Dutse Alhaji-Zone 7 and Dawaki residents in Bwari Area Council of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city are lamenting over a deplorable road which they say is having a huge negative impact on their lives and businesses.
From Dutse Alhaji Primary School located about one and a half kilometres from the First Gate-Bwari Express road to Dawaki, residents drive on a muddy deplorable road that is near inaccessible.
Motorists, motorcyclists, and pedestrians who use the road continue to lament their suffering using it, while they appeal to the government to help fix it to reduce their suffering.
The road has no drainage system, making it to be flooded anytime it rains. A situation that complicates the suffering of the residents who use it during raining season.
Community residents who spoke to MAWA described the road as terrible. In different narratives, they recounted how the deplorable road is making their life miserable, affecting businesses, and destroying their cars.
Mr. Alpha Shaibu who lives in the Zone 7 area of Dutse Alhaji close to Redeem Christian Church, who spoke to MAWA in his residence, narrated how some of his tenants packed out of his house to different locations as a result of the deplorable road he said was destroying their cars.
Shaibu narrated how his tenant almost lost his wife to the bad road. In his account, the husband ran into a ditch while rushing her to the Dutse General Hospital while she was about to give birth at about 2:00 am. The incident led to the damage to his car, making it impossible for him to get to the hospital. The woman was saved by the landlord who came to convey her to the hospital in his car.
According to Shaibu, three months after the incident happened, his tenant packed out of his house to the Kubwa area of Abuja. He added that six of his tenants packed out within a year. A development he attributed to the deplorable condition of roads in the area.
This is even as Shaibu told MAWA that he is a retired civil servant that relies on the rent from his tenants for survival, pointing out that life has become difficult since all his tenants left because they can no longer bear the hardship of using the bad road.
“As a retired civil servant that relies on rent from my tenants for survival, six of them have packed out as a result of a deplorable road in our area, how do I survive,” Shaibu told MAWA.
Miss. Halima Josephine that owns and operates a small shop at the Zone 7 junction area along Dawaki road, who spoke to MAWA in her place of business narrated how the deplorable road is affecting her business and making her lose income.
According to Josephine, Elim sachet water has since stopped supplying her their product as a result of a deplorable road that leads to her shop which they claim destroys their truck.
This is as Josephine says Elim water is a popular product that is in high demand among her customers.
“Elim Company I rely on their water for my business has since stopped supplying me their product because the road leading to my place is very bad and destroys their truck,” Josephine told MAWA.
The road connecting Zone 7 area of Dutse Alhaji and Dawaki has continued to be this deplorable even as the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) in the past 10 years had distributed a huge amount of revenue allocation to the six Area Councils that make up Abuja.
It is unclear how Bwari Area Council deploys allocations it gets from FCTA, many communities including Dutse Alhaji that are under it suffer huge infrastructural deficits.
MAWA Foundation could not immediately reach out to the Bwari Area Council authority for an official response.
However, an official in the Area Council who spoke to MAWA and wants his identity concealed, accused the Area Council of not properly deploying allocations it got from FCTA.
He also challenged the Area Council to come up with strategies to generate and deploy revenues in a transparent manner that will allow for the provision of basic amenities across communities under the Area Council.