If you’ve ever had to take the Benin/Auchi and Okene expressway (if it can be called that), then you’re probably friends with numerous ‘burrowed pits’ that never die. Hang on a moment. Don’t shake your head just yet. I’ll try to be more precise.

Every year, pits appear all along the Benin/Auchi and Okene expressway. But among all, stands one in our own backyard; so to speak. It is arguably directly opposite the Big Joe Motor Park in Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria. This pit continues to grow until the whole Ekpoma stretch of the expressway becomes one messy gully.

One trailer burrowing away on the Benin/Auchi expressway in Ekpoma

Aha! Now you know the one. I’m sure you’ve been in it. With the coronavirus pandemic this year, many of you who’ve never seen it, just might.

I’m not into road construction, neither do I know a thing about digging drainages. What I do know is that it doesn’t take a professional to realise that a shabbily executed project never stands the test of time. Yet government agents continue to award these contracts, never bothering to at least supervise its execution.

Who can imagine that this spot was fixed in 2019?

The Benin/Auchi expressway sees tonnes of traffic daily, most of which are weighty heavy duty trailers and trucks. Anyone contracted to do a repair job on any part of the road should at least be familiar with the basics.

So how is it possible, that year after year, this bottomless pit appears during the raining season, and grows until there’s an impasse? Who’s in charge of these hastily done repairs? Why aren’t there drainages anywhere along the road? And more importantly, why hasn’t anyone been arrested for this gross irresponsibility?

Our mumu don do. If you take a moment to google this expressway, you’ll discover that it makes news every year, for this one reason.

I’m aware that this same road has been under dualisation for years. I remember seeing portions of it being dualised in 2008. Yes! You heard me correctly. Then I was a Philosophy Four Student of Saints Peter and Paul Major Seminary, Ibadan. Today, I’m nearly eight years a priest, and the road is still being dualised?

Now the rains are increasing; inter state travel ban has been lifted; and the Dangote trucks and co are right now burrowing away… The same script of years before, all over again…

But while we’re here wondering what has happened to our government, many are running around jumping from APC to PDP and back again…

Our mumu don do!

© Oselumhense Anetor, 2020.