Francis Sadhere

“This traffic jam is very bad. The pot holes on this road are nightmares to motorists. If the government can come to our aid and find a solution to the bad portions of the road, it will ease the traffic congestion on the Airport Junction. So please help us tell the Governor to come and do something about our roads in Warri because we are suffering too much.”

That was how Mr. Emmanuel Agesi described the bad portions of the Airport Junction in Uvwie local government area of Delta State.

The Airport junction is the only major access road linking Uvwie Local Government Area and the oil rich city of Warri. But because of the deplorable state of the road, not a few commuters had vowed not to pass the road again.

But for those who cannot do without passing through the road, they had resigned to faith and ready to take whatever ordeal they may be made to pass through just to reach their destination. The traffic situation at the Airport Junction is becoming worst daily making vehicular movement very difficult.

Commuters are now spending several hours on that portion of the road with some receiving query letters daily from their bosses because they are always coming late to work.

Our correspondent, who visited the ever busy Airport Junction recently, spoke to some of the commuters who narrated what they are made to pass through every day on the road. They all had the same story to tell; they are suffering and passing through untold hardship each time they are on the road.

Speaking to our correspondent, Mrs. Helen Nkem narrated that she had to go to work late every day and her children had to go to school late too because of the bad road. Looking at her time it was almost after 9am and her children were already late to school.

She lamented thus; “You can see for yourself what we are passing through in this road. Look at the time that I am taking my children to school. It is terrible. This is not supposed to happen in a country like ours. Look at my children. Nothing is happening right now concerning these roads. The government should come and tar it or make it motorable for the meantime so that people will not be suffering like this every day. But from the look of things nothing seems to be done. I have been in this place for over an hour now. It is terrible.”

She also lamented that despite all the money collected by the state government as tax from the citizens nothing seems to be working, noting that it was the responsibility of the state government to fix all the bad roads in the state and called on the state government to put in place palliative measure so that commuters can heave a sigh of relief.

According to her, “I have been in this place for over an hour now. I want the state government to come and do the road even if it is temporary. If an individual comes out and do the road now they will ask him why he is doing the road. It is their responsibility to repair these bad roads. We are paying tax every day yet we cannot enjoy good facilities. This is a shame to the state. In spite of all the money they are collecting as tax and the federal allocation they are getting, nothing seems to be done.”

Another road user, Mr. Friday Onos blamed the whole thing on the Nigerian system, saying the system “We find ourselves in the country is not conducive for the right things to be done at the right time. People will continue to suffer because the government that we have in place is not sincere to the people. The average Nigerian is not supposed to pass through all these pains on our roads. Journalists are not helping matters too; they are not reporting the bad things our governments are doing.”

Mr. Onos said that “people have been talking about the bad roads and nothing seems not be done about the roads. You see this is the kind of system we find ourselves and if something drastic is not done we will continue to suffer like this.

You journalists are also helping the government to destroy the system because it is the same journalist that will go out and say that they have tarred this and that roads while they have not tarred any road? So please I do not want to waste my time talking about this issue because nobody will take what I said into consideration.”

Also, speaking to a commercial bus driver who simple identified himself as Mr. Friday, he said that because of the bad portion of that Airport Junction, he now spends more time on the road and makes less money. He complained that before the road became worst he usually makes more money and was able to take care of his family. He noted that because of the poor roads he can no longer take care of his family and things are becoming more difficult for him.

He said; “The road is not good for us bus drivers and it is making us to lose money. Right now I am supposed to have gone three trips but as it is now I have not even gone half. Every day we keep on buying fuel and we keep on wasting it in the traffic and at the end of the day we go home to our family with little or nothing.

The state government should come and patch this road for us so that we can heave a sigh of relief. If the roads are good everybody will be happy and we would not pass through this ordeal that we are passing through now.”

Urging the state government to come to the plight of the people, Mr. Friday said Governor Uduaghan should order the Direct Labour Agency (DLA) to go and patch the road so that traffic would be light on that road. He said the State Government should not wait until the rains were over, noting that with the effect of climate change nobody knows when the rain was going to stop.

“Let them come and do it now. They should not wait for the raining season to come to an end before they come and do it. We do not have roads in Warri. Look at what is happening in the Refinery area. The government should create new roads in that place so that people will be passing freely,” he stressed.

Another commercial transporter, Mr. Kingsley Oghenetega, complained that the state government was not thinking about what the citizens were passing through.

He said all they care about was making money to the detriment of their people. He called on government to be responsible to the plight of the people and take positive action to alleviate their pains.

He said; “We are crying to the government to come and repair the bad portion of the roads so that we can be able to work enough money for our family. With this hold up now I cannot make enough money that will feed me and my family. It is very sad that such a thing should happen in Delta State. We are not supposed to be suffering with all the oil we have in this state. The government is just sharing the money among themselves and they have left the masses to suffer. They do not care if the roads are repaired or not because they are no passing through the roads. They have sent all their children abroad and left us here to be suffering. What kind of government do we have in this country? They do not care about the people.”