NEWS ANALYSIS: Deplorable state of Federal roads in South-West, by Chris Adetayo

If you are new to this country and just lap up what is written in the media, you will easily be misled.

I often read stuff like “this Government is favoring the South West”. Well, I live in the SW and I don’t see the “favours” that folks refer to.

Take the issue of roads.

I’ve been around the country a fair bit in the last couple of years. I can say, without fear of contradiction, that the South West has the worst roads around. I’m not kidding.

If you take out the Lagos-Ibadan 110km road (that took over a decade to complete), there’s nothing else to point to as a decent, hassle free road in the SW.

Ibadan-Ife-Ilesha is an assault course. Both sides of the road have collapsed. A journey of 40 minutes now takes the better part of 2 hours and several thousands of Naira on car repairs.

Shagamu – Ijebu-Ode – Ore – Benin is in the same shambolic league. The bit of repairs going on tells one it’s more palliatives rather than long term solutions.

Ife – Ondo is hopeless. Don’t even bother.

Akure – Ado Ekiti has been under snail-speed re-construction for years – after decades of abandonment.

The reality is that Federal roads in the SW have been neglected for so long, and this Government isn’t particularly in a hurry to fix them all.

Who has the better roads? The North!

You could drive from Kano to the Niger Republic border, a 2 hour journey, and its pristine road.

Take Kano – Zaria – Kaduna, a 250km completely rebuilt road. Its equivalent in the SW will be Lagos-Ibadan-Akure. The difference between them is like night and day.

I was on the road from Abuja to Jos. Half of it (Abuja to Akwanga) is better than Lagos-Ibadan. The other half is better than most other roads in SW. Akwanga to Makurdi is such a sweet drive, you’d envy those who use it regularly.

Should the Govt do less in the North? Or SE? No. We all need these infrastructure so we can get around more easily, and food can be moved more smoothly.

But the roads in the SW need more than urgent attention!

By the way, what are the SW Governors doing too?