Road or Air Travel: The Narrowing Choices of Nigerian Commuters

For successive administrations in Nigeria, the battle to salvage failing road infrastructure has posed an unnecessary challenge. The worsening condition of roads across the country, has consequently driven many people to prefer air travel. But, with humongous airfares, a conundrum has arisen, as many travellers are now unable to afford plane tickets. The Benin–Asaba and Lagos–Ore highways, for example, are in such poor condition that commuters have endured nightmares – sometimes spending more than 72 hours on a journey that should take no more than seven or eight hours. The dangers scarcely need spelling out, particularly the risk of being kidnapped in traffic caused by dilapidated roads. Constitutionally, the security and welfare of the people is the primary purpose of government. Bad roads promote insecurity: criminals operate more easily when road users slow down to negotiate perilous stretches. What can be done to remedy this? To whom does the responsibility to fix the roads lie – the Federal or State Governments? Who can be held accountable? The lives of Nigerians are unsafe when the road network is in this condition, quite apart from the resulting damage to commerce and economic growth. Jonathan Gunu Taidi, SAN and Chiedu Ebie discuss the issues and proffer solutions to these problems 

Nigerian Roads and the Cost of a Nation in Transit

Jonathan Gunu Taidi, SAN

There are moments when a nation must stop and ask itself an uncomfortable question: How much longer can we continue like this? For millions of Nigerians, travelling by road has ceased to be an ordinary inconvenience. It has become an ordeal – sometimes an economic punishment, sometimes a security risk, and increasingly, a matter of life and death.

The nightmare unfolding along some of Nigeria’s most important highways, particularly the Lagos–Ore–Benin, Benin–Asaba and Bida–Lambata–Dikko–Kaduna corridors, is not simply about potholes, failed sections of pavement or traffic congestion. It is a symptom of something much deeper: the failure to adequately maintain the infrastructure upon which the nation’s economy, mobility and social life depend.

A road is not merely a strip of asphalt. It is an economic artery. It carries workers to their places of employment, farmers to markets, children to schools, patients to hospitals, traders to customers, businesses to their supply chains and families to one another. When a major highway fails, an entire ecosystem begins to fail with it.

The Lagos–Ore–Benin–Asaba Nightmare

Few roads illustrate Nigeria’s infrastructure predicament, more vividly than the corridor stretching from Lagos through Ore and Benin to Asaba, and onward to Onitsha and the South-East. This is one of the country’s most commercially significant transportation corridors. It connects Nigeria’s commercial capital with substantial parts of the South-South and South-East and carries thousands of passenger vehicles, trailers, tankers, buses and private cars every day.

Yet, sections of this strategic corridor have become synonymous with gridlock, failed pavement, flooding, prolonged construction, broken-down heavy-duty vehicles and intolerable travel times. The consequences are staggering.

A journey that should ordinarily take a few hours, can become an all-day ordeal. In particularly bad circumstances, motorists have reportedly spent several days navigating portions of the Benin–Asaba corridor. That is not normal traffic. It is infrastructure failure.

When a Nigerian spends 12, 24, 48 or even more hours attempting to complete a journey that should take a fraction of that time, the resulting losses cannot be dismissed as mere inconvenience.

They are economic and productivity losses, as well as security and public-health risks. Tragically, they can also become losses of human life.

The economic consequences of bad roads are often underestimated, because they do not always appear neatly in government expenditure reports. A truck delayed for 20 hours is not merely stationary. Its driver is being paid. Its fuel is being consumed. The vehicle is depreciating. The cargo is being delayed. The recipient is waiting. The next delivery is postponed.

For agricultural products, delay can mean spoilage. For manufacturers, it can mean interrupted production. For retailers, it can mean empty shelves. For commuters, it means lost working hours.

 For Lawyers, doctors, consultants, engineers and other professionals whose work requires interstate travel, it can mean cancelled appointments and missed engagements. For emergency services, the consequences can be catastrophic.

Nigeria therefore pays for bad roads several times over: through the cost of construction and maintenance; through vehicle damage and increased logistics costs; through lost productivity and higher consumer prices; and, ultimately, through human lives.

The road may appear free to use, but its failure is extraordinarily expensive.

The Aviation Paradox

There is another consequence that deserves greater attention: the aviation paradox.

 As road transportation becomes increasingly unreliable, Nigerians who can afford it are compelled to seek alternatives, particularly air transportation. Ordinarily, flying between Nigerian cities should be a matter of convenience, urgency or business preference. Increasingly, however, it is becoming a matter of time survival. A businessman who cannot afford to lose an entire day travelling from Lagos to Benin, may choose to fly. But, domestic air travel in Nigeria is hardly cheap. Airfares are influenced by a range of factors, including aviation fuel, foreign exchange, aircraft acquisition and leasing costs, maintenance, insurance, airport charges and airline capacity.

It would therefore, be intellectually dishonest to attribute high airfares entirely to bad roads. The important relationship, however, should not be ignored: when the road alternative becomes unreliable, demand for air transportation increases – not necessarily because Nigerians prefer to fly, but because the road has ceased to be a dependable option.

 Poor roads therefore, impose an indirect transportation tax on Nigerians who are forced to pay a premium to save time. The irony is profound. Nigeria is simultaneously failing to provide affordable, reliable road transportation while struggling to make domestic aviation accessible to ordinary citizens.

The Nigerian traveller is caught between a road that may consume an entire day, and an aircraft ticket that may consume a substantial portion of their income.

 That is not an efficient transportation system. It is a national mobility crisis.

Who is Accountable?

It is easy to blame “the government” alone. But, serious public discourse must go further.

Federal roads are principally within the responsibility of the Federal Government and its relevant agencies. The Federal Ministry of Works has responsibility for Federal highway development and oversight, while the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) has statutory responsibilities relating to the maintenance of federal roads.

Where a road has been concessioned, the analysis becomes more nuanced. A concession does not mean that government has abdicated its public responsibility. It means that government has chosen a different mechanism, for delivering and managing a public asset. Where a private concessionaire fails, government must enforce the contract.

 Where a contractor delivers defective work, government must enforce the contractual and statutory remedies available to it. Where a supervising consultant fails in his or her professional responsibility, that failure must be investigated.

Where public officials negligently supervise, approve or certify defective work, accountability cannot stop at the contractor’s gate. And, where public funds have been expended to correct avoidable failures, Nigerians are entitled to know why.

 The recent controversy surrounding the Benin–Asaba Expressway, is particularly instructive. The Federal Government has acknowledged deficiencies in aspects of the project, and ordered remedial action. Reports have also raised concerns relating to pavement quality, drainage and traffic management.

 The larger lesson, however, extends beyond one road or one project. Nigeria must stop governing infrastructure by emergency. There is an unhealthy pattern in the management of Nigerian infrastructure: a road deteriorates; citizens complain; the media reports it; traffic becomes unbearable; politicians visit; government announces an emergency intervention; machines arrive; a portion of the road is patched; a press release follows – and eventually, the cycle begins again.

This is not infrastructure management. It is infrastructure firefighting. Nigeria needs to move from reactive maintenance, to planned asset management. A major highway should not have to collapse before government intervenes, and a contractor should not disappear after construction.

Our traditional infrastructure model, also requires fundamental reform. Nigeria should identify its most economically critical transportation corridors, and place them under a special national infrastructure regime.

The Lagos–Ore–Benin–Asaba–Onitsha and Bida–Agaie–Lapai–Lambata–Dikko–Kaduna corridors should be among them. Other strategically important corridors should be identified using objective criteria, including population served, economic activity, industrial connectivity, accident rates and national-security importance. These corridors should receive priority funding, continuous maintenance and independent technical monitoring.

Politics should not determine whether an economically critical road is maintained.

Beyond Roads: Building An Integrated Transport System

Roads alone, will not solve Nigeria’s transportation crisis. There is an even bigger lesson: Nigeria must stop thinking about transportation, as a road-only problem.

We need an integrated transportation architecture encompassing roads, rail, aviation, inland waterways, ports and logistics hubs.

A country of Nigeria’s size and population, cannot efficiently carry virtually all of its passenger and freight burden on roads. Heavy cargo should increasingly have viable rail alternatives. Agricultural produce should move through efficient logistics networks. Major cities should develop multimodal transportation systems. Our ports must eventually connect efficiently, to rail and road corridors.

 The objective should not simply be to build more roads, but to create a transportation system in which each mode performs the function for which it is most efficient.

Accountability Must Have Consequences

There must also be consequences for failure. This is where accountability becomes real. We cannot continue to celebrate the award of contracts, as though awarding a contract were itself an achievement. A road contract is successful only when the road is delivered to specification, within reasonable time and cost, remains safe and functional, and provides value to the public.

If a project fails, there must be an institutional mechanism for determining why. 

Where the failure results from unavoidable circumstances, government should explain. 

Where it results from poor design, the responsible professionals should answer. 

Where it results from defective construction, the contractor should answer.

Where it results from inadequate supervision, the supervising authority should answer.

And, where it results from corruption or fraud, the appropriate investigative and prosecutorial agencies should act.

Where contractual obligations have been breached, government must enforce them.

Public infrastructure cannot operate on a culture of impunity.

The Way Forward

The solution is neither mysterious, nor impossible. Nigeria needs:

* Immediate emergency intervention on dangerous strategic corridors.

* Independent technical audits of major road projects.

* Transparent publication of concession and construction agreements.

* Strict enforcement of contractor and concessionaire obligations.

* Whole-life maintenance contracts.

* Independent certification of major infrastructure works.

* Real-time public infrastructure dashboards.

* Serious legislative oversight.

* Effective sanctions for proven failures.

*Integrated road, rail, aviation and inland-waterway planning.

*A national framework for prioritising economically critical transportation corridors.

A road should be maintained, because the asset requires maintenance – not rehabilitated because a Minister visited, a crisis erupted or an election is approaching.

Government should not act, because Nigerians have finally become angry enough to protest. It should act because, public office carries a continuing duty to protect the public interest.

Perhaps, the most disturbing aspect of our current transportation crisis, is how quickly we have normalised it.

 We complain about roads across virtually every geopolitical zone. We move on until the next breakdown, accident or flood – or until another family loses someone. We must stop normalising infrastructure failure.

Every kilometre of failed highway, represents more than damaged asphalt. It represents time stolen from citizens, productivity lost by businesses, additional costs imposed on consumers and, in the worst cases, lives lost.

Nigeria’s roads are therefore, not merely infrastructure. They are part of the nation’s economic and social lifelines. And, when those lifelines begin to fail, fixing them cannot remain a matter of political promises, emergency interventions and press releases. It must become a matter of national priority, measurable performance and enforceable accountability.

 A nation in transit, cannot afford to remain permanently stuck.

Jonathan Taidi, SAN, former General Secretary, Nigerian Bar Association; Life Bencher

Why NDDC is Intervening on Road Infrastructure

 Chiedu Ebie

Recently, my Managing Director joined the Minister of Works in Benin City to look into the Benin – Oghara – Sapele – Warri Road. Following that, we inspected the road and will be intervening in the very bad sections of the road, particularly between Oghara – Mosogar – Elume Junction (Sapele) totalling about 15kms, to make the road accessible and reduce the hardship for all of us that utilise that alignment.In fact this weekend, the designated contractors will be mobilising to site.

Another road we are preparing to intervene in, is the Abraka – Obiaruku – Umutu – Abavo – Agbor Road which is another major road within the region. Just yesterday, NDDC Engineers inspected that alignment to determine the scope of work preparatory to our intervention.

On the Benin – Asaba Road, the Minister did mention that the road had been concessioned, but that the very bad section around Ubulu Okiti will be attended to as soon as possible. So, I am not in any position to proffer an opinion on the state of our roads and the resultant effects.

We are doing our best at NDDC, as an interventionist agency, to provide some succour to commuters and road users.

Chiedu Ebie, Chairman of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)