Road infrastructure ensures easy movement of goods and services thereby increasing social and economic growth, especially in rural communities. Therefore, road infrastructure is a key ingredient for development. And because it is grossly inadequate in Nigeria, the pace of development is slow.
When the country generated more monies than it needed from both non-oil and especially oil revenues, successive governments refused to give the needed attention as well as dedicate enough funds to infrastructure. This led to a huge infrastructural gap in Nigeria. Where some infrastructures were provided, they are dilapidated due to poor maintenance as is the case with many roads across Nigeria.
For instance, the Kari-Misau-Gyade-Shira road in Bauchi State is in a dilapidated condition and unless it is rehabilitated, the potholes will continue to claim lives and cause damages. More so, the economic activities of majorly farming and trade in the place may soon drop.
The Kari-Misau-Gyade-Shira road is a part of the Kano-Kari-Maiduguri road, which links the northeast and the northwest geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Before the conception and eventual commencement of construction work of the Kano-Wudil-Gaya-Azare-Maiduguri road, it was the only major route that facilitated trade and investments on the Kano/Maiduguri axis and parts of some West African countries such as Niger Republic, Chad, Ghana, and Cameroon.
In spite of the fact that the nearly completed Kano-Wudil-Gaya-Azare-Maiduguri road is already in use, the Kano-Kari-Maiduguri road remains quite significant to both the social and economic development of Nigeria. As such, no part of it should be left in dilapidated conditions. For, what affects a part of it also affects the whole.
The federal government is therefore called upon to take up its responsibility by immediately rehabilitate the Kari-Misau-Gyade-Shira part of the Kano-Kari-Maiduguri road to stop the continuous loss of lives and prevent a total collapse of economic activities in the place.
Muktar Jarmajo wrote from Tamsuguri in Misau.
