Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has renewed his call on governments at all levels to prioritise the reconstruction and maintenance of existing roads and critical infrastructure instead of embarking on new projects that, according to him, do little to address the daily challenges faced by Nigerians.
Obi made the appeal in a post shared on his official X account on Monday, where he recounted the experience of a traveller whose journey from Onitsha to Lagos, ordinarily completed within eight hours, took almost two days because of the poor condition of the roads.
According to him, he left the traveller in Onitsha on Saturday night with plans to board the first bus to Lagos on Sunday morning. However, the traveller did not arrive in Lagos until about 2 p.m. on Monday.
“I have consistently continued to respectfully appeal to those in office today to prioritise reconstruction and maintenance of existing roads and other infrastructure over commencing new ones,” Obi wrote.
He continued: “I left someone in Onitsha on Saturday night to take the first bus to Lagos on Sunday morning. Until I left Lagos at 8 pm yesterday, he had not arrived in Lagos. He only arrived in Lagos at about 2 pm today. A journey that usually takes a maximum of 8 hours now takes nearly two days.”
The former Anambra State governor said the issue goes beyond the inconvenience of travelling, stressing that the deteriorating road network is inflicting heavy economic losses on individuals and businesses across the country.
“This is not just about bad roads. It is about lost man-hours, stranded passengers sleeping on highways, wasted fuel, damaged vehicles, delayed goods, and businesses losing millions of naira,” he stated.
Obi argued that Nigerians are more interested in functional infrastructure than in the announcement of new capital projects that have little immediate impact on their daily lives.
“Nigerians do not need new projects just for the headlines. We need functional roads that make life and economic activity possible,” he said.
He further maintained that governments should measure infrastructure development by its impact on citizens rather than the scale or cost of projects.
“A government must understand that infrastructure is not necessarily about the size of the project; it is about the number of lives and livelihoods it improves.”
Expressing optimism about the country’s future, Obi concluded his message with the words: “A new Nigeria is POSSIBLE, and Nigeria will be OK.”
PHOTO CAPTION: Peter Obi assessing the deplorable state of a major higheay, reiterating his call for the rehabilitation and maintenance of Nigeria’s existing road infrastructure before embarking on new road projects. @PeterObi/X
