On a cold Wednesday morning, when farmers in the Tse Abi community of Benue State trooped to their farms, 78-year-old Cecilia Mnewe was seen scooping water from the well near her house for household use. Mrs Mnewe has been without help for the past year since her son, Cletus, had a fatal accident on the Tse Abi road and died in September 2023.
“My son died on the Tse Abi road when he had gone to purchase sacks to package our farm produce for onward transportation to the market. Unfortunately, he left on the said morning and never returned,” she said.
Mrs Mnewe, who referred to her late son as her strength noted that the death would have been avoided if the road was better than it stands today.
Communities in Guma local government, where Tse Abi is located, are known for bountiful agricultural produce but the state of their roads has caused a setback for the farmers. In some cases, the attempt to transport agricultural produce from one place to another has led to death and serious injuries.
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Denis Ternanege, 22, seated under a mango tree, stared at the injuries he sustained in a recent accident he was involved in while returning from the farm on his father’s motorcycle. Denis has missed school for the past two weeks due to the injuries he sustained on the Udzughul Agendee road.
“Also, I was not able to assist my parents on the farm as I was used to. It was devastating because my mates were in school, and I was here treating what could be avoided,” he said.
Bad Experiences On Benue Road
Commercial motorcyclists also complain about robbery on the road. The chairman of local motorcyclists (Okada) in Tse Abi, John Dugar, 32, narrated how three of their members in 2023 were robbed while conveying passengers on the road at night.
He said, “It has become a trend in this community. The criminals have seen the bad road as an avenue for robbing our members of their belongings. What they do is they stand at the worst part of the road where the motorcycles can’t run fast and take away the belongings of the people.
“In 2023, our member Chia Tersoo was killed on the road while he was transporting some passengers to Tse Pervi. We understand that when the criminal attacked them on the road, they requested his bike, but he proved stubborn, which led to some gunshots. Unfortunately, he died after two days because of the severity of the attack; now he left his two children, who are currently surviving with the wife left behind.”
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Bem Shagbour, 35, sells consumables, which he gathers from different markets nearby. He narrated how the bad road has led to the slow pace of his business.
Similarly, Janet Faga, 45, is a mother of three who buys grains in bulk at village markets in Guma. She said the road has discouraged her from going to the market on various occasions, and she has encountered different losses at different times.
“The most horrifying experience was when I lost a bag of Beniseed when returning from the Ginde market. Unfortunately, the motorcycle that transported the bags fell on the road, and I lost several thousand naira”.
She noted that the bad experiences have continued on the roads, as she and other marketers have encountered armed robbers who have taken advantage of the near-impassable road to unleash mayhem on different days, especially market days.
The Kindred Head of Guytiev, Chief Justin Tervende, had his share of the bad road, as his newly purchased motorcycle was stolen on the Ginde-Tse Abi road by an armed robber who took charge of the bad roads.
“It was an evening at about 8 p.m. in December 2023 when we met in Ayilamo about some Christmas package the governor sent. I took my motorcycle and left the house, approaching Tse Abi. Some people advanced from the bush. They were three and they asked me to leave the motorcycle, or else I would be shot.
“Cherishing my life, I left the bike for them, and they rode off. It was an ugly experience for me. So many people have submitted reports of stolen motorcycles to my house as the custodian of the community. We identified the numerous bad roads as the key problem, but the government has not done anything despite our several complaints,” he said.
In 2022, World Bank’s Country Director, Shubham Chaudhuri, stated that 87% of rural roads in Nigeria are in a deplorable state.
The Road project
Meanwhile, a road project, if implemented, would have solved part of the problems. According to the 2022 budget performance report of Benue State, N109 Million Naira was released for the construction of roads which will pass through Tse Abi- Tse Ginde Tse Pevi Udzughul Agendee Tseghem- Shishi- Tse Ihom in Guma local government area of Benue State.
Also, in the same budget performance report, N150 Million Naira was spent for an additional scope of work on the same road with the addition of Agenke and Abara communities.
When UDEME visited the communities in August 2023, it was discovered that the project had not started. Residents continued to struggle with life daily, having bad experiences brought on by the dire state of the intra-local government road.
A community resident, Terver Donald, noted that the construction of the road only started with the grading. Still, after a short time, the contractors left the construction site, and the road became worse. He said the road was graded but nothing else was done apart from the planting of the project signage.
The project signage in Tse Abi shows that the project was awarded to KONTRAKRAFT-GB NIG LTD with the office address at No. 1 Emmanuel Gundu Close Makurdi Benue State, according to NG-Check. The company’s office was not found when this reporter visited the address. Also, efforts to speak with Vaatia Tarvershima, the company’s Director, through his LinkedIn account failed as he did not respond to the message.
Also, the reporter placed several calls to the line of the company manager, Taver Anyambula, but got no response. Also, messages sent on WhatsApp and SMS were not responded to by the company manager.
A source close to the family disclosed that the company was no longer functional, as the offices had been closed.
Ministry In Benue Not responding
On August 23rd, 2023, this reporter submitted a freedom of information request to the office of the commissioner’s Ministry of Cooperatives, Urban and Rural Development in Benue State, to get the details of the contract, but the letter was not responded to.
When the reporter visited the ministry on the 2nd of October, the receptionist at the commissioner’s office noted that the submitted letter was missing.
He later asked the reporter to bring the acknowledgement copy for a second submission. When the reporter obliged and returned to the office with the acknowledgement copy, the secretary noted that it had been found earlier and had been processed.
The ministry failed to respond to the letter at the time of this report.
Hopes Dims For Benue Residents
For now, the residents of the communities will continue navigating the rough terrain, both literally and figuratively. However, their faith in their community and belief that the project will succeed one day remain unshaken.
Chief Justin noted that as the hope stays alive, the communities have continued to look for solutions through mobilisations to fill the extremely bad areas with sand and other stones to aid movement. The hopes are still alive that the government will remember the community one day, and they will have a road to pass with ease.
“This is a challenging phase for us in this community. We have embraced it and we will continue to stay hopeful as the road has been leading us to our destination that we will see it constructed someday; we have been through a lot with this road, and we only hope on the government for now” Chief Justin said.
