Column No.6: Abuja to Kaduna, first time in a long time

I hadn’t been to Kaduna for many months, seven to be precise.

Even someone who knows me only casually would find that odd, as I used to visit almost every weekend for the entire almost-two-decades of my Abuja-dwelling.

Family, friends, familiar places, warmth, realness, and some of the best home cooking anyone could ever want. Simply put, Kaduna is home.

Now, I stayed away for that long, obviously, because of that nasty pestilence, Covid-19. Coming from a kind of high-risk area like Abuja, I didn’t want any elderly person in my life to be exposed to the possibility of infection.

But yesterday, Friday 9th October, I broke that jinx and set out for the city of my birth.

Accompanied by my friend Babangida, we set out via the Kubwa-Bwari-Jere axis. But our nightmare began from Kubwa, where the road between it and Dutsen Alhaji, which has been under construction seemingly forever, was in a bad state. Potholes, puddles, and even mini-gorges littered the entire stretch up to Bwari, not to mention inconveniently-placed speed bumps. At Jere, the road begins to worsen, up to the part where it meets the main Abuja-Kaduna highway. It smoothened out, but for only half-a-kilometre.

We drove past Kateri in fairly good straits, but as we approached Sarkin Pawa, the drama became real. We reached the first of many massive chasms right in the middle of the highway – a federal one – all filled with brown rainwater. Beside it, stood several youngsters in tattered clothing, using rusty shovels to fill, or trying to fill them. Of course, for tips from grateful motorists, like myself. Soon we chanced upon another, also being tended to by children. And then another, and another. Further ahead after Rijana, the asphalt was so badly degraded that it appeared to twist like whorls, or even a wave of stony, black taffy.

After matching my brakes probably hundreds of times, driving round deep crater-like potholes, and dodging massive mounds, we managed to reach Kaduna in one piece. Also, anyone reading about Abuja-Kaduna road travel would strain their ears to hear of kidnapping-related updates. While I’m happy to report that there was no such issue, it’d be remiss of me not to say our eyes were peeled throughout the three-and-a-half-hour trip.

Away from my feelings of demoralization, it’s noteworthy that the House Committee on Works, headed by Rep. Kabir Abubakar, revealed in August this year, that at the time the contract for the Abuja-Kano highway was awarded to Julius Berger, there were other companies that quoted about N90 billion for the 375-kilometre road. Officials of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, reportedly disagreed with the members, over the unit cost of constructing the road. He also said while Julius Berger collected about N70 billion from the Federal Government, and an assessment of the work done so far showed that the contractor was yet to accomplish more than 20 per cent of the total work.

The back-and-forth drama that unfolded in that encounter is, needless to say, epic and too complex for this piece, at least for now. But that was in August. Today, driving on that road from Jere junction, all the way to Kaduna, I couldn’t see where a single kobo was put in. I’m not sure about the Kano end of the project, but I hear work has begun at the Zuba part. Why this is not even remotely impressive is that it’s taking too long, and moving too slow.

We got into Kaduna safe and sound, yes, but shaken and discombobulated from the turbulence on the way. But we soon began the journey of forgetting the nasty experience as soon as we began to drive on the newly dualised and tree-lined roads in the city on the way home. Kaduna’s new urban look is, like I say, a story for another day. As soon as we got home, hot spaghetti and peppery chicken stew, washed down with Maltina, also helped in the much-needed amnesia needed to survive the experience we just had. At least until the return journey at weekend’s end, which I have a feeling will be a story all its own.