The Federal government of Nigeria has berated Nigerian road users for engaging in habits that lead to damage of federal government road infrastructure.
The nation’s Director of Highway Construction and Rehabilitation, Ministry of Works and Housing, Mr. Funso Adebiyi, made the condemnation while inspecting the dualization of Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja Road (Section 1), including a spur to Airport Junction on Thursday.
Briefing newsmen on the progress made on the construction, Adebiyi lamented that lane indiscipline, overloading, and overspeeding among motorists greatly contribute to the deterioration of roads.
“Everybody is in a hurry and this causes traffic problems,” he lamented, adding, “the completed sections I discover that road users are generally impatient, they speed a lot. Incidentally, I am the one overseeing the roads in Nigeria.
“The section we completed from Lagos to Ibadan, we have completed about 80 km out of about 127 km. When you see people drive on those sections, you will think they are going to heaven.
“They will be driving at about 160, 170 km per hour, to where and why are they speeding?.
“The resultant effects of speeding are colossal. As am talking to you, fast-moving trucks have destroyed two of our bridges, we have to repair those bridges again at our own cost,” he said.
The expert said overloading was another challenge that confronted the constructed roads.
According to him, people overload trucks with animals, foodstuffs, and human beings, which has adverse effects on the roads, because they are carrying more than they are meant to carry.
He stressed: “These pavements are designed for specific axel load. A trailer that should carry 600 bags is carrying 900 bags. Some carry 1000.
“This is why you see some rods on the road are getting spoiled; if you look at Abuja to Kaduna, you will see distress features all over the places, the crash of various sizes because of overloading.
“Do you know if you drive from Lokoja to Abuja and you are on 100 km per hour and am driving 140 km per hour the time lag that I will save will not be more than 15 minutes? This is the case because while am slowing down, you probably would have caught up with me.
“Do you know what if I lose my front tire at 140 km per hour, that car may somersault. I may not live to be able to tell the story. But you that is on 80 or 100, even if you lose all your tires, you might still be stable.
“Somehow fatality will be less, those you carry on top of those trucks, if you slam the brake suddenly the other objects on top will continue moving on.
“On Abuja -Kaduna road, we lost about 20 people recently. why? The truck slammed the brake and the human beings on top continued in their own motion.’’
Adebiyi added that every time there was a fire outbreak because of a truck collision, there was an explosion and all these add to destroy the pavements.
He further said trucks park indiscriminately on the roads turning them to workshops.
The expert, therefore, appealed to road users to also discipline themselves to maintain their lanes while driving and desist from all these issues that belittle the government’s effort to provide sustainable roads that would endure the test of time.
Adebiyi, therefore, has called on drivers and other road users to regulate their speed and maintain lane discipline while driving.
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