Farmers In Enugu Community Narrate Ordeal As FG Road Rehabilitated By Lebanese Company Collapses

Some concerned citizens of Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State, weekend, cried to President Muhammadu Buhari to come to their rescue by constructing the only federal road that links all the communities in the area. The Nsukka-Nkpologu-Adani-Ogurugu road, connects the local government to Anambra State, and covers over forty kilometres.

According to them, the local government area has the capacity of feeding the entire Southeast because of its agricultural potentials, but regretted that the gory state of the road has jeopardised the agricultural potentials of the area.

Simon Okechukwu, a farmer, told THE WHISTLER that, “The state of the only federal road that traverses the entire Uzo-Uwani LGA is pitiable. Unfortunately, the local government has the most fertile land in the Southeast part of the country with a large expanse of land. I want to draw the attention of President Buhari and the Senate Committee on Works and Housing respectively to the dilapidated condition of the Nsukka-Nkpologu-Adani-Ogurugu road. It connects us to Nsukka, and then some parts of Anambra State, such as Omasi, Aguleri, Umuleri, Omo, and other boundary communities in Ayamelumo LGA of Anambra State. Our people are mainly farmers, and they face untold hardship in bringing their farm produce to urban areas to sell. The Nsukka-Nkpologu-Adani-Ogurugu road was poorly rehabilitated during the regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo by ENERCO, a Lebanese construction company. The company performed below expectations, and today, the road is bad again. I plead to the minister of works and housing to look into this road. The Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) can come to fix some parts of the road even if the road cannot be re-awarded to a more competent company presently.”

Another farmer, Chief Peter Agbo, said, “I have about ten hectares of land in Uzo-Uwani LGA. My intention is to have a state-of-the-arts plantain farm, but there is nothing I can do because of the bad state of this road. It is very difficult to mobilise facilities to my farm. In this era that the federal and state governments lay much emphasis on agriculture, Uzo-Uwani, with good road networks, can become the Songhai of Nigeria. Uzo-Uwani can produce the quantity of rice that this part of the country needs. Uzo-Uwani is good for coordinated grazing of any kind of domestic animals. This matter requires urgent attention, and it will be one of the ways to curb unemployment in Nigeria.”

A youth, Peter Mama, told our correspondent that, “I am unemployed, but if we have good roads at Adani, where I live, I don’t need any job again. One can easily become a millionaire at Adani with good road networks. We commend the efforts of Gov Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi in repairing some parts of our road, like in Ogurugu. I still make a case for the establishment of a university of agriculture in Uzo-Uwani LGA because we have the landmass, and rich in agriculture, both crops and animals.”

An agriculture extension officer based at Opanda, Dr Livinus Mbe, while bemoaning the state of the road in the local government, called for immediate intervention to make some moribund industries in the area operational. In his words, “Ada Rice is located at Adani. Gov Ugwuanyi is rehabilitating it. It is the more reason why the federal government should fix that road because once that rice mill becomes fully operational, the state of the road will be its undoing. Again, Enugu State has a palm plantation in Uzo-Uwani, among other private palm plantations. That of the state is the initiative of former governor of Eastern region, Dr Michael Okpara. Efforts are being made to make the palm plantation operational, but again, without this Nsukka-Nkpologu-Adani-Ogurugu road, the efforts might still be futile. Aside the road, the waterways at Ojo in this same Uzo-Uwani has the capacity of becoming a seaport. One can, through it, navigate to Onitsha. So, we need this road urgently.”

Our correspondent gathered that some of the communities that the road connects are Odoru-Nsukka, Obimo, Nkpologu, Ukpabi-Nimbo, Opanda, Adani, Ogurugu, Iggah, Asaba and some parts of border communities in Anambra State. Other bad roads in the local government area are Aku-Nkpologu road, and the Nkpologu-Uvuru-Ukpata-Adaba-Umulokpa road leading to the local government headquarters, Umulokpa.