Why Gov Okpebholo Should Not Be Blamed for the Bad Roads in Edo --- By Eubaldus Enahoro

 

It has become fashionable for some armchair critics to circulate fake news and pictures of failed portions of roads in Benin City and quickly tagged Governor Monday Okpebholo. 

They have deliberately gone blind, and  cannot see the  completed Ramat Park Flyover bridge and the Adesuwa junction Flyover, steadily rising and the numerous road construction projects across the state

What they  refuse to say is the truth that every Edo road user knows: those failed roads were not built by Governor Okpebholo. They collapsed under the weight of poor quality.

In the words of the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Prince Kassim Afegbua, the level of decay of some roads in Benin city shows that quantity and not quality roads were built by the previous administration 

Meanwhile, Governor Monday Okpebholo did not create Edo's bad roads; he inherited them. And he is fixing them.

It has become very obvious that many of the internal roads hurriedly commissioned in the twilight of the Godwin Obaseki administration are failing. Roads that were less than two years old washing away after a rainy season. 

The truth remains that we  have roads without proper drainages, without a stone base, without a binder course. Roads that were painted, not constructed.

Some Edo roads built in the last administration barely lasted 15 months. That is not about usage, that is about the quality of materials and quality of supervision. You cannot use substandard laterite, reduce asphalt thickness, and expect a road to survive in Edo's high water-table terrain.

Even the contractors know. Some of those roads had to be scraped from scratch because there was nothing to rehabilitate.

Governor Okpebholo has taken a different approach. His directive is clear: No more cosmetic roads. Every road project in the New Edo must pass the test of quality, durability and proper drainage.

This is no doubt why he is personally inspecting materials. This is why he is insisting on standard thickness, proper compaction, and side drains that actually take water out and that is what the entire GRA needs. Drainage

This is why projects like the Ramat Park flyover, the Benin-Auchi rehabilitation, and the internal roads now going on in the three senatorial districts are being supervised by quality assurance teams, not just political appointees.

A governor who wants to deceive the people would just patch the bad spots and take pictures. But Governor Okpebholo has chosen the harder, honest path: excavate the failed portions, remove the low-quality materials left behind, and rebuild properly for durability.. That takes time, but it saves Edo money tomorrow.

The previous administration was famous for MOUs and coloured designs. The present administration is about excavators on site. You can see it, the state has become a  huge construction site in the last few months.

The difference is clear: One government believes in media roads, the other believes in motorable roads. 

For eight years, Edo watched roads being commissioned with fanfare only to fail before the paint dried.

 Now, within months, we have a governor who says Edo money must give Edo quality with significant progress in constructing new roads, completing select legacy projects and advancing ongoing ones through asphalt paving and resurfacing

So when there are  bad roads in Edo today, the people should not hesitate to ask two questions: When were these roads built? And who built them?

Governor Monday Okpebholo should not be blamed for the cracks of yesterday, but should be commended for having the courage to correct them because he met bad roads.

There have been  lots of negative comments concerning the state of roads inside the Government Reservation Area, GRA and particularly around the Government House.

The Governor is aware of the sufferings of the people, but he is mindful of the season.

 According to the Commissioner, Okpebholo is alive to his responsibility and he is willing to embark  on working on those bad roads in the GRA.

But of critical importance is the drains because if any palliative work is done without the gutter, it would amount to pouring money into the ocean  and remarkable progress would not be achieved 

However, there are plans to speed up work during the dry season and  inner city road projects will be accelerated

Interestingly,  history will judge the Governor, not by the failures he inherited, but by the lasting roads he builds. 

When you see those pictures of bad roads on Facebook and other social media platforms, check the date they were built. Most were built in the last administration and failed in less than two years because of poor quality materials.

Gov. Monday Okpebholo did not build bad roads. He met bad roads. And unlike others who would patch and paint, he is removing the substandard jobs and rebuilding Edo roads to standard — with proper drainage, proper stone base, and proper thickness.

The Commissioner noted that roads are expected to spend a minimum of ten years and maximum, 30 years. There are roads that have spent 40 years before the next renovation 

While assuring that there would be no more cosmetic roads in the  New Edo with quality roads, Prince Afegbua disclosed that the bad roads and decayed education infrastructure are some of the liabilities bequeathed to the Okpebholo government by the last administration 

The Commissioner reiterated that no construction Engineer will attempt to fix bad roads during the rainy season because it will be a waste of materials 

According to him, construction work will speed up during the dry season and attention will be given to providing drainages

Edo people must therefore understand and support the Governor, and not to blame him for the damage and hardship they are experiencing today on the roads.

Eubaldus Enahoro was former Editor of the Nigerian Observer Newspaper