Streets and Roads Alia Should Give Urgent Attention in 2025
By Saviour Ugah
The emergence of Revd Father Hyacinth Alia PhD as the 5th democratically elected Governor of Benue State has so far left no one in doubt that the hope and expectations of the people of Benue in the area of infrastructure development would be actualized.
The Governor’s Road constructions and interventions in other critical areas since his assumption of office, over a year and eight months, has put smiles on the faces of many across the state and has brought such courage to the people and also the realization that they have since been held down by the fear of the unknown for nothing.
Governor Alia has not betrayed the confidence reposed in him by the Benue populace, thus the more democracy dividends he provides, the more the people clamour on him to beam his search light of development on their communities in terms of roads and streets construction so that they too may have a sense of belonging.
One of such calls recently came from Adeke community, a settlement in dire need of a major access road. This community is a fast-growing area with a large number of inhabitants. Yet, there is no motorable access road linking the people to the tarred Mobile Barracks Road.
The major entrance route into the settlement beside NKST Church is affected by gully erosion due to lack of drainage channels on both sides of the road, thereby making it difficult for vehicular movement both during the rainy and dry seasons. During heavy rains, the small bridge at the entrance into the community is submerge by a large volume of water up to the kneel level, and people have to wait for long hours for the water to pass before moving out of the community. The most affected are the school children and also the women who access healthcare services at the Primary Healthcare Centre in the community.
A community mobilizer, Abicha Yange, said their communal efforts over the years to make the road a little motorable by the constant evacuation of sand from the route that passes through NKST Church to make it more accessible to motorists and other road users have not yielded the desired result.
Another resident of the area, Terver Emberga, said the road needed the attention of the Ministry of Works, Housing and Urban Development for rehabilitation to create some relief for the residents. Emberga expressed worry that the deplorable state of the road has affected the commercial activities in the area as most commercial motorcycles are always reluctant to go beyond the NKST Church during the rainy and dry seasons.
One of the elders in the community, Richard Yange said they have visited the Ministry of Works, Housing and Urban Development to complain about the lack of motorable access road into the community. He also disclosed that the Ministry last year sent their staff to inspect the road. Yange appealed to the state government to consider the main access road to the area among those earmarked for construction this year to put an end to the suffering in the community.
John Abuul a tri-cycle operator stated that he charges special a fee to take a person beyond NKST Church and enjoined the state government to give the road attention this year.
Another deplorable street in Makurdi is the one linking Old Otukpo Road to Achusa that passes Beside Hotel Lucia. The worst portion of the street starts from Kids Authority Junction to Saint Dominic Catholic Church, New Kanshio Layout Street. The road leading to Full-Moon International also has serious access challenge as a result of gully erosions that have cut off many adjourning streets to it.
A resident along the road, Simon Ade, appealed to the state government to consider the road to the community among those penciled down for construction. Ade lamented that at the moment, some residents of the area could not access their houses with their cars due to erosion that has created gullies on both sides of the road, explaining that if the street is constructed it would reduce traffic on Old Otukpo Road as people will pass through it to link Achusa and other parts of the town.
A Veteran Journalist who also reside in the settlement, Elder Godwin Akor, urged Governor Hyacinth Alia to come to their aid by constructing the road, adding that fences of many houses usually collapsed every year due to lack of drainage channels on the street.
A shop owner, Nguevese Shie, said the deplorable state of the road has affected commercial activities in the area, thereby forcing many businessmen to relocate to other parts of the town. She cited the example of a bottle water producer close to her shop that moved out of the settlement to another part of the town because water tanker operators were always reluctant to supply water to the businessman as a result of the bad road.
Infrastructurally, across the three senatorial districts of the state, Governor Hyacinth Alia’s name stands tall. However, some of the roads begging for attention in Zone C include; Otukpo-Utonkon-Egumale, Utonkon-Okpoga-Owukpa road, Orokam-Otukpa-Ugbokolo-Eke, Olegwugbecho-Ochobo-Otukpo road.
The aforementioned roads cut across over five local government areas in the state, if these roads are rehabilitated, it will enhance agriculture in the area as well as promote the commercial activities of people in the communities.
Governor Hyacinth Alia has chosen to be on the part of the masses through provision of democracy dividends and intervention in the education sector to make the state occupy its place among other states of the nation. Hence there is hope that he will give attention the issues raised and other deplorable roads in Zone A.
