Most Dangerous Road In Nigeria:125 Lives Lost On Lokoja Abuja Road in 2013..FRSC

The killing of Professor Festus Iyayi, former president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in an accident on Lokoja-Abuja road last week, has brought to the fore the volatility of the road to crashes. SULAIMON OLANREWAJU (Tribune)  reports. 

Last Tuesday, Professor Festus Iyayi swelled the number of casualties consumed in crashes along the Lokoja-Abuja road when he became the 125th person to lose his life on the road this year. Iyayi, who was travelling with some members of the University of Benin branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to attend the National Executive Council meeting of the association in Kano on the offers made by the Federal Government to the association, died when a vehicle in the convoy of Kogi State governor, Idris Wada, rammed into the bus conveying the ASUU members, forcing it to somersault three times. Other passengers in the bus sustained varying degrees of injury.

Travelling on this road is accompanied with trepidation because collision of vehicles is its regular feature. The road has become the cemetery of many dreams. Many lives have been lost on this road; many have been turned into vegetable sequel to their involvement in accidents on the road while many have lost limbs and other parts of their bodies following their involvement in accidents on the road.

According to official figures released by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), a total of 124 persons were killed in accidents on that road between January and September this year.

A breakdown of the figure shows that 19 people were killed in various crashes on the road in January, three in February, two in March, 29 in April, six in May, eight in June, 16 in July, 18 in August and 23 in September. It is therefore not a surprise that the road that links the northern part of the country to the south is categorised by the FRSC has one of the most volatile to accidents in the country.

The high casualty rate of accident victims on the road has been accentuated by the absence of any notable hospital along the 160-kilometre stretch except for the Gwagwalada Hospital, which means that any accident victim in need of immediate specialist care has a very slim chance of survival.  

Speaking on the causes of crashes on this road, the Assistant Corps Marshal in charge of Ekiti, Kogi and Kwara States, Kehinde Adeleye, fingered recklessness of drivers as a prime factor for the frequent accidents. He said it had been discovered that many drivers engaged in making or receiving calls while driving on top speed, adding that this affected their concentration often resulting in crashes along the road.

Adeleye said acts of indiscipline and flagrant disregard for traffic rules were particularly rampant among the elite. He, however, said his agency was prepared to tackle the problem.

Speaking in a similar vein, Corps Public Education Officer of the FRSC, Jonas Agwu, also traced the regular crashes along the road to the recklessness of the drivers. While not dismissing the role played by bad roads in causing road accidents, he argued that crashes were caused more by the poor attitude of motorists than the poor state of the roads.

He said, “All we are saying to Nigerians is that bad roads don’t cause accident; bad vehicles don’t cause crashes; it is the bad use of the roads and the vehicle that cause accidents.

“So, we appeal to Nigerians to change their driving attitude. As the roads get better, don’t be tempted to say you want to do 120 kilometres per hour; cut down that speed. Don’t be tempted to say you can drive and use your phone at the same time.”

But motorists disagree with Agwu on this, saying the deplorable state of the road is a major cause of the spate of crashes on it.

Speaking with palpable anger, Saheed Alamu, a commercial driver who plies the Lagos-Abuja route, said the road was too important not to be speedily completed by the government.

“The construction work on this road has been going on forever; it is high time the government completed it because the road is quite important. It is easily one of the busiest in the country, that, coupled with its poor state, makes crashes a constant on the road,” Alamu said.

Going down the memory lane, he said the road was constructed by the administration of General Abdulsalami Abubakar and it was completed within 15 months despite the number of bridges on it, he then wondered why the current effort to rehabilitate and widen the road seemed to be a never-ending project.

Alamu said the construction work had caused many accidents because of the failure of the companies working on the road to put diversion signs on the road.

“It is as if the lives of Nigerians do not matter to these people,” Alamu observed. “Many times, one would have run into some construction equipment carelessly placed on the road without proper notification before knowing it. This has caused countless number of accidents.”      

The ongoing construction of the Lokoja-Abuja dual carriageway has been divided into four sections with each section given to different construction company. The first section, which commences from Zuba and runs to Sheda Village Junction, with interception from Giri Village Junction to the Airport Link Road Junction, is being handled by Dantata and Sawoe Construction Co. Limited. The second section, which spans between Sheda Village Junction and Abaji, is being handled by Reynolds Construction Company (Nig) Ltd. Section three of the road, from Abaji to Koton Karfi, was awarded to Bulletin Construction Co. Ltd, while the last section, Koton Karfi to Lokoja, is given to Gitto Construzioni Generali Ltd.

“The fact that the road has been given to four prominent construction companies should have facilitated speedy completion of the project but that has not been the case,” said Anthony Uwajafor, a regular traveller on the road. “This project has been on for the past 10 years. Why should the construction of a road as busy as this last for this length of time?”

In its reaction to the news of the death of Professor Iyayi on the road, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) lampooned the Federal Government for vacillating over the completion of the road.

In a statement, NLC president, Abdulwaheed Omar, said, “The Lokoja-Abuja stretch of the road is arguably one of the busiest in the country. The contract for its dualisation was awarded about 10 years ago to ease vehicular movement as well as reduce carnage on the road. Quite sadly and unfortunately, no appreciable work has been done, thus turning the stretch of the road into a slaughter slab.”

The statement added, “Congress holds the view that there is no justification for leaving this road, and indeed other critical roads undone. Nigerians are keen to know the facts of this contract.”

However, the Minister of State for Works, Bashir Yuguda, has assured on the completion of the road by the end of the first quarter of 2014.

While on an inspection of the road recently, the minister said the four sections of the Abuja-Lokoja road consist of 200 kilometres but that work on 150 kilometres had been completed.

“By the end of the first quarter of 2014, this particular road’s dualisation will be completed. We have certainly attained 80 per cent of work on the road and, having achieved this, I am sure the ministry will surely deliver as assured,” he said.

The minister explained that funds from the Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) were being used to fund the project.

However, many people have observed that a major cause of crashes on the road is the recklessness of the convoy of top government functionaries. In less than one year, there have been three accidents involving the convoys of the governor and deputy governor of Kogi State. On December 28, 2012, Kogi State governor, Idris Wada, was involved in a crash which claimed the life of his ADC.

On September 30, 2013, five people were injured when the convoy of the deputy governor was involved in a crash. Professor Iyayi was killed in a crash involving the governor’s convoy last Tuesday.

Commenting on the frequent road crashes involving top officials of the state, FRSC Corps Marshal, Osita Chidoka, blamed it on unqualified and untrained drivers.

According to him, drivers in Kogi State government convoy have not been participating in training programmes organised for drivers of top government functionaries in the country by the FRSC.

Chidoka said, “I’ve just been told by the Sector Commander that the governor had asked him to take all the convoy drivers from Kogi State for this training, because Kogi convoy drivers were not involved in this training.

“Of the 700 convoy drivers we trained in the last two years, none of them has been involved in any road crashes. The only crash we have seen so far from convoy are from people that have not attended our training.

“There are some vital things they were taught on how to move on convoy. So, now that the governor had directed his people to be trained, we have also advised him to bring some FRSC officials into his convoy because many of the state governors who have had no crashes have FRSC officials in their convoy.”

But motorists are also laying the blame for some of the causes of accidents along the Lokoja-Abuja corridor on the attitude of some FRSC officials.  

Isa Alade, a commercial driver who plies the Ibadan-Abuja route, recounted an experience that almost resulted in a crash.

“I was travelling to Abuja a few months back when suddenly as we got to Giri Junction, an FRSC officer, in an attempt to stop the vehicle probably for a check, jumped in front of it. It was so sudden and unexpected that I had to swerve to avoid crushing him and in the process almost ran into a ditch. If I had been distracted or had not fully concentrated on my driving that day, it would have been a different story. I could have killed him, I could have hit another vehicle and my vehicle could have somersaulted,” he said.

He therefore appealed to FRSC personnel to discharge their functions with discretion to avoid causing accidents.

One other factor identified as being responsible for the high rate of carnages on the road is the recklessness of articulated vehicle drivers.

“They behave as if they own the road,” observed Mr Segun Ajayi, a businessman who frequents the Lokoja-Abuja road. “These articulated vehicle drivers have no respect for other road users; especially bus and car drivers. They overtake at awkward places and leave the other drivers to choose between turning into the bush and risk being crushed by them. Sometimes this happens so suddenly that the hapless driver does some stupid thing which causes an accident. It is obvious that the government has to do something about this category of drivers. I think articulated vehicle drivers have caused more accidents on this road than any other category of drivers.”

Commenting on crashes on Nigerian roads Niyi Alalade, a public affairs analyst, said it was necessary for the government to punish those responsible for road accidents as a form of deterrence. “Until we criminalise road accidents and punish those responsible for them, some people would not realise that no life is more important than the other.”