The journey to Kaiama is one that the visitor is not likely to forget for some time to come. This is because the Ilorin-Kaiama-Kishi Road, a federal road, is punctuated with gullies, narrow and dilapidated bridges which not only make travelling to the area horrifying, but the state of the road has also resulted in accidents which claimed many lives, maimed others and left carcasses of mangled vehicles doting the landscape.
Yet, Kaiama, with a population of about 500,000 people scattered across 10 wards, can best be described as a food basket, as it regularly produces foodstuffs like yam (which is also processed into yam flour), maize, cassava, millet and other grains, as well as shea butter. They are not only produced in large quantities but are also supplied to many parts of the country, according to Sarkin Kasuwa of Kaiamaland, Alhaji Sulaiman Bata.
But despite its contribution to the economy through the agric sector, a visit to Kaiama is akin to an unguarded voyage to Golgotha.
Kaiama literally means, 'come and rest;' however, visitors to Kaiama can hardly think of rest as their vehicles dance endlessly on the jagged road, and also as they plunge in and out of potholes that have taken over the entire stretch of road. Indeed, Kaiama has become a community which is dreaded by visitors because of its bad roads.
Kaiama shares boundaries with the Republic of Benin. Their residents inter-marry and speak the same language. However, the bad state of the road scares people away from travelling to the area, while community members are exposed to armed robbery attacks and other violent crimes.
Consequently, the council had recruited about 353 members of vigilance group to monitor suspicious movements in and out of Kaiama and thus reduce attacks on road users.
The ripple effects of the bad road are multifarious. As Bata explained, prices of foodstuffs which they churn out in large quantities have continued to go up because a journey that is not supposed to take the traveller more than an hour now lasts five hours, with the attendant wear and tear on the vehicles and increased fuel consumption.
"All this cost is passed on to the buyers, who in turn pass them down the line to the final consumer," Bata said.
Lamenting the ordeal of the people, Bata said, "This is Kaiama Bokoma community. We produce a lot of food items. We also produce shea nut oil which people come even from outside Nigeria to buy. We supply maize to poultry farmers in commercial quantity; at the same time, we produce yam which we sell mostly to the South West. We also supply foodstuffs to Abuja, Kano, Gusau and other parts of the North and the East.
That is where the romantic story ends, however. Bata said, "If you can go round the whole road in both Kaiama-Kishi and Kaiama-Nemuta, you will see that the road is very bad. All our vehicles are being badly affected by the roads, such that we always pray that they should successfully reach their destinations. This is not the road people should be plying, considering the size of the vehicles and the goods they bear."
The Local Government Chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Ahmed, said the council had spent between N70m and N80m on the road over a period of several years, but because of its sheer length and the depth of deterioration occasioned by neglect of past administrations, it's as if the council has been pouring water in a basket.
"The council administration grades it every three months only for it to be washed away once it rains, making greater gullies to appear and thus compounding any attempt to drive through it.
"Of course, the road requires more professional touch, which is beyond the purview of the local government like ours, as we do not have the money to embark on its full reconstruction and tarring," Ahmed said.
Out of the 16 local government areas in Kwara State, Kaiama reportedly has the worst road network. "Under normal circumstances, travelling from Baruteen to Kaiama should not take more than 45 minutes, but because of the unflattering state of the road, travellers sometimes spend up to six hours," Ahmed said.
So far, Ahmed said, the council had made several efforts to attract federal and state governments' intervention to the road but the efforts have yet to yield positive result.
He, however, said the Kwara State Government had shown concern about the possible reconstruction of the road, adding that the Abdulfatah Ahmed administration had given them hope that work might soon start on it.
"We have written to the governor and our representative in the National Assembly, Alhaji Zakari Mohammed. We have also written to the senator representing Kwara North, Alhaji Shaaba Lafiaji. The governor is so keen on the road; and any time we meet, he assures that the number one road he would work on is the Kaiama-Kishi Road," Ahmed said.
The Kaiama-Kishi Road is one example of many federal roads that run through Kwara State but which have become death traps for users. This is so because the roads have become dilapidated as a result of years of neglect.
Other bad roads in the state include the Mokwa-Jebba-Ilorin road, Kabba-Omu Aran-Ilorin road; Osogbo-Offa-Ajase-Ipo road; Omu-Aran-Otun-Ekiti road; Sala-Ilesha Baruba-Ckikanda road; and Share-Lafiagi-Pategi road.
Issues relating to the roads took the front burner recently when the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa'ad Abubakar, at the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council meeting in Ilorin decried the terrible state of the Mokwa-Jebba-Ilorin road.
He had appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan, who was also present on the occasion, to rehabilitate the roads.
Abubakar said, "President Jonathan, it is important to make the Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa Road motorable. If you had driven on that road to come here, I am sure that you will need at least two hours to rest before coming to this event. Thousands of travellers have suffered on the road. I learnt that a contract was given during the last administration for the reconstruction of the road; till now, nothing has happed. But President, you should please work on the road very soon."
Member representing Ilorin East and South Federal Constituency, Dr. Ali Ahmad, in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Tuesday, called on the Federal Government to reconstruct the Mokwa-Jebba-Ilorin road without further delay.
He said the state of most Nigerian roads was such that Nigerians had been "handed the death penalty." He added that Kwara State, which is the gateway to the North and South, had been adversely affected by the bad federal roads.
Ahmad said, "Could you imagine a section of the country turning into an island? You cannot now easily access Kwara. If nothing is done urgently, the state may be turned into an island, as it may be cut off from both the Northern and Southern parts of the country.
"Jebba-Mokwa-Ilorin road is terribly bad. This is a road that is just about 50 kilometres and which should not take more than 30 minutes' drive, but it now takes two to three hours to drive through. Lives have been lost. People talk about the death penalty, I think Nigerians have been sentenced to death penalty because of the bad roads, only God is saving us.
"This road, because of its importance and link to the North and South, should have been reconstructed before now. Apart from this road, there are other roads of no less importance. It is worrisome that we have a government in Nigeria and we still have such bad roads.
"We witness deaths every day on the Mokwa-Jebba-Ilorin road. The Federal Government should, as a matter of urgency, either reconstruct the one from the North or the one from the South. The state of the roads is
