NIGERIA – Former Anambra State Governor and Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) 2027 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has called on governments at all levels to prioritise the reconstruction and maintenance of existing roads and infrastructure rather than embarking on new projects primarily for public visibility.
Obi made the call in a post on X while recounting the experience of a traveller who left Onitsha for Lagos but took nearly two days to complete a journey that would ordinarily take about eight hours.
According to Obi, the traveller left Onitsha on Saturday night intending to take the first bus to Lagos on Sunday morning. However, by the time Obi left Lagos at about 8pm on Monday, the traveller had still not arrived. He eventually reached Lagos at about 2pm on Tuesday.
Obi said the situation illustrated the wider economic consequences of Nigeria’s deteriorating road infrastructure.
“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 said.
He argued that Nigerians were more concerned about functional infrastructure than the number of new projects announced by government.
“Nigerians do not need new projects just for the headlines. We need functional roads that make life and economic activity possible,” Obi stated.
The former presidential candidate said infrastructure should be assessed by its impact on people’s lives and livelihoods rather than the size or cost of the project.
“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,” he said.
Obi concluded by expressing optimism about Nigeria’s future, saying: “A new Nigeria is POSSIBLE, and Nigeria will be OK.”
