Professor in practice: Onitsha-Benin-Ore-Shagamu Road, a deathtrap under your watchful eyes

By Cyriacus Nnaji:

When our dear Minister of Works, ‘Professor’ Engr Dave Umahi declared himself as a Professor in Practice, many didn’t know he was absolutely right because no degree awarding institution has awarded him such grandiose academic honour.

From what is happening, no sensible university would have dreamt of giving such honour to Umahi going by what is happening under his very nose as a Minister of Works. As a matter of fact, he has totally obliterated the good name made by the former Minister of Works in the name of His Excellency Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, who effectively showed capacity, clearly mapping out his road and Housing construction Programmes and ensured adequate funding for all of them, hence he was described by Hon. Chief Modestus Umenzekwe, Onwa Achina, as the hero of Buhari Government.

So what is the programme of Mr Professor Umahi as per road. Is it the empty coastal road that nobody will ply because the road, if eventually it is completed in 100 years, if ever, one, it is definitely going to be lonely and prone to security issues; the road leads to nowhere, of course there is no major business between Lagos and Calabar, no business, you cannot compare Lagos Coastal road to Onitsha-Benin-Ore-Shagamu, no comparison, so how does this Government place her value in road construction and maintenance? Zero. No priority, no roadmap, no blueprint, everything is politics. The Lagos/Calabar Coastal road is therefore a collosal waste to the nation’s economy.

Those in the cabinet of the Tinubu Government are known to indulge in careless statements in sycophantic style to massage the egos of their employer when it is obvious they know that indeed they are far from understanding the dictates of their various portfolios.

What is happening between Onitsha and Shagamu is an eyesore and to think that a boastful professor is in charge, is not just unimaginable but pathetically anachronistic. It is confusing that a professor who live, drink, eat, and breathe professorially could allow our federal roads to be in such camatose condition, it calls for the reversal of such self awarding professional accolade.

As I write this piece, I began writing by 9:07 PM Nigerian time, I am plying the road now on night journey to Lagos and I am shedding tears over what our dear nation has become. I am seeing confusion, rudderlessness, I am seeing leadership vacuum to say the least, I see political and leadership gangsterism, I see soulless leadership, a group of people who come together, hijack power and then become helpless because they do not understand the rudiments of leadership.

As our moving cathedral danced locomotive macabre dance, riggling itself from corrosive gully damage, a journey of 8 hours is now taking 14 hours. The entire stretch of Delta State of the Federal road was literally abandoned by the levels of government.

Our minister who should be in charge of roads is taking flights, otherwise he should know what people go through on daily basis. Rather than repair our roads, Oga Umahi is building Lagos Calabar Coastal road, a road that leads to nowhere, a white elephant project that generations of Nigerian leaderships would not be able to complete, many even alleged that it is a conduit, what manner of leaders do we have?

Our easterners and indeed anyone who ply the road spend days on the road simply because they are traveling to their home town town.

A road that ordinarily should enable motorists move very fast is now a deathtrap, because in most cases vehicles drive to a total halt in order to be able to negotiate bad portions of the road and in such situations expose itself to attacks by men of the underworld. The consequences and repercussive aftermath of abandoned road cannot be overemphasized, insecurity, time wasting, economic waste, psychological distortion.

How do our leaders even lie down to rest, let alone being able to sleep in the face of myriads of challenges confronting this country. But it has been ascertained that when the people sleep, our leaders snore. They care not about us, they exchange banters and cling glasses in celebration of their loots, as they build and buy houses for their family members from the loots from our national coffers, soulless leadership.

When will this stop, will It ever stop? And as bad as our leadership has become, the leadership has become enemies of the people. They don’t care for truth, they don’t accept truth, anybody who says the truth is hate speech, propaganda is their second name, while the people perish, this must stop. Let it stop.

Our roads are begging for repairs. If other parts of the Onitsha-Benin-Ore-Shagamu is looking like the Delta section, let me ask professor in practice will your people still be going to Lagos or southwest part of the nation or any other part as the case may be.

Nnaji is a Media Practitioner based in Lagos