DoSometin

There are a lot of things that we look past and have even become accustomed to. Years ago by as we pass main roads with potholes, cross over clogged gutters and leaking ceilings in public buildings. It's our responsibility to make sure those in power take responsibility &  #DoSometin

https://twitter.com/ogadosometin/status/1117184393192312833

About  94 percent of Nigerians use Nigerian roads daily. 

All over Lagos, from expressways to inner streets, it is a tale of neglect and abandonment of roads. Expectedly, Lagosians have become frustrated with the crater-sized potholes and gullies on the roads.

Virtually most of the roads in the country are bad. This is the road that leads to the Lekki Art Market in Jakande. This market is a major tourist attraction, yet look at the state of the road that leads to it. And this has been the case for quite a while. Eti-Osa Local government can and should do better.#OgaDoSomtin

Bad Road in Nigeria

Causes of bad roads in Nigeria

Natural Cause:

1 The geology of the area where these roads traversed. Road construction involves inputs from different professionals like civil engineers, geologist but sadly enough Nigeria, geologists who have detailed knowledge of the geology of Nigeria are neglected. The resultance effects are some bad roads you see here and there. Geologists are needed right from the planning stage for proper route selection. Not every soil/rock type is good for construction, e.g swelling clays. Therefore, where this kind of type dominates the chosen route, geologists are best suited to advice the civil engineers.

Man-made :

1. Corruption: Yes, corruption. This is the main cause of bad roads in Nigeria. Oftentimes road contracts are awarded to none existing construction firm owned by one politician or their cronies. What did they do get after getting the contracts? Your guess is as good as mine, nothing. They simply hire tractors, excavators and the likes, clear the chosen route and pour laterite, sometimes granite chippings and finally cover the surface with adulterated coal tar. The construction process was never supervised by the government agency, they get from pictures our pseudo contractor sends to them. I am sure I'm not supposed to explain to you what becomes of such roads in the near future.
2. Use of substandard construction material: Contractors often engage in the use of low-quality materials to construct roads here in Nigeria. After lobbying to get the contract, they often resort to using low-quality materials to construct the road. This is because the type of contract was awarded on merit, rather this contractor bought it and needs to recover his money. This is the easiest way is to use substandard in constructing the roads. So in a similar way, this point is still related to the above point, corruption.
3. Maintenance culture: This is not just out thing. Nigerians loathe maintaining their infrastructures. No matter how solid a road was built, over time it will degrade and maintain it breathe life into it again. Nigeria lacks maintenance culture.

These are few things that create the bad roads you see across Nigeria.

Bad Road

Bad Roads caused by Bad governance

First, governance, which is a distinct concept from the government, is the coordination of social life, with the government being just one organization. One can govern without government. The main components are markets, hierarchies, and networks. However, there’s no exact definition, though since the 1980s some say it calls for less or minimal government. This involves the government steering (setting targets and objectives) rather than rowing (admin and delivery), using public/private partnerships, and multi-level government. My source also suggested that institutionalism- setting up formal bodies like constitutions and courts for example- is a sign of government as opposed to governance. Nonetheless, this isn’t official and governance can still mean anything.

So what is bad governance? It’s clear from those definitions that governance is bad if things fall apart, especially the economy and the relations between members of the governing bodies. Here’s an example cited by a few but to make thing’s clear, I’d like to state that being a Brexiteer or Remainder doesn’t make someone any better or worst. The referendum came about so David Cameron could shut up parts of his party and UKIP, nothing else. Boris Johnson wanted to be Prime Minister. it was self-interest. The markets, hierarchies, and networks were all jeopardized and while the economy is still strong, it was put in danger for a purely political decision. (The networks included EU contacts.) Brexit may turn out to be the best thing ever or the exact opposite but the circumstances leading to it reveal quite a bit of egotism and short-sighted thinking.

Bad roads are the responsibilities of the government because it is their duty to maintain and ensure that roads are functional.

It is the duty of the government to fix roads and we as #ogadosometin are calling out the government and his affiliates to come and fix the Oba Elegushi road.

So let's encourage our leaders and not just our leaders but ourselves to #DoSometin