It was a bad road no doubt, but not so bad to be unmotorable. It needed a touch of construction for a long time , the desire and the utmost cry of those who ply it. When the presence of heavy earth mover removing the bad surface road was seen, the joy in minds, the songs in mouths and the dance and clap of hands in jubillation were historic . At last, the authorities have seen the deplorable condition of the road and decided to harken to the massess’ yearnings.
Days gone, weeks rolled by , what one thought would be a face lift turned into a terrible sight of road witchcrafting. What was managable at a time became in a twinkle a nightmare of commuters, a terrain that would effortessly pressure a child out from the womb of the mother.
What used to be a considerably average road with bad spots in doted manners , was disfigured into a road with ridges, bad spots and dangerous pot holes in corrigated forms.
From last gate to Life Camp Junction ordinarly would take less than 15mins, not anymore in such a ridge form road terrian. Like a snail, cars move, not without the jerking and shaking that not only affect ones body system but equally add to the quick tear and wear of cars that ply it.
One wonders how many times cars visit mechanics weekly for repairs.
For those that have alternative routes to their houses, to get to their bussiness places etc had long abandoned that road in peace and those that have no alternative routes, their daily agony, pains and discomfort become very incomparable. It would only take a bad engineer who had issues with their equipment with a mind of a sadist to do such a preliminary road scraping before the main construction. This isn’t the first time one is seeing road scraping or make shift road construction, this one that happened on Karmo road was a display of non professionalism and delibrate orchestration of hardship for road users.
The people of Karmo and those who use the road to get to their bussiness place should prepare for a long walk of such discomfort.
From what one could see and the pace at which the work is moving, the jolting, the shaking and the quaking of vehicles on that road wouldn’t end before the end of this year, unless the relevant authorities come in to interven.
Nigerians are already going through challenges. The economy isn’t good enough, adding terrible bad road to it wouldn’t be fair enough.
This is a clarion call to the contractor handling the road to show diligence, professionalism, compassion and simple construction ethics. It can be remedied soonest to give the poor masses a fresh breath of life.
Get the road leveled to make movement smooth and stress free before the main contruction begins. Road, water, electricity, food, health care and housing should be the low hanging fruits for any massess friendly government. These are basics that should be given to the poor people as their dividen of democracy. Not something that should form part of their election year promises or ones prayer points. I pray the road wouldn’t be used as an election strategy to get votes and abandoned later.
There are still many places in Abuja that are like Karmo in road disservice. The attention of the FCT Minister should be drawn to such areas. Karmo is very close to town, less than 20 mins drive baring bad road and traffic. With the springing of many estates around Karmo axis, population density of karmo in the nearest future may explode. Creating more and better road networks would be a timely and apt panacea to the looming gridlocks.
Thanks to FCT Minister Bar. Nyesom Wike, for remebering the Life Camp – Karmo Road and deciding to do a quality construction with drainages. However, the resident of Karmo and all those who use the road would appreciate a timely palliative measure on the road before the main construction work begins. People are crying, cars are lamenting and the pockets of car oweners are having holes from constant visit to mechanics caused by an uneven and epileptic movement of cars caused by such a corrigated road structure of Karmo.
Looking at that road and the way it was done, nothing comes to my mind than road witchcrafting
Jarlathuche@gmail.com
