Rehabilitate Mayo Belwa-Ganye-Sugu road please
In this country however, due to lack of extension to other parts of the country of the railway system that was built during the colonial period to evacuate produce and raw materials to the ports, road transportation is still the major means for both passenger and goods. It is in this regard that every year […]
In this country however, due to lack of extension to other parts of the country of the railway system that was built during the colonial period to evacuate produce and raw materials to the ports, road transportation is still the major means for both passenger and goods. It is in this regard that every year the federal and state governments budget huge sums of money to construct or rehabilitate roads that fall within their jurisdictions.
One of the federal roads that has over the years been neglected and is in dire need of rehabilitation is the Mayo Belwa–Ganye–Sugu road in Adamawa State. The road was rehabilitated by the disbanded Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund (PTF) where two layers of coal tar were laid on the road. However, due to the heavy traffic, especially articulated vehicles always recorded on the road, the coal tar is almost completely washed away, and the portions that are not washed away are filled with pot holes.
The Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) late last year started rehabilitating the road. But when we were about to heave a sigh of relieve, after rehabilitating about one kilometre of the road, FERMA, for reasons undisclosed withdrew from the site.
In fact, but for the commercial activities going on in the area, many commercial vehicles would have ceased to ply the road. The road leads to Ganye town which has an international Saturday market that attracts traders from Kano, Calabar, and Onitsha, Umahia, Maiduguri and countries such as Cameroun, Gabon and as far as Ghana. Traders patronize the market for yams, groundnut, rice, maize in addition to goats and cattle. Hence the heavy traffic recorded on the road from Fridays to Mondays.
The road passes through Jada, the home local government headquarters of two prominent politicians, Alhaji. Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President and Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the immediate past national chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
A call is hereby made to Alhaji Ahmadu Fons Nwangubi, member representing Mayo Belwa /Jada / Ganye / Toungo federal constituency. He should join hands with these personalities from the area. They should forget their political differences, that is, if there is any among them. They should prevail on the federal government to rehabilitate this road to alleviate the hardship experienced by motorists who daily ply the road.
Linus D Sarason, Works and Housing Dept, Jada Local Government, Adamawa State <[email protected]>;