Motorists return to Minna-Bida killer-road

The Minna-Bida road is one of the busiest roads in Niger State. Unfortunately, the 100-kilometre road which links the two biggest cities, has been in bad shape for some years now. A journey from Minna to Bida would reveal the terrible nature of a road which many people say has been the major cause of […]

The Minna-Bida road is one of the busiest roads in Niger State. Unfortunately, the 100-kilometre road which links the two biggest cities, has been in bad shape for some years now. A journey from Minna to Bida would reveal the terrible nature of a road which many people say has been the major cause of accidents in the state.

A kilometre from Kpakungu area of Minna where vehicles are boarded to Bida, one begins to have a glimpse of the kind of journey that lies ahead.  One encounters the first massive pothole that stretches for some metres. From Kpakungu to Yeregi, a village 40 kilometres from Minna, is the worst part of the road. Rarely could a driver accelerate before he marches a break again either to enter a pothole or to meander to avoid one.

Drivers only get relief on the road whenthey pass villages where people fill the potholes with sand.

“This is how this road has been for sometimes now,” says Baba Jibril, a commercial driver. “People have talked about it, but you know the kind of government we have. It is when a major accident happens that you hear them saying they will do it.”

As one leaves Yeregi to Bida, the number of pot-holes reduces but drivers have to face another torment: sinking culverts. At Gbako, a few kilometres to Bida, the culverts are being swept away with the encroachment of water pond on both sides of the road. The culverts, which also have potholes in them, are only covered with gravels which have also sunk as a result of the weight of the vehicles that pass over them.

But despite the poor state of the road, motorists still drive recklessly and over speed. They plunge into the potholes as if they do not exist. “This is a road I have been plying for more than three years,” says Baba. “I have mastered areas where the potholes are deeper and where they are less. So it does not disturb my speed; even at night I can still speed.”

Another reason why drivers overspeed on the road is for them to make more trips every day, says Yakubu Bawa Yabagi, Chairman Bida route, National Union of Road Transport Workers, Minna.

“Drivers remit money to car owners every day and if they do not make enough trips in a day, they won’t be able to get the money for the owners not to talk of themselves. So they have to speed to make three or four trips a day,” he says.

He blamed the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) for not living up to expectations as regard cautioning drivers on the road. “They should enlighten drivers through the union, which they do not do. And in the case of Bida road, there should be enough FRSC officers to caution drivers. But if you go to the road now, you will not see any of them,” he says.

But the Sector Commander, FSRC, Minna sector command, Mr. Emmanuel Omotosho Abe, says Yakubu’s allegations are not true. He said his command undertakes frequent sensitisation of drivers on the dangers of overspeeding, but drivers flout road safety laws. He says his men could not be on the entire roads in the state because of logistic problem.

“We don’t have enough vehicles to move around all the major roads, so we have to do a kind of shifting patrols. We have designed a roaster that enables us to patrol each of the state’s major roads at least three times a week,” he says.

Commenting on the government’s plan for the road, Director, Press and Media Affairs, Alhaji Bala Abdulkadir, said the government has concluded plans to dualize the road in order to reduce the rate of accidents.

 “As a matter of priority, the state government has concluded arrangements to dualise the Minna-Bida road as part of efforts to ease movement and stop human carnage that has been occurring on the roads”, he says.

He says the road has since the past four years been dug in several parts into craters of potholes due to yearly flooding, adding that  the state government plans to construct fly over bridges across the major waterways that have affected the topography of the road, causing it to be dug into craters.

“Some failed portions of the road, especially along the Gbako river, would be fortified as both sides of the road has so many potholes due to the effects of water on the road and this factor has caused the loss of so many lives”, he says further.

He disclosed that at present, the state government is only doing minor intervention works on the road to prevent further degradation, saying that the portion of a bridged that collapsed along the road three weeks ago has been patched and work is still ongoing to ensure that the place is properly fortified.

He said the state government cannot commence the project of dualising the road at present because of the economic meltdown. He explained that since the type of money needed for such a project is huge, the state government intends to get the required amount to ensure that quality job that will stand the test of time is done on the road.

“We realized that if urgent attention is not given to it and the road totally becomes bad and vehicles cannot use it, people will suffer, especially those going towards Bida and other southern parts of the country as they will have to take the longer route from Minna which is either Wushishi/ Zungeru Road or Lapai/ Agaie Road”, he says.

But since the government seems not to have the money to dualise the road now, drivers like Baba opined that government could do minor repairs on the road, by filling the potholes.  “Because if they wait until they dualise it, many lives would be lost on the road that is getting worse day-by-day,” Baba says.