Lokpanta Nightmare: A National Disgrace

This is the cattle market at Lokpanta on the Enugu Port Harcourt Expressway. The road has collapsed completely. The asphalt has been washed away. Due to the activities of heavy duty vehicles-trailers, petrol tankers and rainfall, large portions of the road have caved in, leaving large pot holes that could pass for gullies. Passing through this stretch of the road is a nightmare. Vehicles have to waltz and meander. They snail through the undulations with fright; Often, the hold-up lasts for hours on end; No one to the rescue as heavy vehicles park on both sides of each lane; Leaving a chaotic convoy of lawlessness and a punishing miasma of automobile contraptions. The Lokpanta end is not isolated. The story is the same just before Okigwe; it is the same story at several points before Port Harcourt. It is the story of official indifference, of indefensible tardiness, of neglect and failure of government. Time and again, various officials of the Federal Government declare roads in the south east as national disasters. Three former ministers, Professor Jerry Gana, Deziani Allison Madueke, and recently, Raji Babatunde Fashola) have all declared these roads as national disasters.

This Christmas, those travelling from the northern states to the south east and southsouth will be condemned to this nightmare

Cumulatively, it has taken sixteen years since these statements were made by public functionaries who have the responsibility to fix the roads. Time and again, earth moving equipment of all shapes and sizes move into these roads. This is usually the case very close to elections. Large sums of money are quoted to have been voted for the reconstruction. But once the elections are over, the equipment roll away, without anybody batting an eyelid. Who will bell the cat? This Christmas, those travelling from the northern states to the south east and south-south will be condemned to this nightmare; maybe the federal ministry of works and housing will rush some emergency repairs; thereafter, the beat goes on. For a people plundered and abandoned. Raji Babatunde Fashola, this is your charge. Our lawmakers, this is your mandate. PMB, this is your promise; we hold you to it!