Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, on Sunday asked President Bola Tinubu to urgently declare a state of emergency on roads in the South-South region.
In a letter addressed to the president, Clark decried the deplorable condition of roads in the oil-rich region, describing it as a critical issue causing immense hardship to its residents.
He urged President Tinubu to prioritise the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the region’s road network in the 2025 federal budget to alleviate the suffering of the people and support economic development.
“I am writing this passionate appeal to you to declare an EMERGENCY in the coming 2025 Budget and also direct your Minister of Works and its relevant agencies to redouble their efforts to repair these roads. Mr. President, we therefore demand that in 2025, this situation of the Niger Delta, the treasure base of the country should be declared an emergency without further delay,” the letter partly read.
Clark maintained that the region being the treasure base of the country should deserve some level of attention.
“Mr. President, I realise that resources are lean and demands are many; it is however very difficult to understand why roads in the communities that produce the resources that keep this country going are in such a terrible state. It is already very sad that the Niger Delta suffering from decades of environmental damage which would take us many generations to recover from. “So, to imagine that we cannot commute among ourselves and daily our region produces billions to the national coffers is difficult to fathom.
“At the current production level of 1.8 million barrels per day, which we the leaders of the region working with the government have achieved and are still working to increase, it is difficult to understand why the roads in our region should be in this very deplorable condition. With oil prices now at US$73 per barrel, we reckon that we are producing enough and we in the Niger Delta cannot be in this condition. What is required to fix the roads is not even up to a week’s production of oil.”
“Benin-Auchi Road. Under normal circumstances, this road takes commuters 2½ hours. At present, passengers, on average, spend 7 hours on that road. In some cases, it is so bad that travellers have to go through some rural communities in Ekiti state before coming back to the main road.”