One thing many people may not know is that the Abuja/Lokoja/Okene Road is a Federal Government road, yet the burden of keeping several critical portions of this road motorable has, time and again, required the intervention of the Kogi State Government.
This is one of the busiest and most heavily trafficked corridors in Nigeria. Day and night, thousands of vehicles move through this axis, including articulated vehicles, tankers, heavy duty trucks and lowbed trailers conveying extremely heavy machinery. The pressure on the road is enormous, and with that level of traffic, even the strongest road infrastructure will require constant maintenance.
But little is said about the efforts of His Excellency, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo, Executive Governor of Kogi State, through the Kogi State Road Maintenance Agency (KOGROMA), to continually intervene and keep critical portions of this federal highway usable.
KOGROMA has severally carried out maintenance interventions along different portions of the Lokoja axis, including areas around Upper Nataco, Traffic Lights/New Market Junction, the Kogi State Polytechnic axis, and the Living Faith Church/NNPC Mega Filling Station axis, among others.
These interventions may not always make the headlines, but they matter.
Imagine a major highway carrying an endless stream of vehicles, with heavyduty trucks passing over it every hour, while maintenance work is simultaneously being carried out.
That is the reality of this road.
As a responsive government, men are currently on site working to address a spot that caused an accident recently,
It is also important to understand the peculiar challenge involved here.
You cannot simply shut down the Abuja/Lokoja/Okene corridor for several days and expect traffic to disappear while the road is being rehabilitated.
Vehicles must continue to move, the road must remain open even while maintenance is ongoing.
And where exactly do you divert thousands of vehicles?
We have seen situations where problems on the Mokwa axis force traffic towards Kogi, When such alternative routes experience serious challenges, the pressure naturally shifts elsewhere. Kogi, therefore, sits at a critical transportation junction connecting different parts of the country.
So, when people see a bad portion of the road and immediately ask, “What is the government doing?”, it is important to also ask, Who has been maintaining these portions repeatedly to prevent them from becoming completely impassable?
The Abuja/Lokoja/Okene Road requires sustained Federal Government attention and comprehensive rehabilitation because of its strategic importance to Nigeria's economy and transportation network.
But while that larger responsibility remains, the continuous interventions by the Kogi State Government are helping to keep the corridor alive.
Sometimes, governance is not about making noise.
Sometimes, it is about seeing a problem, responding to it, putting men and equipment on the ground and ensuring that people can still move.
And on this particular corridor, that effort deserves to be acknowledged.
Ahammed Shaba
Shregarf Media Consult.
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