ASKS BENSON OKOBI-ALLANAH
AS you watch the traffic on the Niger Bridge from either sides of the twin city of Asaba, the Delta State capital, and Onitsha, the commercial nerve center of Anambra State, you are amazed by the near snail speed with which vehicles move; and which no sooner you remove your eyes, see the entire traffic assembling to a gridlock.
Passengers in indecent haste to leave or enter both cities, as one watches them, is forced into thoughts and questioning which solutions and answers seem far thrown from the persons so besieged with the blooming confusion that looks endlessly.
Milling impatient, bored and fagged out passengers, some with light or heavy loads balanced on their heads, are seen trekking as early as 6.30am either returning to, or going out from Asaba and vice versa through the bridge, while others who can afford the hiked transport fare charged by Okada and Keke operators going to Asaba from Onitsha, or returning from Onitsha to Asaba, are seen being conveyed to and fro both cities by commercial motorcycles whizzing past.
The way commercial motorcycles furiously charge in and out of both cities from either ends of the bridge is another scenario capable of leaving those with faint hearts being dragged closer to their graves.
With the exception of KekeNapep operators who operate from one side of the shoulder of the bridge only, Okada operators make use of any available space on the bridge, from both shoulders and on the four lanes structured bridge, sometimes competing with motor vehicles.
The Niger Bridge, a four lane dual carriage way, comprising two in each travel direction, are un-demarcated, but with pedestrian walkway on both sides of it, supposed to be the shoulders, but now been taken over by both Keke and Okada operators.
It is the bridge that links both Delta and Anambra States through Asaba on the Western flank and Onitsha in the Eastern flank.
At this portion of the Asaba-Benin Expressway, always starting from the Abraka junction to the new Asaba Commodity Market to the Asaba Tollgate and then to Oko Road junction down to the bridge, and from the Onitsha end of the Relief Market to the bridge, are long queue of vehicles on both sides of the road which extend across the bridge into both cities.
Here between Asaba and Onitsha, passengers in both private and commercial vehicles travelling from Edo State, the North to the South-east region, are seen intermittently fanning themselves with hand-weave mat material or light, flat plastic hand fans even as they are found to be in air-conditioned vehicles which because of the long stay of the vehicles in the gridlock, turn their insides into a furnace.
Aside from most travelers, looking like witchcrafts caught at dawn for their late return from the coven, as a result of their shattered, disappointed, exhausted and disheveled forms, are some of them pressed by nature’s call who throw decency to the wind by doing open defecation on both sides of the road, and tearing the receiving portion of the ground open with long endured and suppressed urine pouring out like water from a broken pipe.
For those whose journey terminates at Asaba (not the bridge side), or before it, coming from the North or South-west, they count themselves lucky unlike those travelling from the afore-mentioned regions traveling to the South-east as the gridlock which now occur on daily basis hold some difficult moments for them.
Starting from those living at the bridge head end of Asaba, especially residents of the slum called Sodom and Gomorrah (so-called because of the alleged atrocities committed there at night), by Oko Road junction in the Delta State capital, or Ogboogu (Drugs dealers depot) at the Relief Market area of Onitsha, and beyond, it is always one hell of a journey, a tortuous and tiring one at that for them.
Motorcyclists who come from both Asaba and Onitsha, our investigation reveal, charge as much as N500 to convey a passenger from one end of the bridge to the other side of it. They don’t just carry only one passenger, it must be two, or when the passenger insist that he/she is in a hurry to leave, must be prepared to pay N1,000 otherwise made for two passengers as payment for their transport fare.
Prior to this season of Yuletide which appears to be witnessing large exodus of people from different parts of the country to the South-east, and to the South- west, and other places, in transit to their various cities, towns and villages for the celebration, Okada riders used to charge N150 to N200 to get a passenger across to either ends of the Niger Bridge Head, which is a little more than a kilometer long, while Keke drivers too, charge N100 to convey passengers to either sides of the bridge which now attract between N150 to N200.
Keke going and coming into Onitsha or Asaba compete for space on one side of the pedestrian walkway of the four lane bridge. Only a thin rope separates two Keke coming from the opposite directions with their passengers either going to Onitsha from Asaba or returning to Asaba from Onitsha.
Here passengers join Keke with hanging hearts, with the sprawling River Niger looking as if waiting to swallow up any careless Keke and its contents. While some driver with care, others in a hurry to carry as many passengers as possible, throw caution to the wind by over speeding on such narrow walkway.
On the other walkway on the right hand side as you face Asaba from Onitsha end of the bridge, are countless number of motorcycles and intending passengers to Asaba, those being dropped at Onitsha going to Asaba, and those dropping into Onitsha from Asaba.
This portion of the bridge is the rowdiest as the number of motorcycles here are numerous, with different sizes of luggage, market wares waiting to be conveyed alongside their owners and all other manners of human beings lurking around the bridge.
The Onitsha/Asaba commercial bus drivers who ply the route have no fixed transport fare as they charge whatever that comes into their mind. Hence you will see some passengers complain they paid N1, 500 to get to Asaba from Onitsha, and others complaining that they paid N1, 000 to get to Onitsha from Asaba.
This happen mostly when there is a lingering hold up that has now become everyday occurrence; getting worse since the beginning of this Yuletide season.
Vehicles are held in this gridlock for hours despite the presence of security personnel helping to control the traffic.
Here you see the police, army, road safety officials and DESTMA officials (also called Okowa Police) all in joint effort to see that the gridlock is reduced by helping to control the traffic that look endless in its stretch.
While one side of the lane could be jam-packed with vehicles moving at snail speed, bumper to bumper, the other lane could be free, allowing free-flow of traffic. But such free flow could at times be a flash in the pan, a temporary ease off.
Those who have no money to pay for such high transport fare, resort to trekking either with or without their loads on their head.
Whereas the journey could be smooth from Awka, the Anambra State capital which is farther from Onitsha, it is not the same story going from Onitsha to Asaba, a distance that is little more than a kilometer, both cities being separated by the Niger Bridge.
While some members of the public say that the constant hold-up being experienced on daily basis between Asaba and Onitsha is as a result of some alleged extortions from security men from mostly commercial drivers in the name of ‘Stop and Search’, others exonerated some of the security men from such allegation, saying not all of them are involved.
For instance, the 63 Brigade Army Headquarters in Asaba, is said to be helping tremendously in clearing the holdups, thus, making the movement of vehicles on the bridge and road leading to it from the cities of Asaba and Onitsha less cumbersome.
Fingered alongside some of these security agents who extort money from motorists are touts popularly known as Agberos who try to cause commotion on the road chasing drivers who pick passengers along the road in their bid to get their own share of the money to be paid by passengers as it is from their ground (motor park) such passengers, they claim, are picked.
Here hawkers of all wares make good sales as those passengers trapped in hold-up keep buying one item or the other from them either to cool off or quench their taste and hunger.
To UcheAnadozie, who claims he is 14 and a JSS Two secondary school dropout from Abagana, in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State, he makes as a hawker of pure water sachet and water in pet bottles, like any other hawker in his category at the Asaba side of the bridge, not less than N1, 500 every day as gain.
‘But we prefer it better when the hold-up is moving and not static as it is now because it makes some passengers not to get their change as the vehicles keep moving. In that case, you can make close to N2, 700 and sometimes N3, 000.’
Recently, the Delta State and Anambra State governments getting concerned over the ever-growing incident of the hold-up decided to get a combined team to help in reducing the logjam experienced almost on daily basis.
Some people interviewed are however optimistic that with the completion of the second Niger Bridge also spanning from Asaba to Onitsha, that the daily experience of hold-up on the road will be reduced to some reasonable extent and become a thigh of the past while the nightmare of travelling to Onitsha from Asaba and vice-versa will never be again.
