Southeast’s Roads to Nowhere

In southeast Nigeria, the ancestral home of Ndi Igbo, the signs of abandonment and neglect by the government at the centre is clear even to a first-time visitor. The portentous handwriting on the wall first appeared in 2015.

Historic polls like a tornado had swept away the incumbent but incompetent Mr. Goodluck Jonathan and the complacent Peoples Democratic Party. President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress were their replacements. In an acceptance speech brimming with hope and bristling with the promise of battle, a chilling warning was fired the way of corruption. But something else still stung.

His historic victory at the polls had not been unanimous. Not every region of the country had been convinced by Mr. Muhammadu Buhari and the APC, especially by their antecedents. So there had been support for Mr. Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party out of some quarters.

Out of southeast Nigeria came a jarring rejection. The emphatic loss suffered by Mr. Buhari and the All Progressives Congress had less to do with the acceptance of Mr. Goodluck Jonathan than a rejection of Mr. Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress.

A historically egalitarian society which had somehow survived the unfathomable wickedness of the Nigerian Civil War somehow reinvented the ancient tool of political defiance.

Political parties which had died elsewhere in the country found life in the region`s defiant embrace. The All Progressives Grand Alliance easily comes to mind. New political parties also sprung out of the region and surged to significant electoral victories. The PPA`s victories in Abia and Imo States easily come to mind.

So, a region that lives and breathes the famous igbo enwe eze (igbos have no king) famously wrongfooted Mr. Muhammadu Buhari and the APC, not once but twice, leaving them in a heap on the ground.

Former Deputy Senate President, Mr. Ike Ekweremadu was to salt wounds when he declared shortly after the 2015 elections that Ndi Igbo had no regrets over the choices they made at the polls. But there is always a price to pay. Not that the survivors of a dreadful Civil War feared steep prices.

Mr. Buhari was to press home the point about prices when he openly declared that people who had not supported him sufficiently could not possibly expect the same portion of presidential goodies as those who had been unequivocal in their support for him.

Those wintry words proved to be the harbinger of what was to come, and a prophecy of nepotism.

Today, credit must rightfully go to Mr. Buhari for the work going on at the 2nd Niger Bridge. This is in spite of the fact that there are genuine concerns over its pace. However, the real elephant in the room is the so-called Federal Government roads in the Southeast. They are not just full of potholes; they are in themselves ports of death where people meet their end.

There is the 82 Division – 9th mile section of the degraded Enugu-Onitsha expressway; there are both lanes of the road from Abakpa junction; the Amansea portion of the Enugu -Onitsha expressway; the Owerri-Umuahia road, Owerri-Aba road, the Owerri end of the Owerri-Aba road and the Ulakwo axis; the Osisioma to Port Harcourt axis of the dual carriage road, the highway between Aba and Obigbo in Rivers State particularly at Ariara junction, Alaoji Mechanic Village and Asa axis; the Port Harcourt road traversing Aba; the Ikot Ekpene-Umuahia federal highway linking the Southeast and Akwa Ibom State particularly the Ikwuano axis and the Umuahia-Ohafia-Arochukwu federal road that has almost collapsed to mention but a few.

Even the staunchest skeptic of the abandonment of the Southeast by the federal government would struggle to dismiss the potent evidence provided by the roads which wear neglect like signature sackcloth.

It is not a question of what people want to believe themselves and what they want people to believe. It is a question of what is on ground, of what people can see for themselves.

While many Federal Government roads in the Southeast are broken, their counterparts in the Northeast especially shine with maintenance and attention.

Ironically, people feel safer travelling on the neglected roads of the Southeast. Because on the shiny roads of the Northeast, ISWAP hyenas attack randomly but ruthlessly.

Nigeria has always struggled to convincingly answer questions about its unity and diversity but especially about its resource allocation.

An all-powerful center which has become a central problem collects and corners almost everything, leaving constituents with craps at the prompting of nebulous laws.

Yet, at every mention of restructuring, there are those who howl like wounded dogs. The formula is inherently unworkable. It explains so many of the problems bedeviling the country.

Nigeria`s Federal government has become its central problem and it explains why many states cannot fully take charge of their destinies or even secure their people not to talk of handling the roads that run through them.

Another year comes to an end and as usual, the Federal government has stridently avoided every question about restructuring. But with the country`s roofs leaking in every spot, and the rains pouring through, it remains to be seen how much longer a critical national question can be avoided.

Kene Obiezu,

keneobiezu@gmail.com