Editorial: Agbor–Benin Highway: Enough of drama, Nigerians need a road

After weeks of unbearable gridlock, stranded motorists, frustrated commuters and travellers reportedly spending days on the road, the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, arrived at the troubled corridor and confronted the situation.

The cameras were there. Nigerians watched. The Minister spoke. The country applauded.
For a moment, hope returned.

Many Nigerians hailed Senator Umahi as an “action minister”, believing that his dramatic intervention would finally bring an end to the nightmare on one of the country’s critical highways.

But today, the question Nigerians are asking is brutally simple: Where is the action?
Because Nigerians are still suffering.

Motorists are still trapped. Travellers are still spending unreasonable hours on the road. Commercial drivers are losing valuable working days. Goods are being delayed, businesses are suffering, and ordinary Nigerians continue to pay the price for what appears to be a failure of coordination.

We must say this clearly: a minister visiting a bad road is not the same thing as fixing a bad road.

Nigerians have seen enough inspections, photographs, promises and official statements. What they need is a functional highway.

Senator Umahi deserves credit for going to the scene instead of remaining behind his desk. That is what leadership should look like.

But physical presence must be followed by measurable results.

The Agbor–Benin corridor cannot become a theatre where government officials arrive only after public outrage has reached boiling point.

There is another disturbing question that demands an answer: Where are the traffic-control and emergency-response agencies?

Where is the Federal Road Safety Corps when thousands of vehicles are trapped for days?
Where are the police and other relevant agencies?

Where is the coordinated traffic-management plan for a major federal highway undergoing rehabilitation?

Road construction is understandably disruptive. But poor traffic management is not inevitable.

When a major road is under construction, government agencies should anticipate congestion, establish alternative traffic arrangements, deploy personnel, communicate with motorists and respond quickly to accidents and breakdowns.

What Nigerians should not experience is a situation where a journey that ordinarily takes a few hours turns into a two-day or even several-day ordeal.

This is unacceptable.

The Federal Road Safety Corps and other relevant agencies must stop treating traffic management as an afterthought. Their responsibility is not merely to appear at accident scenes after tragedy has occurred.

They must be proactive.

Similarly, the Ministry of Works must ensure that contractors working on the corridor are properly supervised and that construction activities do not unnecessarily compound the suffering of road users.

Government cannot repair a road while simultaneously abandoning the people using it.

The Agbor–Benin road is not just another stretch of asphalt. It is an important economic artery. Thousands of Nigerians depend on it every day to move people, agricultural produce, manufactured goods and other commodities.

When that artery is blocked, the economic consequences ripple far beyond the highway.

Therefore, this newspaper challenges Senator Umahi to go beyond the applause that followed his appearance on the road.
Let the “action minister” reputation be earned through results.

Let Nigerians see traffic flowing.
Let stranded travellers reach their destinations.

Let emergency vehicles move without obstruction.

Let contractors work according to clearly defined timelines.

Let the relevant agencies maintain a permanent and effective traffic-management presence until the rehabilitation is substantially completed.

The Minister has shown that he can make a dramatic appearance.

Now, Nigerians want a dramatic improvement.

The government should not mistake public applause for public satisfaction. Nigerians applaud when they see hope, but they judge the government by results.

The Agbor–Benin Expressway has suffered for too long.

Enough of the drama. Enough of the excuses. Enough of the gridlock. Nigerians need a road, not another inspection.

And they need responsible agencies on the ground—not government officials who appear only after the crisis has become impossible to ignore.

Fix the road. Control the traffic. Protect the travellers. And let the action begin where it matters most: on the ground.