Fix the roads, fix the democracy deficit

On 30 October 2010, I visited Elibrada to execute the traditional rite duty of my late elder brother, Wowusor Dibia, to his maternal kindred at Omordu family, Rumuikhah Compound in Elibrada Emohua.

In Ikwerre, that rite is called Ovu Akanhe. Ikwerre tradition has it that every male adult, while alive, must pay homage to his maternal kindred (Akaonu) with a live animal (usually a she-goat) representing his successful adulthood. He goes to perform this rite in the company of his paternal kindred (Rumundah), his family, in-laws and friends.

If a man fails to do this while alive, his immediate family is required to do it before he is buried, otherwise Akaonu will not attend his burial. When this is the case, this highly respected traditional ceremony will be devoid of its fanfare and merry. My late brother did not do this while alive and that was why I was at Elibrada.

Elibrada is one of the eight village communities in Emohua Clan. Emohua is the headquarters of Emohua local government area within the Ikwerre ethnic nationality in Rivers State, Nigeria.

The Elibrada main road is linked to the almighty east-west road when you are coming from Port Harcourt towards Ahoada. From the east-west road end, the road is tarred and so we thought it was going to be a sweet, smooth ride from there to the community and throughout the village. That was a joke and a dream because we did not know what awaited us. In the car with me were my three younger nephews who accompanied me. Having driven about 300 metres from the east-west road, the tarred road suddenly disappeared as we turned right going towards the Omordu family. At this point there was no drivable road because of large pools of water along the feeder road that led to our destination.

At the first pool, while we contemplated calling our hosts by mobile phone to tell them that we could not make it because of the extremely bad road, a passerby beckoned us to drive carefully through the right hand side of the road. He warned us that if we made any mistake by driving to the left, the car would sink. We couldn’t afford such a mistake because we had borrowed the car from my in-law who needed his car for his own engagements. We reluctantly and carefully drove into the sea of water and luckily passed.

Between that point and before entering another adjoining main road, there were other pools and gullies of water that we miraculously passed with the help of villagers who patiently directed us from one pool to the other. It was, to say the least, very embarrassing and shameful.

It became so hopeless at the last and largest pool that joined the feeder road and the main road. It was a point at which we actually decided to return home. Here the car sank in the middle of the pool, which we now discovered was full of mud. The villagers assisted us and pushed the car out and we drove it to a nearby church where there was a little dry land. So it was that God, the villagers and our little faith helped us to get out of that dirty and dangerous pool.

From here onwards, it was clear that we dare not use the car anymore: our legs became the best and only alternative means of transportation to the Omordu family. From here it was a more pathetic and sad story. The entire family was flooded and we needed to trek through and in-between trees in order to connect back to the building where we were being awaited by family elders and members.

On seeing us, they quickly came to our rescue and directed us through the forest of trees to the house where they had gathered. When we finally arrived, I estimated it had taken us an hour to travel a distance that would have taken five minutes in a car. They apologised to us for the bad terrain, but my pity was with them as they had to face the experience daily.

On our way back to the main road, I looked on both sides of the road and discovered that some of the feeder roads had drainages constructed on both sides. So, why did the contractor abandon the major road project?

My concern here is not just the sufferings our people have to go through, but also the deceit of the contractor, who worked the road less than one-tenth from the visible east-west road end and then abandoned it. What was the meaning of that?

The same deceit was repeated at Elioduwoha (Oduoha) Emohua, an adjoining village to Elibrada. Oduoha’s case inside the village is not as bad as that of Elibrada probably because of the rivers and streams surrounding Oduoha as well as the fact that Oduoha’s landscape is a little raised. Whatever the challenges facing this contractor, I strongly believe it was deceitful for the contractor to tar less than one-tenth of the road and abandon the rest of it. Elibrada’s social, economic and other activities are seriously hindered.

The trouble with Nigeria in the area of infrastructure development is that it is hardly ever done well. Take road construction as an example. In the project plan, provisions may have been made to ensure that the right thickness, width, length, and drainage are provided for. These are the conditions that constitute ‘doing the work well’. But it is a common experience that the work is not done well and roads are washed away in less than 12 months, there are no drainages and the roads are narrow with no walkways even though the government knows that many people in villages do not have cars. In not carrying out road projects as planned and paid for, huge amounts of ‘free’ funds are available for abuse. In the Elibrada case, while the contractor and his government officer-masters are enjoying the dividends of democracy, our people are suffering the dividends of democracy.

It is high time that defaulting contractors pay affected communities who suffer flooding and other damages as a result of road construction abandonment in Nigeria. Communities also have a right to civil disobedience and non-violent demonstrations as a means of redress.

I passionately appeal to the elites of Elibrada, the local government council, managers of constituency project funds and the Rivers State government to kindly come to the aid of Elibrada community. Doing this immediately will certainly liberate Elibrada community and give Emohua a facelift as the headquarters of the local government during the coming Christmas period and beyond.

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