By Emeka Alex Duru
More than 18 years after his death, the insights in the songs of Afro-beat star, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, keep resonating. At yuletide, as the current Christmas and New Year season, the track that captures the travails of Nigerians most, is the 1978 chant, “shuffering and shmiling”. In it, the legend painted a picture of Nigerians in the Lagos mass transit bus, “Molue”, where passengers struggled for space to the point of 44 sitting, 99 standing. From the stuffy and choking atmosphere inside Molue, the passengers would stagger home, confronted with no water and epileptic public power supply. The next morning, they would wake like cocks and hit the roads in what was a routine. As if the sordid experiences were not enough, the ordinary citizens, Christians and Muslims, were deluded with the philosophy of suffering here on earth and enjoying in heaven, while their leaders lived in opulence.
This is what Nigerians go through on daily basis. Thus, festive occasions which ordinarily should grant them ease of life, become nightmarish. The 2025 Christmas season falls into the pattern. Since last week, families and travellers moving from some parts of the country to another, have had tales of extreme stress and excruciating pains due to bad roads. Passengers and motorists from Lagos to the eastern parts of the country, have been forced to sleep on the roads or got to their destinations very late. Many were robbed. The Ore-Benin-Asaba highway is in practical term, a short-cut to death. With potholes that have developed to craters, commuters have at times, had to bear the drudgery of staying at particular point for hours. Same sad story replicates on Abuja-Lokoja highway and other state and federal roads.
You cannot of course, blame the commuters for taking the course. They have no alternatives other than subjecting themselves to the humiliating status of guinea-pigs on the roads. The odds are obviously stacked against them. Going by air is for the privileged few and out of reach for most citizens. By early December, the airlines on the eastern routes had hiked their fares beyond the reach of the average Nigerian to such frightening rates as between N350,000 to N500,000 for an hour of 45-minute one-way flight. Returning from Abuja, was not different. Left with no option, the people have had to hit the roads and are paying dearly for it.
In this type of situation, leaders with eyes on history get concerned at what the people are going through. They are also conscious at how they would be remembered and what happens after them, not necessarily by death but when they leave office. That is legacy. Leadership is about sacrifice. Former South African President, Nelson Mandela, captured it at the Albert Luthuli Centenary Celebrations, on April 25, 1998, that “real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people”. He did not just mouth the mantra. He lived with it and manifested it. For the five years he reluctantly accepted to be President of South Africa, Mandela, was constantly conscious of the future of the country and his people.
Here in Nigeria, there are no indications of leaders at the federal and state levels ever thinking along these lines. The government lacks explanation for shirking in its responsibility and betraying the people. The primary purpose of the government is protection of the people and their property. It is not the situation here. If you think that what the people are going through on the roads and their traumatic experiences would bother the leaders in any way, you are wrong. On the contrary, seeing the citizens suffer, gives them joy. For them, the very mentality of exclusivity and distinction from the crowd is an indication of arrival. That is why the traffic snarls will continue to exist at every yuletide seasons. And to think that these are yearly events with precise dates and periods when movements are high yet no remedial measures put in place, speaks on the callousness of those presiding over the affairs of the country.
The gullies on the Benin-Asaba Road did not just happen. They began as minor potholes that were ignored and allowed to widen over time. While they expanded, there were offices of the Federal Ministry of Works, Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) in the states. At the state level, there are Ministries or Work or whatever appellation they are known with, as well as road maintenance outfits. Is it therefore, a case of the officers in charge not filing in the relevant reports and doing the necessary follow-ups or a matter of non-release of funds for rehabilitation of the roads? Whichever is the explanation, the sordid sights on Benin-Asaba Road; Abuja-Lokoja Highway and other spots where Nigerians are regularly stranded due to failed portions, are unacceptable and point to Nigeria sliding to a collapsed state. For every soul lost in those unavoidable gridlocks on the highways, the blood is on the hands of the officials or agencies whose crass indiscretion and failure to do the needful, caused the death.
This is a country that prides itself as the giant of Africa and leader of the black race. It is a major crude oil producer and member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). From the crude oil which Nigeria exports to other countries, Bitumen which is used primarily as the binder in asphalt for roads, is extracted. Yet, Nigerian roads are in decrepit forms.
It is not enough for the President and the governors to make broadcasts and roll out messages in felicitation with the people on occasions as these. Governance goes beyond tokenism and riding on convoy. It is a serious business and about being in the shoes of the citizens. When the people explicitly or tacitly surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the state, it is in exchange for protection of their remaining rights or maintenance of the social order. That is the summary of social contract, as propounded by 17th and 18th Century English and Greek philosophers. Successive Nigerian leaders do not abide by this creed. Leadership for them, is a right to appropriate the common wealth, corner the resources of the state for their families and cronies, while the people suffer. This explains the shame on the Benin-Asaba Road and Abuja-Lokoja Highway.
DURU is the Editor, TheNiche Online Newspapers, Lagos (08054103327, nwaukpala@yahoo.com)