What you are looking at is not some forgotten pathway in an abandoned settlement. This is the Ihiagwa-Eziobodo–FUTO axis, serving the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), one of Nigeria’s foremost federal universities, and several communities in Owerri West LGA.
Thousands of students, staff, residents, traders and motorists depend on this corridor daily. Yet the road has deteriorated into a dangerous obstacle course of erosion, failed drainage, mud, potholes and virtually impassable stretches.
Beyond the indignity, there is a serious security dimension.
A badly deteriorated road can leave motorists crawling or stranded and make emergency response more difficult. In an area where students and residents already have experienced fatal kidnappings, robberies and other forms of insecurity, allowing such an important access road to deteriorate this badly is indefensible.
Look at the drainage. Look at the condition of the carriageway. Then remember that young Nigerians are expected to travel through this environment every day simply to obtain an education.
How did we normalise this?
This should not become another Nigerian story in which federal, state and local authorities spend years debating whose responsibility a road is while citizens suffer. Government exists to solve problems, not to explain jurisdiction while infrastructure collapses.
The Federal Government, Federal Ministry of Works, Imo State Government, Owerri West Local Government and the authorities of FUTO should urgently determine responsibility, secure the corridor and produce a coordinated rehabilitation plan.
And this problem extends beyond one stretch of road. The wider road network serving FUTO, Eziobodo, Ihiagwa, Nekede and neighbouring Owerri West communities deserves serious attention. The Naze-Nekede-Ihiagwa-Obinze rd has been shabbily rehabilitated on and off for almost 7 years and at the moment has been abandoned.
FUTO is a federal university of national importance. The communities surrounding it deserve functioning infrastructure. Most importantly, the students who travel these roads every day deserve better.
They should not have to beg for a passable road.
Fix the road. Fix the drainage. Improve security. Restore dignity to this university community.
This is not politics.
It is governance.
We invite our Indefatigable performing Governor Hope Uzodinma to find time to come and inspect this crucial road and axis and see things for himself. We know our Governor is mostly busy and, or may not have been properly briefed about this corridor. We invite him to come and see things for himself.
Duruebube Chimazuru Nnadi-Oforgu
For
OBLONG MEDIA GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE.
Speaking where silence has become too expensive.
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