged bumpy Ikorodu-Shagamu road, in Ogijo, Nigeria's Ogun State, |
As in so many walks of Nigerian life, corruption is also part of the problem.
"Contractors
like to cut corners by not working to specification," said Amusa, who
is involved in a number of road projects in Lagos state.
"They connive with corrupt officials to use sub-standard materials in order to maximise their profits.
Many
roads lack proper drainage, turning them into swimming pools within
minutes of a downpour; roadside culverts overflow; tarmac disintegrates;
traffic lights and road signs are often absent.
Project costs can also be grossly inflated.
The
338-kilometre (212-mile) dual carriageway linking southern
oil-producing states was awarded at a cost of 138.9 billion naira ($835
million, 670 million euros) in 2006 under former president Olusegun
Obasanjo.
Eight years later, the cost has increased nearly three-fold to 347 billion naira -- and the road is not yet finished.
Questions
have been asked too about the cost of reconstruction of the
127.8-kilometre Lagos-Ibadan expressway -- the busiest road in west
Africa, carrying an average of 250,000 vehicles per day.
The contract was awarded for 167.9 billion naira but some experts believe it could have been revamped for a lot less.
Most
people, though, just want their own muddy, potholed streets paved and
well-maintained to make the journey from their front doors to the main
road less of a bone-shaking obstacle course.
Works
Minister Mike Onolememen blamed chronic under-funding from the federal
government, which has led to contractors revising up their project costs
to accommodate rising prices of materials.
"About
500 billion naira was needed every year for the next four years to pave
bad roads," he said. So far, he said the treasury has released just a
quarter of the sum for the coming year.
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