Recently the Anambra State Government of Prof Chukwuma Soludo, announced a new set of Commissioners, with Arc Okey Ezeobi being named in charge of Works. As we welcome him to his new commission, we quickly wish to draw his attention to an issue overlooked by previous commissioners in the state.
Travelling across Anambra State these days gives no joy due to the multiplicity of road bumps, many of which are poorly constructed. They are also not uniformly done. Some of them can actually cause road mishaps and damage vehicles. Prime examples are those along the Aroma-UNIZIK Temporary Site Road. No matter how one slows down, they jar the vehicle and you query the rationale behind such constructions. It’s even surprising that the state government is responsible for these ones and it’s more baffling yet, when there’s an existing order by the Federal Ministry of Works against constructing such bumps on federal highways.
Apart from this, many of these bumps are so close together that they seem more punitive than otherwise.
Yet, there is their indiscriminate construction across communities by individuals and groups. It’s now a situation where any group of people can wake up and put up road bumps anywhere in the state and no one holds them to account. We are aware that a previous government in the state (government of immediate past Governor, Willie Obiano) warned against the indiscriminate construction of such bumps. But the government failed to match words with action and so the indiscriminate construction of road bumps continued across the state.
Now, with a new helmsman appointed for the Works Ministry, we are renewing our appeal to the Anambra State Government, through the new Works Commissioner, to look into this vexatious issue and restore sanity on our roads. The Government can achieve this by ordering a stop to erection of road bumps by unauthorized individuals or groups. We want a situation where only the government, through its agents can be doing this.
This will ensure the erection of the right road bumps, as well as their uniformity. The penchant of people to construct unapproved road bumps can be a danger to road users because of shoddy jobs. This, on its own, can be counter-productive and defeat the original aim of erecting the bumps in the first place which is to minimize accidents. But in a situation where those same bumps become tools of destruction, it will be clear that something ought to be done. These unapproved road bumps are often exploited by criminals to catch victims when they slow down. This is even as such bumps could cause accidents when drivers, unaware that those bumps are there, attempt to step on their brakes to avoid collision.
We are calling on the new Works Commissioner in Anambra State, to therefore see this as one of his first challenges and put a stop to that menace.
Anambra should not be a place where anyone or community wakes up and erects road bumps. Such should not only be uniformly done, but should be spaced well enough to make driving easier and more pleasurable. This is a call to action.
