Like the dreaded cabal in the oil sector, a lot of selfish interests are fingered as being behind the daily traffic hold-ups at Mararaba. These interests range from the genuine desire and necessity to survive, to greed and outright mischief.?
Unfortunately, the promotion of these self- centered interests and the consequent traffic gridlock are turning the lives of many travellers on the Mraraba- Keffi road into a nightmare.
Tsavnande Ukeji, a senior legislative aide to one of the senators from Benue State, was elated when the senator gave him a three bedroom flat at Ado, a town in the neighbouring Nasarawa State? as his official quarters. His joy knew no bounds when he bought a posh car to take him to and from his office at the National Assembly Complex.
Unfortunately, this blissful picture Ukeji had in his mind of his new status is gradually but steadily turning into dismay, thanks to the harrowing experience of driving?? through the daily chaotic traffic situation at Mararaba.
Ukeji is not alone in this predicament. Many other residents of the adjoining satellite communities like Karu, Nyanya, Mararaba, One-Man Village, Ado, Gwandara, and Masaka that constitute a substantial proportion of FCT workforce as well as other citizens who ply the Keffi- Abuja Road to the Nation’s capital? lament the horrific? traffic situation at? Mararaba.?
For these people, the opportunity cost of getting to the nation’s capital early enough to carry out their business is their sleep. Gagaor Luga, a driver to one of the senators who also lives in Ado says anybody who wants to beat this daily hold up must leave the comfort of their beds and hit the road as early as 2.30 am.
“There is hardly any time one would not encounter traffic jam on Nyanya- Mararaba road” he concluded. Ukeji says getting back home is even more challenging. According to him, the earliest time he gets home every day is the small hours of the following morning.
While some have attributed this traffic situation to poor and short-sighted town planning, Government investigations revealed that there are unseen hands behind the Mararaba traffic gridlock. The first of the hidden hands is the blatant disregard for law and order in the area.
It is common to see traders display their wares right on the road after blocking the pedestrian pathways making it difficult for motorist who want to park either for their passengers to disembark or even to? buy the displayed wares. The menace of street trading in the area is a major stumbling block for road users as it restricts the available lanes for both vehicular and human traffic.
Surprisingly, one section of the road near Midland Plaza has been taken up by heaps of sharp sand dumped there by a sand merchant who blatantly refused to talk to our correspondent when approached to speak on why he has turned part of the pedestrian pathway into a warehouse for his sand. Indeed, attempts were made by his “boys” to snatch our correspondent’s camera when he was taking snap shots of the heaps of sand on the road roadside????
Several attempts to talk to the chairman of Mararaba Street Traders Association, Malam Abubakar, failed as he reneged on earlier promise to speak on why they prefer to sell by the road side instead of the market in spite of the attendant risks to their lives and that of their customers.
Malam Abubakar who had on several occasions fixed appointments with our correspondent to clear the air on their role in the traffic gridlock but always turned down the interviews on the grounds that his secretary who had the vital documents was not around, suddenly turned violent on 24th May, 2012 and directed our correspondent to the New Karu Local Government Area, which he said supervises their activities.
Another set of unseen hands behind the terrible traffic gridlock at Mararaba is the presence of miscreants and touts popularly called agbelos particularly under the overhead bridge.
An Igbo trader who has a shop near the bridge but would not want to be named for fear of reprisal attacks told our correspondent that these miscreants deliberately cause traffic gridlock to carry out their nefarious activities. “They always utilise the luu in the flow of traffic to snatch people’s mobile phones, ladies’ handbags and other valuables and then escape.”
Also fingered for the perennial traffic hold-ups is the unruly behaviour of commercial bus drivers popularly called alabas who have a penchant for reckless driving, dangerous overtaking and indiscriminate parking to pick or drop passengers.
Mrs Lucy Agena, a civil servant who relocated to Masaka from Kubwa says if there is anything she dreads on the road it is the presence of the arabas (commercial buses) because of their recklessness and total disregard for other road users. “In fact, they are a major cause of the terrible traffic hold-ups particularly under the Mararaba Pedestrian Bridge,” she said.
Another cause of the Mararaba gridlock is the presence of many illegal motor parks. It is not uncommon to see cars and intercity buses loading and off-loading at different points along the Mararaba axis of the Abuja Keffi road.
These vehicles, their passengers and touts normally occupy the roadsides and even spill? the main road, obstructing vehicles plying the road. ?