Fourteen years after the Amansea Awka Ofemili road in Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State was flagged off for construction, communities in the area groan under the weight of the deplorable road. No weather condition spares motorists and commuters on the road. They are covered in dust in the dry season as they ply the road and hold their hearts in their hands when it rains; as vehicles and motorcyclists can get stuck during such a period.
The affected communities namely: Awba
Ofemili, Ugbene, Ugbenu, Ebenebe, and Amansea have decried the neglect of the
road which they said has taken it to toil on their livelihood and called on the
state government to run a government of inclusion as they seem to have been
forgotten, yet a dominant force in the agricultural sector of the state, citing
rice from Awba Ofemili, cassava from Ebenebe among other produces.
A motorist from Awba Ofemili, Mr. Mike Nweke
regrets the politics being played in the area by the state government. He
condemned the lack of interest by the previous and present administrations in the
development of the area. “I can tell you it is a clear case of marginalization.
How can the previous administration and the present pay no attention to these
important roads that link five agrarian communities? It saddens me that there is
no one to speak for us. So far less important road in the state has been
asphalted. We keep wondering if we are still part of this state.”
An indigene of Ebenebe, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said that the government couldn’t be talking of having
agriculture as one of its pillars, yet this agrarian area experiences a bad road
for years. He stated that they are not only helpless on having the road
asphalted but it has affected the cost of farm produce. “You can imagine for a
route that shouldn’t cost more than N200 transport fare, commercial bus
operators charge N500. If the state government really has an interest in our
well-being they should fix the road.
Jubilation rented the air when the immediate
governor of the state, Mr. Peter Obi contracted out the road with a ceremony on 7
March 2007. The contract for the road construction was initially awarded to a
construction company after years of quasi-construction with bridges at Ezu
Ebenebe and the other at Inam Igbenu by Peter Obi at the tail end of his
administration.
Immediate past governor, Chief Willie Obiano inherited the project
from Peter Obi and completed Ezu Ebenebe Bridge. Since then even the earthwork was done on the road as asphalt it was abandoned to its present stage, rendering
the road to gully erosion that defaced the road. The promise by Chief Obiano
when he visited the constituency during his campaign for re-election at
Achalla, Awka North LGA Headquarters in 2017, that he would send the contractor
back to work within two weeks, is a promise yet to be fulfilled.
“We are cut off from the rest of the state,
no visitor wants to risk coming to these communities because of the deplorable
nature of the road. Economic consequences are hard times for our farmers and
increasing cost of our produce. One bag of rice of 50kg which should transport
for N50 now goes for N500. A bag of garri that costs N100 to transport, attracts
N1000. As it stands the agricultural programme, which the state government used
to empower the citizens of these communities through various empowerment windows
like loans, FADAMA Programmes, and National Institute Research for Agricultural
Seeds (NIRSA), which are at Awba Ofemili could not be accessed.”
“Nobody wants to invest where they cannot
sell their produce, leaving farmers unable to access loans from Central Bank OfNigeria (CBN) anchor borrowers, which was initiated to make sure that youths of
these communities are actively engaged in farming and where granted, most
farmers could not access it, it leaves the anchor borrowers unable to recover
their money because the borrowers recover them from the farm produce, he said.
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