I have been writing mainly on political issues and I guess it is becoming a little bit boring.You might be thinking that Nigeria’s problem is only with corruption and political issues. Yes, You’re right! Most of the bad things happening in Nigeria can be connected to corruption and bad decisions made by the government.This week, I’m switching things up a little bit. I’ll be talking about the situation of roads in Nigeria and I’m sure you won’t be impressed by the state of the roads.

In a country where there’s no functional railway system, Nigerians, especially the middle class depends mainly on roads to commute. The very rich people or the politicians might not be really affected by the bad roads as they might decide to travel by air. Nigeria has about 120,546 mile network of roads ,and the quality is generally low. There’s no state in Nigeria that can boast  of decent motor-able roads .The government keeps on allocating funds to repair the roads but it only seems to be getting worse. So, where’s the money going?.You see, we can connect the bad roads to corruption!

For a country nicknamed ‘ The Giants of Africa’, it is a national shame that we can’t boast of good motor-able roads. The bad roads have led to untimely death of several Nigerians and foreigners in Nigeria. About 15 people die daily due to road accidents in Nigeria (Nigeria bureau of Statistics). There’s barely anyone in Nigeria that hasn’t lost a family member/friend due to road accidents. The poor state of roads have also led to loss of man power due to several hours lost in traffic daily.

Furthermore, cars are not made for bad road and the roads in Nigeria damage the vehicles. Drivers in an attempt to avoid damages to their vehicles, swerve their cars to avoid potholes and ends up putting their lives and the lives of other road users at risk. Also, insufficient stop signs, malfunctioning traffic lights,and overloaded vehicles put people’s lives at risk.

We can’t blame only the bad roads and government for some of the accidents on Nigerian roads. Some are caused by bad drivers. Most drivers in Nigerians don’t really concentrate while driving. You can see drivers receiving calls, some drinking alcohol or smoking while driving and some drivers are not even qualified to drive!

There’s no problem without a solution and the solutions to bad roads and driving in Nigeria is not far fetched. My first suggestion is to make other forms of transportation available and affordable. The railway system should be revived and more airports should be built to reduce the pressure on road transportation.Some states don’t even have airports! My second suggestion will be to have a maintenance culture. Nigerians mentality should change. After constructing a road ,it doesn’t need  to be completely bad before you try to fix the roads again.Roads should be maintained from time to time. Lastly and most importantly ,CORRUPTION should end and the funds allocated to fixing roads should be used for just that.

Please leave your comments and add few suggestions!