The gridlock on the Abuja-Keffi Expressway has over time defied solutions, however, the recent interventions by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) through its taskforce on traffic management appears to have alleviated the suffering of road users on the route. This report, PAUL OKAH takes a look at the situation and sustainability of intervention by the taskforce
Over time, traffic congestion on the Abuja-Keffi Expressway, stretching from AYA Junction to Nyanya in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and as far as Mararaba, New Nyanya and Masaka in the neighbouring Nasarawa state, had caused untold hardship to road users on the route, passengers and drivers alike.
The cost of the usually epic traffic congestion on the road which is an important gateway that links the FCT to Niger, Nasarawa, Benue, Kogi, Plateau, Kaduna, Enugu, Taraba, Bauchi and Gombe states, is something many of the commuters may not be able to put a figure to. However, what is certain is that lives and property have been lost as a result of the gridlock. Some residents who spoke to our correspondent had lost their jobs because they consistently failed to meet up at their place of employment even as others had lost valuables like phones, handbags and other valuables to hoodlums who operate on the route especially at peak periods.
According to a commuter on the route Mrs Angela Okorie, she had altercations with her husband because of the traffic issue, as she usually gets home late from work. She said she has even received numerous queries from her boss in the office for leaving the office without finishing the work assigned to her before rushing home to avoid the traffic.
She said: “I live in Mararaba, but I sometimes wake and sleep in traffic. I have become used to it and I know the time it usually starts. If you want to beat the traffic, you have to leave the office by 3 or 4pm. However, from 5pm you are on your own because those rushing home from work will just block your way.”
However, commercial motor drivers and motorcycle operators, who usually raise their fare arbitrarily depending on the level of congestion, as well as hawkers may have benefited from the situation.
Blueprint Weekend checks revealed that the traffic situation is usually worse whenever it rains, as passengers and drivers spend more two hours either on their way to or back from work on the route which could be covered within 30 minutes or less without the gridlock.
In such a situation, some motorists are forced to park, especially when there is poor visibility, thereby taking up a part of the not so wide road and creating avoidable congestion. However, some others who defer the weather sometimes crash into other motorists, a situation which could stop flow of traffic, especially as a result of altercations arising from such incident, thereby compounding an already bad situation.
Pot holes, random stopping to blame
Some drivers and commuters who spoke to our correspondent blamed pot holes in some portions of the road for the congestion. According to them, most motorists have to slow down to avoid these pot holes thereby slowing down the flow of traffic.
Similarly, they accused motorists, especially commercial drivers, of stopping randomly to pick and drop passengers. According to a businessman Richard Ndubuisi, who spoke with Blueprint Weekend, “I have doubts that even the overhead bridges in Kugbo and Nyanya will solve the traffic problem when they are completed. Many of these drivers are illiterates and cannot take the feeling of others into consideration. They park and pick passengers anywhere and don’t care about the delay they cause to others.”
Roadside trading too
For Mr Israel Akpan, a businessman in his early 40s, the gridlock is entirely the fault of traders eking a living by selling their wares by the roadside. He said that the antics of traders affect road users, especially as they approach Mararaba, because they are forced to slow down as the traders display their products on portions of the road.
“You need to come to Mararaba Market to understand what I am talking about. After escaping the traffic at Check Point, you get to Sharp Corner to wait for Okada boys struggling with passengers.
“As if that is not enough, when you get to Mararaba Market, you will meet all sorts of traders struggling for space to display their wares in the middle of the road. In a bid to attract customers, the traders don’t care about what they do to the road users,” he said.
VIO blames motorists’ rivalry
Commenting on the traffic gridlock in a chat with our correspondent in September last year, the Area Commander of the Vehicle Inspection Office (VIO) in Kugbo, Mr Yakubu Musa, said that the gridlock is caused by motorists competing with themselves on the narrow road.
He said that the only solution to the gridlock would be for the federal government to create alternative routes for vehicles from coming from Nyanya, Karu, and from communities in Nasarawa state.
“We have officers stationed in Nyanya, Kugbo and AYA, but we only engage heavy-duty trucks when they ply the road from 6-10am or 3-9pm, when there is usually serious vehicular movement of people going to or coming back from work, otherwise we don’t obstruct traffic. In fact, there will be no traffic at all if the road is wide enough.
“At the moment, the road has only two lanes and cannot take care of all the people making use of it without serious traffic. We even tried to divert traffic by placing signs around our premises, but Kugbo people started complaining of inconveniences in getting vehicles to take them to or back from town, because no vehicle was allowed to park around our premises. The only solution to the traffic is for government to upgrade the road to four or five lanes,” he said.
Minister intervenes
Worried by the incessant gridlock, the Minister of the FCT, Mallam Mohammed Bello, on September 19, this year set up a Special Ministerial Task Team to ease vehicular traffic along AYA-Nyanya section of Abuja-Keffi Road.
Addressing journalists after the inauguration, the Chairman of the Task Team on Traffic Management, Mr Ikharo Attah, explained that the minister directed the committee to ensure that Abuja residents.
Expressing concern over the plights of commuters, who spend hours on road after the close of work on daily basis, Attah said that the team, comprising police, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) and officials of Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) had already swung into action.
He expressed optimism that within the next few days, traffic on the road would be clear to ease movement of people, revealing that the committee was expected to submit a comprehensive report on the exercise to the minister within seven days.
“The Minister of the FCT, Mallam Mohammed Bello, today gave a marching order that the traffic along Abuja-Keffi road, precisely along Nyanya and Karu interchange, be immediately tackled. The minister doesn’t want to see traffic along that road, spanning about one and half kilometres from Kugbo through Karu Bridge, down to Nyanya Bridge.
“We will ensure that those selling along the road corridors and commercial taxi drivers picking passengers, as well as those plying their trade that contravene the traffic rules and laws of the city are not allowed to operate within the framework of that disturbing area.”
…Warns security agents against traffic rules violation
Furthermore, on September 22, the Attah cautioned security agents against violation of traffic rules on the ever busy Nyanya-Keffi road.
Also, speaking to journalists during inter-security and traffic agencies meeting in Abuja, he enjoined the security agents on essential duties to cooperate and support the task team rid the Nyanya-Keffi route of traffic.
He said that controlling traffic situation on Nyanya-Keffi route should not be a one man affair, but requires a collective effort of all those that ply the area adding that if all motorists, especially the uniform men, cooperate by obeying the rules, the issue will be easily addressed.
Attah regretted that the traffic gridlock was occasioned by failure of some officials of the military and paramilitary agencies and solicited their cooperation, even as he threatened that violators would be prosecuted regardless of their being security officers.
He said: “Some of the officials of the military and paramilitary agencies are doing well especially the military, so there is need for others too, to support them. We cannot succeed in addressing the gridlock on the ever-busy Nyanya-Keffi route without the support of all stakeholders. Everyone must see himself as a key player in the exercise.
“People should stop driving against traffic because of their positions especially uniform men. If they fail to obey the traffic rules, we will treat them as civilian. The free flow of traffic on this axis should be the duty of every one. Security personnel can only drive against traffic when they have to, or there is an emergency.”
Task team interim report
Similarly, the task team in its interim report submitted to the minister also faulted uniformed personnel over AYA-Nyanya Road gridlock stating that their disregard for traffic rules was one of the reasons for the perennial traffic gridlock on the major road that connects 10 states to the FCT.
According to the Chairman of the task team, apart from the violation of road traffic rules by security personnel, many drivers lacked lane discipline and exhibit arrogance while driving with little consideration for the rights of other road users.
He said there was need to sustain efforts to check the excesses of motorists, saying the current expansion work by the federal government on that road would not make a difference if this was not done.
Attah, who decried traffic clogging at the Nasarawa state axis of the road, called on the Federal Road Safety (FRSC) to be involved in the simultaneous control of traffic in Nasarawa state and the FCT.
He recommended concerted enlightenment campaign for uniformed personnel, immediate fixing of potholes along the road that hinder the free flow of traffic and total stoppage of roadside trading,
The minister commended the team for delivering on its mandate of decongesting traffic on the road within a very short time frame.
He assured that all the recommendations made by the task team would be implemented stating: “The conviction of our dear President that if we all put in our best we can change this country and this has been clearly demonstrated by your well-coordinated team. It shows you also that all the solutions to all our problems are actually within us, it’s just a matter of everybody being dedicated, putting in their best.”
Abuja-Keffi expressway now free”
In an exclusive chat with Blueprint Weekend on Tuesday, Attah said the Abuja-Keffi Expressway has been cleared and residents now spend less than 15 minutes on the road.
“We have settled the Abuja-Keffi Expressway traffic issues. In fact, residents now spend less than 15 minutes to get home from work, as opposed to hours. With VIOs, FRSC, and others in the task team, we have prevented traders from selling on the road; picking and dropping of passengers by commercial drivers, as well as other causes of the gridlock.
“With the help of the Commission of Police in charge of the FCT, the VIO Director, and other high profile security agents that usually drive against traffic have been cautioned and made to join other drivers without discrimination.
“In fact, people can now return to renting accommodation in Kugbo, Karu, Mararaba, Nyanya, and other suburbs they hitherto avoided because of the traffic congestion. With the issue settled, our attention has now shifted to other areas with traffic problems.”
Commuters react
Some residents on the route, who spoke to our correspondent, confirmed the development but raised questions about the sustainability of the decongestion.
According to Mr Ipole Adams, who resides at FHA Karu, “The situation has certainly improved with the coming of the ministerial task force. Previously, I would stay in town till 9pm on some days waiting for the traffic to thin out, however, you could still find the gridlock even as late as 10pm on some day, especially when it rains or there is an accident, no matter how minor.
“For me, they are doing well. However, my only fear is whether it would be sustained. You know that the task force is like a standing committee and its job has time frame. The question then is what happens after they are done? You and I know that it is unlikely that the dualization of this our road will finish even in the next one year. So, I pray the relief we are enjoying will not be temporary and not turn out to be a means of the recently reappointed FCT minister to score political points.”
Also, another resident at Abacha Road, on the boundary between FCT and Nasarawa state, Obierika Nnanna, who commended the administration for the proactive measures put in place to ease traffic on the route, decried the fact the gridlock has not been completely eliminated.
According to him, “You can still find the gridlock as soon as you pass the Karu Bridge, though it’s not as bad as it used to be. It flows, though slowly sometimes. However, when you pass the Nyanya Bridge and heading towards Nasarawa state it’s another matter all together.
“I understand that the taskforce is for the FCT but most of the people who work and do business in the FCT like on the outskirts because of exorbitant rent landlords in the city centre charge. So, I think the team should liaise with the state government to see if the traffic could be eased in neighbouring communities as well.”
