By Abdallah el-Kurebe, Editor
The Management of Civil Empowerment and Rule of Law Support Initiative, (CERLSI) has called on the Federal government to fix Nigerian roads in other to avoid avoidable crashes.
Making the call in a statement following the helicopter crash conveying Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, CERLSI’s deputy executive director, Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku said incident was a reminder to government that it should fix and make Nigerian roads.
CERLSI felicitated with Osinbajo over the miraculous escape of a helicopter on his way to campaign in Kogi state.
“Government people are in the habit of abandoning Nigerians on the terribly bad roads. They hop on flights that take them to their respective destinations quickly. As they do this, they have no way of empathetically coming to terms with the fact that most Nigerians spend hours and hours on the roads, and are exposed to robbers and fatal accidents. We hope that today’s miracle is a wake-up call to the Nigerian government to fix the bad roads and save the lives of many Nigerians who do not have the privilege of commuting to and fro on a chopper,” Etemiku stated.
“The Benin Auchi-Road is another of such death traps. It connects with the Kogi-Lokoja road as a key route for most Nigerians coming from the Southerly regions of Nigeria to the North. Nigerians who cannot afford to fly often spend countless hours trying to manouvre through thoroughfares and alleyways to get to their destinations. Some of these roads were constructed during the colonial era.
“CERLSI calls on the Nigerian government to declare a national emergency on all federal roads, and then go on to fix both the Benin-Auchi and Kogi-Lokoja Roads at once. Both these roads are a national embarrassment that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s miraculous survival has exposed. Nigerians have suffered enough on these dangerous roads”, he added.
