Even
as the economy of the nation continues to bleed, all efforts at making Old
Lagos Asaba Road motorable is very commendable. But how penny wise was the
recent laterite patching of this road done you might ask? During his campaign
in 2006. Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan made the promise to dualize the road and in
2010 when work seemed not to be moving, Ika landlords and Land Ladies
Association protested. In late 2010 when Hon. Sam Obi became acting governor,
he also repaired the road which did not stand the test of time as flood exposed
the shoddy work done. In 2011, during Ogwa Ika held at Ute-Okpu, Ika Northeast
local government area, Dr. Uduaghan assured Ika people that his government will
ensure that work on the road will be completed. Construction work on this road
has gone on slowly. With the recent public utterances of the minister of
finance, Dr. (Mrs.) Okonjo Iweala about the financial health of the nation, it
is obvious that the people of Ika land will have to exhibit a little more
patience to see the road completed. It is also safe to say that Dr. Udughan
cannot be deliberately insensitive, selfish or narrow minded to deny Ika
residents the benefits of good road. We are not holding brief for the
government, but taking a cursory assessment of a nation that spends as much as
25% of its national budget on its executives and below 8% of same on education,
little is left for infrastructural development, roads being one of them. This
road is at the mercy of rains, sometimes resulting in gridlocks. Lagos Asaba
Road is threatened by failed portions and potholes created by erosion and many
years of state neglect. Clearly, the palliative measures to ease movements on
this road can be comparative to being penny wise pound foolish. Care to
quantify the costs of having to fill these failed portions or potholes
regularly as against rehabilitating it with stones and bitumen.
We are not road construction experts
neither do we claim to have knowledge of road reconstruction, but our people
are enlightened enough to know the difference between quantity and quality
work. How feasible it would have been to see a durable patching work done for
the benefits of our people while we anxiously or eagerly await for God knows
when it will be completed.
These palliative laterite patching
is very shoddy and financially non prudent as the recent rains has gradually
exposed the bad road once again. Planlessness planning is unwarranted in this
era of scarcity of funds. As against the use of laterite, can’t the government
employ stones and bitumen? On these important issues of rehabilitation,
renovation and reconstruction, knowing details of projects before making expert
and professional conclusions should be given serious importance as
unprofessional road works have become drain pipes on the government. For sure,
this is neither good for the government nor for
Ika people.
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