Better Nigeria: Getting Our Roads to World Standards

BY Iphie Obiechina
Growing up in the 90s, road trips were a big part of my childhood, whether it was a trip to Jos to visit my 'Granny Jos', or road trips back to school in Benin or Kaduna or a trip to Delta state for the christmas, you cannot keep an Ibo man from his village, so we migrated every year from Abuja to Delta. I loved these road trips, and I looked forward to them and counted the days till we took our next road trip, and I stayed awake from the beginning of the trip till the horn was hooted for the gates to be opened.
I loved these road trips, because they were an opportunity to bond with my family, we would gist throughout the journey, tell stories, sing songs (sigh, I wish I could relive those days). It wasn't only an opportunity to bond with the family, it was an opportunity to learn about Nigeria. It was an opportunity to learn about the different people that come together to make up the most beautiful country on earth. It was an opportunity to learn their different cultures, to learn about what they ate, what they did for a living. It presented an opportunity for parents to teach their kids the greatest lesson they could ever teach them; the beauty in our diversity.
My Dad would talk from the beginning of the trip to the end, telling us the name of each little village and town we passed through, he always had a story to tell about them.

God smiled on my parents and after a while we were able to make those trips by air, I must admit I miss the road trips. But recently, I found out that if given the opportunity, I wouldn't take a road trip to anywhere, the longest I have been in a car to anywhere in recent years, was a trip from Abuja town to Gwagwalada for a family friend's wedding in November 2011.
Now it is not because I am suddenly an ajebutter that I can't take road trips anymore, it is not because I am suddenly a snob. No these are not the reasons, the reason I can't take road trips anymore is because I am scared of Nigerian roads, and I would rather sit in my house than take a road trip.
Last Christmas, my Dad decided a road trip was in order, so my siblings, Dad and Mum went to village by road, I have never been happier to be in England, when I heard it I was so glad I had a white christmas.
I used to love road trips and quite honestly, I still do. I would prefer to go by road, but I love my life more. I am so scared of Nigerian roads that I am tense once I have to be on a road trip outside Abuja town, if I am not the person driving I find myself pressing down on an invisible brake.

Two weeks ago, my sister and I escorted our brother to Heathrow in the middle of the night, 2:30am and I noticed something, I wasn't scared of travelling by road, my fear was restricted to Nigerian roads. Most of my trips to parts of the UK that are not to London, are by road, and I found myself sleeping in the coach, without a worry in the world. This 2:30am trip got me thinking of things that we could do in Nigeria, so I can go back my beloved road trips.
Some of the ideas that popped up might seem a little harsh, but that doesn't mean it cannot be done.

The first thing I thought of was that, we could do away with the heavy duty trucks on the roads, fuel tankers, luxurious buses, lorries that ferry goods from state to state. We could do away with these if our government set out to fully develop the rail system, and ensure that it is fully functional. This would reduce the number of cars on the road greatly. It might be argued that train accident are always fatal, with little or no survivors but it can also be argued that they are very rare. Lagos State and Abuja seem to be making a head way in this area, Lagos has a functioning rail service, while the Abuja Light Rail is in the process of being built.
In the mean time, before we able to get a functioning railway system, the heavy duty trucks could be restricted to travelling at night. Of course the government has to make sure the roads are in good conditions and are properly lit if this would be successful. Most of the most dangerous accident are usually linked with these heavy duty trucks, losing control, falling etc.

The heavy duty trucks are not the most dangerous vehicles on the road, nope, the most dangerous vehicles on Nigerian roads are transport  buses. The drivers drive like drug addicts running to meet up with their drug runner, the drive with no regard for human life, no regard for the responsibility they have to get their passengers to their destination safely. There should be some way to control them right?
I suggest the government and transport service owners start working together, they would save more lives that way. There should be a body set up to screen all transport services, ensure that they meet up to some safety criteria before being allowed to start transport services. On their part, the transport services should have safety standards that have to be met before employing drivers, they should have their drivers properly trained and regularly tested before putting them on the road. I was once told that there is a way ABC coaches were checked for speed even while they were on the road, now I don't know if that is true, but some intelligent person must have invented a means of checking the speed of these buses right, if they havent, take this as a hint to do that, LOL!. But seriously I think there should be a way of ensuring the drivers do not go above a certain speed limit and a means of cautioning them when they are approaching that speed limit. But most importantly, they should make sure they don't put drunk or angry drivers on the road.


Last but not the least, and actually the most important one, all cars allowed on Nigerian roads should pass a fitness test and be issued a fitness certificate and in a situation where your car doesn't meet that standard it should be taken off the road and the owner taxed for each day that the car remains in the premises of the VIO. This might seem a little harsh, but owning a car should be a huge responsibility and if you cannot be responsible then you shouldn't own a car.
Now I must commend the VIO, they seem to be making making an effort to ensure that cars that drive Nigerian roads are fit and have been issued with an MOT certificate, but they are sadly not doing enough. When I came home for the holidays, I was stopped twice while driving out. One of the stops was eventful while the other wasn't, on both occasions I was asked for my papers and licence, which I quickly produced, now here is the ticker due to a lack of an up to date certificate at their office, one of the the certificate issued looked like it had expired while the other certificates showed that I still had a few months to go before the certificates expired. The officer quickly pasted an off the road certificate on the windscreen and asked me to open the door so he could get in and I drive behind the other officers in their truck. No way! being the lawyer that I am, I got down, locked the car and went through the certificates with them and it became clear that the fault was from their office and he let me go. Now the funny thing is that a lot of obviously unfit cars passed us during this exchange of words  and they made no move to stop them. Its obvious the VIO officers were working, they were working for their pockets. They saw a young girl in a good car, if she was unfortunate not to have her papers, they were sure she would part with some money, after all if you can drive a fit car you can part with money, or so they think!  Thats how Nigeria works right, and so they let obviously unfit cars to pass by because they wouldn't get much from these drivers anyway.

Its time for us to taking life more seriously, its time for us to start valuing our lives. It starts with you and I, before you get on the road, make sure your car is fit for the road and that you are fit to drive, be patient with other road users, no need to run to ending your own life and the lives of others. I would rather be alive and short of the cash used to fix the car than dead and cash rich.