Obaseki Playing Politics with Edo Roads

Notes for File

After being embarrassed at the failed portion of the Benin-Sapele Federal Road last week, Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State came up with his usual blame game, accusing the federal government for being responsible for the deplorable state of the roads in the state.

As a transportation hub, Edo State connects several parts of the country. In the last four years, the major roads leading to the state and outside are in deplorable conditions.

These roads include the Benin-Sapele Road, Benin-Agbor Road, Benin-Auchi Road, Benin-Lagos, among several others.

Edo State used to have some of the best road networks in Nigeria. Today, almost all the federal and state roads in Edo State are in deplorable state.

But all the people of the state get from Obaseki is blame game and one excuse or the other. The governor has not fixed strategic state roads, let alone volunteering to construct federal road and requesting for a refund from the federal government.

Not even the all-important Benin-Auchi Road that leads to 12 out of the 17 local government areas of the state has caught his attention. As it is today, these 12 local government areas are cut-off from the Benin-City, the state capital.

On many occasions, communities had protested the poor condition of the road with no meaningful response from the state government. The poor condition of the road is daily fuelling insecurity, yet the state government has not made any efforts to get the federal government to fix the road.

The governor needs to tell the people of the state which road he has constructed or rehabilitated since he came to power in 2016. Most of the roads constructed in Owan East and Owan West Local Government Areas by the Samuel Ogbemudia-led military administration have since started failing under the watch of Obaseki without any attention.

In fact, to access the two local governments today, one has to go through Oloku Junction to connect the Benin-Owo-Akure Road.

The governor has been blaming the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government for playing politics and abandoning federal roads in the state. But he was a member of the APC in his first term and still failed to attract the attention of the federal government to those roads.

If the federal government has abandoned the federal roads in the state, Obaseki should show evidence of the important state roads he has constructed. It is not to embark on endless reforms, he needs to tell the people what he has achieved.