Evolution Of Nigerian Roads: Between Potholes And The Police

Today I took a trip to Benin from Auchi after a seemingly long while since I’ve had to ply the highway and today’s experience was quite different from previous scenarios where I’d have to wish nothing should make me travel by land via the instrumentality of a bus or whatever vehicle again. This time I have no energy left after wasting four solid hours en route Auchi to Benin. I could only grumble in sheer exhaustion and irritation.

I am not going to bore you with the sad story of how my body aches but permit me to share from how bad to worse land travel has become in the South-South using the highway in view _Auchi/Benin expressway.

Auchi to Benin is about 134.4 kilometers of approximately two hours fifteen minutes ride (if one decide to cut the driver some slack) and used to cost five hundred Naira as at the time I started traveling (in my JSS3 days) up until I had my Ordinary National Diploma. Just before you started feeling tired from sitting in one position, the bypass beckons to welcome you to the Ancient City of Benin. One hardly ever had any reason to complain about anything outside the eventualities of unanticipated accidents or robbery (only if these happened). Good old days for me.

However, the roads began to wear, tear, wither, erode and more as a result of weathering occasioned by long years of use and more so, lack of maintenance even though we have FERMA. It was almost becoming a crop rotation of potholes and bumps here, there, everywhere and as the happiest people on the planet with the extraordinary ability to suffer and smile altogether, we cared less not because we could do anything about patching or repairing the road, but because (mostly) who had no other option than to use the roads. Sheybi its our road na?

Soon, the potholes though have become wider beyond the sizes of pots, became the least of drivers’ worries. The problem degenerated to the issue of armed robbers who now bank on the availability of holes to cash out on road users and even kill if the passenger pose as a bad market. Daily the gory stories of robbery soared and soon become the new normal. And since we are Nigerians and all die na die, this too became an addition to the worries/suffer we’d again smile over. Next!

Fast forward to the current modernity of our South-Southern region, we have evolved beyond bad roads, insecurity along same roads as a result of Kidnapers, bandits and even killer herdsmen. We are currently contending with outright invasion of privacy, incessant extortion, unprovoked aggression, unjustifiable oppression cum all manner of injustice on the highway from men in black and camouflage armed with horsewhips, batons, guns. Those whose mandate is to protect travelers/road users are now the threat.

It is scary that the turn of events on the highway has taking flight in the abyss of dastardliness. Scarier is that the majority of the supposed uniformed men of the force no longer appear in uniform or costumes with which they are known and worse is that there are no tags on them to identify the man before your windscreen who is flagging you down by the point of a double barrel. They appear in dirty worn black, look angry, sweaty and malignant in approach most of the time. The only thing that affiliates these men with the police force is usually a Hilux van with the prints “OPERATION THUNDER STORM” or XYZ Patrol Team.

I hear they have also devised a means of making sure ‘las las maga must pay.’ By this I mean when they carry out a search operation on you at point A, an officer may leave incriminating materials like controlled substances in an unsuspecting traveler’s bag and alert point B with specific direction on who’s bag to search when the vehicles arrives the next check point. This may sound like an unfounded accusation but how do you explain the over three SARS Check Points along Ugha Community highway which is just a few kilometers to Benin City? Well, lets say the force is upping its Keep-Nigeria-Safe-Again agenda but didn’t they tell us that SARS has been reformed? That they have no right to search people’s phone or invade their privacy without a warrant? Why are these particular species of police looking awkwardly alien to activities the force is supposedly known for? Are these actual officers of the police force? Where are their name tags and uniforms?

My worry about the current revelations from the genesis of the evolution our highways have gone through is more so, fueled by the statement credited to the Inspector General of Police in the cause of violence that marred Kogi state November 16th Gubernatorial Election. For him to own up that ‘fake police hijacked the process’ is beyond worrisome. Now if fake police could infiltrate an electioneering process as well as make mockery of a constitutional and democratic system, are we then safe from the many fake ones that may lay on the highway unchecked?

Our roads are far from being safe. We are not safe on our roads. Potholes and bumps may have elongated our travel time from just 2hours to a boring 4hours ride but the activities of those armed unidentified uniformed men littering the meandering black stretch of tar is fast milking people off their hard earned monies through extortion and who knows what goes on in the dark of night? Young girls and boys are disappearing without trace and who knows what fake (or impersonating) police could do when there are no ballot boxes to snatch?

Drops pen…To be continued…

 

Jeremiah Enaholo Kadiri                                                                                                       

  writing from the Ancient City of Benin