By SUNDAY ABBA, Abuja
Calls have gone out to the immediate past governors of Ebonyi and Rivers States, Engr David Umahi and Nyesom Wike, as the duo assume their new offices as Ministers of Works and of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) respectively to prioritise the Abuja-Nyanya-Keffi Highway and the Abuja intra-city roads, especially those outside the FCT in their action plans in order to ease the traffic nightmares being experienced along the axes.
Most Nigerians who made the call during a Kapital FM early morning call-in programme on Monday, especially those who are experiencing the traffic conundrum daily or may have done so at one time or the other along the Nyanya-Masaka corridor of the Abuja-Keffi Highway, said there was urgent need for the new administration to consider continuing the ongoing expansion work on the road to finish.
According to the callers, the Abuja-Keffi road witnesses a huge volume of traffic on both sides daily as the axis plays host to the largest population of the Abuja commuters, even as some prayed that the Apo-Karshi road be given urgent attention to ease the traffic nightmares.
The callers who lauded Umahi’s performance in the area of road and bridge infrastructure urged the new Minister of Works and his FCT counterpart, Nyesom Wike, to liaise with the Governor Abdullahi Sule-led Nasarawa State Government with a view to resuming the road expansion from the FCT-Nyanya boundary where it stopped to Masaka and even beyond as contained in the project plan.
One of the callers said, “If you take a look all the way from the Beggar Junction, the NNPC Towers, Federal Secretariat, down to AYA at the volume of people struggling for vehicle to leave the Abuja city centre after the days business, then you know that the transportation hassle in the FCT is real. The private coaster buses playing the axis are not even enough.”
“Again, if you turn to look at the volume of people going towards Kubwa express, Zuba, Suleja, Bwari, Dutse, Gwarimpa, all those areas, then you that a lot more needs to be done to bring the FCT to speed in terms of transportation and other development indices.”
to see where in all those areas if you see the grid if you see people that are going home after work from five till say like 7pm The hospital for transportation is real.
While commending President Tinubu for appointing Wike as the FCT Minister, giving his track record in infrastructure development as governor of Rivers State then, some of the callers, especially those in the satellite town of Gwagwalada, urged the new administration to prioritise fixing the roads in the FCT, which according to them are in sorry conditions leading to unnecessary traffic thereat.