Kuje, Bwari roads in deplorable state

The road to Kuje, headquarters of Kuje Area Council, is in a very deplorable state.

Immediately after the overhead bridge, which connects the road to Airport Road, just before the military checkpoint, failed portions of the road are noticed.

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Residents of Kuje have been lamenting over the deplorable state of the only road leading to and from the city.

Deep potholes on the narrow road make driving very difficult as vehicles keep manoeuvering to avoid bumping into holes.

The situation has led to serious gridlock daily.

A motorist, Mr. Habeeb Ibrahim, said: “A journey of five minutes from Tipper Garage to Secretariat Junction is now more than one hour.”

Mr. Ibrahim further said although Kuje was adjudged the largest area council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the state of infrastructure there was woeful, adding that the council had the worst roads.

He said, “I learnt the area council does not want to fix the road because it is a federal road.

“Why are they collecting allocation if they cannot attend to things that residents should enjoy?”

A resident, Mr. Jacob Ojo, said, “The problem is that the people that planned the city did not have long-term development of the area councils at heart.

“If they did, they would have opened up the road initially and we wouldn’t have found ourselves in this situation.

“In the past, few people were residing here, but I must tell you, the population of Kuje is increasing by the day and something urgently needs to be done to make good roads available.”

A commercial driver, Dele, said in order not to get stuck in traffic, commercial vehicles sometimes went through the bypass, adding that even the bypass road was bad.

A businesswoman who spoke to our reporter around AA Rano fuel station said some time ago, a church came to sand-fill some potholes as community service, but that the area council people stopped it, and said the council was about to repair the road “but up till now we have not seen them do anything about it.

“The little the church people filled up between Tipper Garage and Secretariat Junction has worn off and that is why you see the road like this.

“They should find a solution to it.

“During the rainy season, passing the road is a problem, and in the dry season people doing business here are covered with dust and their wares are also dirty.”

The spokesperson of the chairman of the council, Mr. Nuhu Tanko, said the chairman was more worried than anyone over the deplorable state of the road and that he had been working towards rehabilitating it.

Tanko said they had met with the minister of the FCT to lay a complaint about the road, and that the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) promised to fix the road, adding that as at last week, they were with the minister and they believed very soon it would be attended to.

He further said, “Previous administrations did some repairs that did not last, and we don’t want to take such steps, but to do what the people will enjoy because the road is the beauty of Kuje.

“We are looking forward to the promise by the FCT minister because we met with him last week again over the issue of the road.

“FERMA came on Monday to check the state of the road and we look forward to the repair.”

The story is not different in Bwari Area Council; with a large population.

Bwari, which is the headquarters of the council, hosts some Federal Government institutions like the Nigerian Law School (NLS-Abuja Campus) and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) headquarters.

While the town has a dual carriageway on its exit corridor, internal roads have remained in a deplorable state.

The neglected township roads have persistently caused untold hardship to residents and visitors.

A resident, Yusuf Mamman Shere, said the FCT Administration (FCTA), which executed the bypass should complement its effort by completing the abandoned road from the FGGC through JAMB to the emir’s palace.

Another resident, Gideon Giwa, lamented the situation of the road around the central market, which leads to the divisional police headquarters in the town.

Giwa said since the peak period of rainfall in July up to September, floods had taken over the area thereby making the road impassable.

When contacted, the media aide of the chairman of the council, Patrick Awusha, said although a road project that started from FGCC to SCC Junction around the emir’s palace was under the FCTA, the council would not fold its hands, adding that it had taken up its reconstruction.