Have our State and rural roads been abandoned?
By Nnamdi Nwigwe
What’s happening to the Imo State Government that more than three months of dry season it has not done anything about the State Roads that are so dilapidated as to be impassable during the rains?
And as we are halfway gone into the first month of 2025, there’s no sign that it plans to work on the roads.
I’m writing from Ezinihitte Mbaise and can attest that the longest State Highway – from Okpala to Okigwe Junction on Enugu – Port Harcourt Express which was a nightmare to travellers last year, has remained untouched since the dry spell set in last October.
That road traverses seven Local Government Areas namely Ngor-Okpala, Aboh-Mbaise, Ezinihitte-Mbaise, Ahiazu-Mbaise, Mbano, Onuimo and Okigwe.
This stretch of road and the population it serves appear to be excluded from the governed territory with headquarters in Owerri.
Imo citizens and visitors who experienced the horrors of that route during the last rains, up till early October 2024, will tell you that Hell constitutes no dread or fear to them.
Simply put, a Government that pretends to administer that zone is not worth the appellation!
And any moment from now the rains will be back and the rivers and rivulets will reappear on the road leading from Okpala to Okigwe.
I have not bothered to speak about other parts of Imo State because I prefer to stick by the facts.
If other areas are like my area, it is a pity.
And the question again is: What is the Government of Imo State doing to make the State highways motorable in the fast approaching rainy season?
If there’s no remedial action and the people again go through the harrowing and bloodcurdling experiences of last year, they should pay no taxes or rates to the State and, perhaps advert to their Local Councils that are accessible.
And talking about Local Councils, the paralysis that has attacked the State Administration seems to have afflicted them as well.
It beats the imagination that people hanker after public office without the slightest idea of what it entails.
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If a councillor representing an electoral ward can’t organize for the maintenance of the rural roads, why should they desire to go to the Council?
And finally to the Autonomous Communities and the Town Unions with their Presidents-General and their Royal Highnesses what makes it difficult to have remedial interventions on the roads within their areas?
It is a crying shame that our roads – both Rural and State – will remain unattended to as we gravitate to yet another period of intensive precipitation.
Please, fellow compatriots, it’s not yet too late for the rural dwellers to help themselves and perish the thought of any Government coming to their rescue.
Hasn’t it been said that Heaven helps those who help themselves?
Let’s not be deluded by the ease with which we ply on the roads now as the land is as dry as ever.
The gullies that the floods created offer us a jolly ride as we descend and ascend again like a canoe man riding the waves and being rocked by the tides.
It will not be funny at all when the rains return and the floods resume their locations.
Are we so used to suffering that the populace appears so docile and unconcerned that they cannot even murmur and whimper and see whether the Government would react?
The politicians claiming to represent us have gone into a prolonged hibernation “in Summer.”
What a shame.
- Nnamdi Nwigwe, a veteran journalist can be reached via email: nnamdinwigwe7@gmail.com
