Perhaps because it is the federal capital, Abuja has the best roads in Nigeria. The roads are wide to the extent that as many as four vehicles drive side by side at good speed.
But, to an extent, the standard of the roads is causing problems. Reckless driving is an alarming trend on the roads and the motorists could be termed the roughest in the world.
The problem is worsen by the fact that most private motorists in the city did not go through licensed driving schools, hence don’t know even the basic rules of driving.
They storm the roads with their cars armed with drivers’ licence which were possibly obtained through dubious means.
Much as the roads are terribly abused, the builders had safety of users in mind as over 98 percent of the major roads in the city are dual carriageways.
But there is an exception, and that very exception is where road use in the city of Abuja spells doom. You drive through this road praying that you get out safe. It is a very long road stretch, but for a reason not known to residents, it is a single lane highway.
Rough drivers and death agents have exploited the odd nature of this road to make it a death trap.
The road that runs from the outskirts of the city on the airport road into Jabi has got reputation for being deadly and the most dangerous in Abuja. It tees off the airport, or better still runs under one of the motor bridges on airport road. The road crosses from the Sun City axis, through the hospital that serves federal government workers at the Idu area, cutting through Idu industrial area entrance, the junction that leads to the Nigeria/Turkish Nile University, through the Citec Estate (Mbora), the Kings Court, Jabi junction to the giant roundabout that leads to Kado Estate, Life Camp, Gwarimpa and down to the Abuja-Kubwa highway.
The road is not lit at night. Drivers with poor sight should not think about plying this road at night because other vehicles coming the opposite direction beam their full lights straight in your eyes and blind you.
There seem to be no rules of safe driving on this road as people who demonstrate their wrong driving skills overtake and speed as they are on a mission to cause mayhem.
The end of the road between airport road junction and Jabi junction is full of bumps and speed breakers that make driving through there feel like a trip to hell. The breakers do so much to curtail the madness on this road. And also, there is hardly a time you drive through this stretch without spotting Road Safety men and VIOs at work maybe to deliberately temper the excesses of the rough drivers.
But by the time you swing though the large roundabout after the new Jabi bridge on the way from the airport road axis, towards the Gwarimpa exit before heading towards Jahi and Kubwa, you come face to face with the most dangerous drive in town. They are no speed breakers from the roundabout to the bridge on the Abuja-Kubwa expressway that takes you down to the express lane.
This short drive would cause your blood pressure to up and stagger. Most drivers on this axis fly as if their houses are on fire somewhere. They care not if other road users exist or deserve some safety.
It is a place you would always wish you don’t drive through and anytime you find yourself there, you just lose your peace until you get out. At night, the road is pitch-dark and vehicles overtake each other almost touching side by side. There is reckless speeding and overtaking here because there are no bumps. There are no street lights and the reflecting posts that line the two sides of the road have started going old and the lights dim. So at night, you even drive not knowing where the road stops or when you skid out of it or into the opposite lane.
As if there is a deliberate plot to ensure the road remains unsafe, the wide road that could easily become a dual carriageway with a median is left that way and almost every hour you drive through this road, you surely will see crashed vehicles and most of the times they are fatal.
Speaking to Blueprint on the situation, a regular user, Mr. Fidelis Uzo, said: “the roads are good, but abused by the motorists through reckless driving. They behave as if they are mad. It is really causing a lot of accidents on the road. The government needs to regulate their speeds.”
