Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

As if there weren't enough demands on the state in Nigeria

What are the impediments to good roads in Nigeria?

Nigeria's road shame goes online in hope of better days

The dismal state of Nigeria's roads is a constant source of exasperation for the long-suffering population but a tongue-in-cheek campaign on social media is trying to shame the authorities into action.

Posting under the hashtag #MyRoadIsWorseThanYours, Nigerians have been sharing examples of the country's worst highways.

Bomb crater-sized potholes, roads resembling muddy rivers in the annual rainy season and some unrecognisable even as public thoroughfares have been posted online.

"Here's one Lagos road (state governor Babatunde) Fashola needs to repair fast," says one tweet, with a picture of a motorcyclist navigating a flooded road, with water nearly up to his saddle.

The tweets have an underlying seriousness: when Africa's leading economy and oil producer claims to have pumped 1.4 trillion naira ($8.5 billion, 6.75 billion euros) into infrastructure improvements since 1999, why are the roads so bad?

They have also helped balance out the pages of self-congratulatory newspaper advertisements taken out by state governments, proudly displaying the smooth tarmac of upgraded, traffic-free roads…

"Nigerians spend a lot of money on maintaining their vehicles because of potholes, which damage tyres, wheel rims, shock absorbers and other components," said quantity surveyor Alani Amusa.

Time spent in traffic jams is also dead time, robbing businesses of productivity and effective workers. When they eventually arrive, they are often exhausted…

Motorists stuck for hours in jams are sitting ducks for armed robbers.

And bad roads mean more accidents. Nigeria had the highest road fatality rates in Africa in 2010…

Nigerian states and the federal authorities have been in dispute about who is responsible for maintaining and improving the roads -- meaning nothing gets done.

The Lagos State government for example has been at loggerheads with Abuja over reimbursements for repairs to federal-owned roads dating back to when Lagos was the country's capital.

As in so many walks of Nigerian life, corruption is also part of the problem.

"Contractors like to cut corners by not working to specification," said Amusa, who is involved in a number of road projects in Lagos state.

"They connive with corrupt officials to use sub-standard materials in order to maximise their profits…

Works Minister Mike Onolememen blamed chronic under-funding from the federal government, which has led to contractors revising up their project costs to accommodate rising prices of materials.

"About 500 billion naira was needed every year for the next four years to pave bad roads," he said. So far, he said the treasury has released just a quarter of the sum for the coming year.