Gwagwalada road
The heavy traffic hold-up on this road is a twenty-four hour experience and seven days in a week. But it is thicker between 8.00am and 1.00pm and between 4.30pm and 9.30pm. It takes an average of two or three hours to pass through Giri to Gwagwalada (a distance of ten kilometers only). A friend who […]
The heavy traffic hold-up on this road is a twenty-four hour experience and seven days in a week. But it is thicker between 8.00am and 1.00pm and between 4.30pm and 9.30pm. It takes an average of two or three hours to pass through Giri to Gwagwalada (a distance of ten kilometers only). A friend who recently had a nasty experience passing through the road remarked that he would prefer to travel from Abuja to Kaduna four times consecutively than to have a cause that would take him from Abuja city to Gwagwalada. Well, my friend is lucky that he is not a student or staff of the University of Abuja whose lectures are divided between its two campuses (temporary site at Gwagwalada and the permanent site along the airport road). It is really a pity for those who have no choice but to ply the road daily, sometimes twice, for reasons of occupation, education or survival.
My own experience was on a sunny day about three weeks ago. While on my way to Gwagwalada, I got to the T-junction that takes you to Abuja airport from the Zuba-Lokoja road at Giri at about 3.00pm but only arrived at Gwagwalada at about 10.3opm! The reason we later learnt from some commercial motorcycle riders who on that day had brisk business conveying passengers from Giri to Gwagwalada, was that two articulated vehicles had broken down at two different locations of the highway. Those who were traveling in public vehicles thanked God that, they had an option of dropping down from commercial vehicles and joining motorcycles to get to Gwagwalada. Others went on foot to Gwagwalada. It is really a nightmare traveling along Ggwgagwalada road.
If you a looking for a theater of crazy scenes, you better choice is Gwagwalada road. Inspite of the problems associated with the horrific state of the road, it is on the same narrow road that you witness dangerous driving by most drivers especially during the peak hours of the hold-up. It is also during this period that the impatience of drivers particularly those coming up-north from the southern end of the road who in some cases have stayed behind steering wheel for nearly six or seven hours, comes to the fore. The impatience of drivers, which manifests in over-speeding and dangerous overtaking at sharp bends and hills have led, in many cases, to fatal accidents. There is no day on which the sun rises and sets that fatal accidents, which have become “ruwan-dare” are not recorded on this road. It is on Ggwagwalada road that vehicles coming from one direction of the road take over the entire road leaving no portion of the single-lane road for other road users from the opposite direction. This road also has the singular feature of being the only highway on which drivers overtake other vehicles from both sides of the lane. The traffic situation on this road is always compounded further when siren-blaring vehicles get to the hold-ups. Nigerians are still wondering why the bill on siren cannot be passed and the law enforced. The discourse on reckless driving along Gwagwalada road would be incomplete without the mention of a crazy group of drivers called “Abaji boys”. We do not know who is crazier between them and another group elsewhere called “Bauchi ko lahira”.
With all the imperatives that calls for the completion of the dualisation project of the road, the snail-pace of the construction work on the road adds to the problems encountered by motorists on the Gwagwalada highway. While this road continues to consume lives, one finds it ironical that the already dualised Abuja-Lugbe road which links the city to the airport is being increased from four to ten lanes; the Gwagwalada-Lokoja highway contract has more or less remained a burden inherited by successive generations in the last one decade. Perhaps, those who are concerned with the award and supervision of road contracts do not themselves ply Ggwagwalada road and therefore, insensitively assume that, the completion of the project is not anything worth accomplishing. They travel by air, which is probably why the Abuja city- airport and the Abuja-Kubwa road projects are being speedily executed. At least, the roads after the expansions would forestall any traffic congestions that could cause any delays for them on their way to board flights at the airport. Thus, others who are compelled to travel through Gewagwalada road may wish to do so (they presuppose) at the risk of their time, businesses or even sometimes their lives.
The traffic situation is at its worse during festive periods. Big Sallah (Eidel kabir), Christmas and New Year celebrations are just by the corner. It is a period that witnesses mass movement of people across different parts of the country. This column calls on government to urgently take practical steps by expediting the completion of construction works on the road. If funds were appropriated for the project, we find it difficult to understand the needless delay going on. May Allah SWT) guide our leaders aright with the right sense of responsibility and conscience, amin.