Abia: Collapse of a commercial city

•Riding on human back becomes mode of transport
•Youths charge between N50 and N500 to ferry passengers

From OKEY SAMPSON, Aba Wednesday, November 02 , 2011
•Man being ferried across waterlogged road
Photo: Sun News Publishing

Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. This age-long saying became true recently as residents of Ohanku, Osusu, Obohia, Omuma, Ehere in Aba, Abia State discovered a new mode of transportation – riding on the back of youths – known in the local parlance as ‘human carriers’ to beat deplorable roads that had cut them off from the city.

The youthful ‘human carriers’ in the areas are, therefore, making brisk businesses by ferrying people on their backs across the hell-like roads.

Aba, the once flourishing commercial city in the East comparable only to Kano and Onitsha, is today a shadow of itself owing to general infrastructural decay and debilitating state of the roads.

A check across the commercial hub showed that from no point would one access the city without the same tales of woes.

To many, accessing Aba today is like going to the land of the spirits to fetch firewood. From the Eastern flank; the Aba-Ikot Ekpene road that connects the city with the two neighbouring states of Akwa Ibom and Cross River and extending to Cameroon Republic is as bad as the word could be.
Even within the metropolis, a portion of the road stretching from the popular Opobo junction to Azuka junction is nothing to write home about.

Also, the road which would have served as a bye-pass, the Orji Uzor Kalu road, built by the last administration in the state is in worst condition ditto other roads within the area.
The Port Harcourt road despite its economic importance to the state is a total shame. The more than 10 kilometer stretch has almost been closed to traffic, no thanks to its near total collapse. Incidentally, this road leads to most of the markets the state government is asking traders in the city to relocate to.
As is the case with Ikot Ekpene road, Uratta road which should have served as an alternative route is competing with Port Harcourt road in terms of deterioration. So going to Port Harcourt in Rivers State from these roads has become hellish.


Indeed, no part of Aba is spared from this horror. From upland Ogbor Hill to the densely populated Ngwa/Ohanku roads axis popularly known as ‘Amamong’; from Umungasi to Over Rail area down to Ariaria, it is the same sad story of dilapidation.

Daily Sun recently went to town to bear eye witness and what was seen was amazingly disturbing; it was like a tale in the ‘Alice in wonderland’.
At Ohanku, Ehere, Osusu and Omuma roads, this reporter was confronted with the same tales of youths engaging in one uncivilized job or another. From human ferrying services (using their backs) to pushing of vehicles across the muddy roads covered by flood for a fee.

Ohanku road which leads to Iheorji, the home of the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Chukwuemeka Wogu is impassable. There was simply no way he can get to his house if he decides to visit his home town today. The road has developed what the locals called ‘Isimiri’ (river source) at Umunkama/Ama Bread, Onyembi and Nwachukwu junctions. These areas are classified as Isimiri one, two and three.

When this reporter visited Isimiri 1, some youths were seen ferrying people, including pregnant women on their backs across the river-like road at fees ranging from N50 to N500 per trip, depending on the weight of the ‘customer’.
David (other names withheld) who is involved in the business of ferrying people across on his back on Ohanku road and who claims to be an SS1 student of Boys’ Technical College (BTC), Aba said:

“I’m a student at BTC, in SS1. I’m supposed to be in school, but I was sent out by my teacher over N200 and since I don’t have money, I decided to come here and make money. I make between N1, 000 to N2, 000 per day depending on the water level”.
He, however, said that he had made enough money and would now go back to school.
Despite the brisk business David was into, he would prefer the state government repairs the road so as to end the suffering of the people.

For Francis Chima, a trader, “what is going on here is not supposed to be seen in this modern day Nigeria where we are talking about good health, clean water, electricity and the likes.
“Look at the way people are backing their fellow human beings up and down because of bad roads. This was what we used to see in cinemas in those days, I never knew I could live to witness such a barbaric way of transportation in a city like Aba, this is shame.

“It surprises most of us living within this area that the Minister of Labour and Productivity comes from this place, yet the road is in this poor state.”
Onyinyechi Obienusi, a Youth Corps member regretted the day she was posted to Iheorji Secondary School for her primary assignment as she said; “I’m not happy passing through this road to the place of my primary assignment.”
She said she goes to work because she had no alternative and most importantly, she must serve her fatherland, Nigeria.
“Look at my condition, I’m pregnant and there is no way those boys could ferry me on their back across these bad and smelly waters; so, I have to wade through them on daily basis and you know the health implication,” she regretted.
At the end of each Isimiri are other women and children doing another form of brisk business by selling water sachets (pure water) with which those who waded through the waters wash their feet before continuing on their journey, a process that was repeated at all the Isimiris along the road.

For how long have people living in this area suffered this untold hardship? Pastor Mathias Ikpeoma, the assistant pastor of Pentecostal Bible Church that overlooks Isimiri 1, supplied the answer.
“The road started being this bad since two years ago and within this period; we’ve lost almost all our members because they find it difficult to attend service under the present condition of the road.”
Ikpeoma lamented that due to the poor state of the road since May this year he has not driven his car.
His words: “Since May this year, I’ve not driven my car because there is no way to go out or come in with it. What I do is that every morning, I warm it and leave it there in the garage”.

Commercial bus and tricycle operators who ply the Ngwa/Ohanku route to Owerre-Aba road are hard hit by the inaccessibility of the road and the adjoining ones.
Imo Isaiah, a Keke NAPEP operator, told Daily Sun that before the rains set in, they used to ply Ngwa road to Amuda/Owerre-Aba, but now they have been put out of business.
He said despite the fact the roads around the area are in deplorable condition, the government still increased the daily tickets they pay from N90 to N160.

“We are suffering, people living within this area no longer wear shoes, it is rubber slippers all the way because of the muddy nature of the roads”, he said.
To compound an already bad situation, landlords in the area complain that officials of the Abia State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA) forced them to pay N5, 000 each for the scooping and carting away of refuse from the drains.

A landlord who wouldn’t want his name in print told Daily Sun that “each month there was environmental sanitation in the city, ASEPA people will come here to force us to pay N5, 000 each for the carting away of the refuse scoped from the drains and those who refuse to pay, they use police to harass, intimidate and arrest. Yet the refuse would not be carted away and any time it rains the whole refuse will go back to the drains.”
What was obtained at the Ohanku road axis was similar to those at Osusu, Omuma, Uratta, Obohia and Ehere roads, but at Ehere road in Ogbor hill human beings were not ferried across on backs; however, some youths there had formed association of sort for vehicle pushing.

The youths’ job as Prince Nnanna Ukaegbu, Abia State chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) who was a victim of Aba bad roads put it, was to “push out trapped vehicles from the muddy road and they charge between N2, 000 to N5, 000 per vehicle depending on its weight.
“If you go to Ehere road today, you will see youths who are loitering, waiting to see whose vehicle would be trapped in the muddy road. The order day, my car was tucked right in front of my house and I had to spend N10, 000 to pull it out through the help of a crane truck.

“Some of us are not surprised because during the campaigns which preceded the last election, those ruling Abia today promised to provide employment for the youths if they win the election and these jobs have been made available to the youths who now ferry people across ‘riverine roads’ in the cross river that has become Aba”, he enthused.
The roads in the city have remained in bad shape, which made many to be taken aback when recently the Abia State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (ASOPADEC) claimed in an advertorial that it had fixed some of the roads, particularly Ohanku and Umuojima roads.

Therefore, this spurious claim drew the ire of residents of the areas concerned as they said the claim was not only false, but the height of deceit which could only come from an irresponsible government agency.
A resident of Ohanku road, Jerome Madu described the Commission’s claim as one monumental falsehood coming from a body that was supposed to bring succour to the people and not to deceive them.
“My heart bled as I read that ASOPADEC’s claim that Ohanku road had been rehabilitated. As I speak, Ohanku road is completely impassable, you need to go there and see how bad the condition of that road is and someone is somewhere dishing out falsehood and deceiving the people”, he lamented.

Madu said presently, no vehicle plies the road and people living within the axis are going through hell particularly this rainy season, stressing the need for those in government to endeavour to tell the people they are leading the true position of things instead of always creating the impression that politics and governance are all about deceit.

via Daily Sun

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Posted: at 2-11-2011 11:43 PM (12 years ago) | Gistmaniac

We are the most stupid set of people the world over I should think. Yes the citizes of Nigerria arre the biggest problem of Nigeria. The leadership is not the problem because the leadership is a product of the followership. Just imagine this piece and yet people go through this everyday and they have people they stood under the sun and rain to vote for. Wwhen arre we going to learn when arrre wwe going to change and begin to demand performance from these so called leaders. They will use siren to intemedate us people we voted, steal our money and use it to call us names. Gosh, Nigerians it is time let us learn from the lessons of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Any state governor orr president that is not perforrming let us match down to the state house sit down there let the whole world see us sitting on the floor demanding the exit of such incompetent people who do not want to be accountable to the people that voted them in. Yes we can do it. Once we start this you will see changes. What type of people are we sit down and take nonsense from common people we voted into power to go and work for us.

Posted: at 4-11-2011 03:47 AM (12 years ago) | Newbie