Lagos (AFP) - The dismal state of Nigeria's roads is a constant source of exasperation for the long-suffering population but a tongue-in-cheek campaign on social media is trying to shame the authorities into action.

Posting under the hashtag #MyRoadIsWorseThanYours, Nigerians have been sharing examples of the country's worst highways.

Bomb crater-sized potholes, roads resembling muddy rivers in the annual rainy season and some unrecognisable even as public thoroughfares have been posted online.

"Here's one Lagos road (state governor Babatunde) Fashola needs to repair fast," says one tweet, with a picture of a motorcyclist navigating a flooded road, with water nearly up to his saddle.

The tweets have an underlying seriousness: when Africa's leading economy and oil producer claims to have pumped 1.4 trillion naira ($8.5 billion, 6.75 billion euros) into infrastructure improvements since 1999, why are the roads so bad?

They have also helped balance out the pages of self-congratulatory newspaper advertisements taken out by state governments, proudly displaying the smooth tarmac of upgraded, traffic-free roads.

- Deaths, strikes, responsibility -

..View gallery Waterlogged Ibafo Community School road is seen being abandoned by motorists, in Ogun State, southwe …Olanrewaju Adenekan is a clearing agent at Lagos' main port of Apapa. He is 51 but looks two decades older and is in poor health. Both he and his doctor blame it on his daily commute.

Adenakan leaves his house in Sango-Ota, north of Lagos, before 4:30 am every day to reach Apapa at around 9:00 am. The distance door-to-door is just 37 kilometres (23 miles).

"The traffic situation is bad. I spend between four and five hours for a journey that should take less than one hour," he told AFP.

Adenekan owns two cars but prefers to take public transport because it is cheaper -- and also because the badly maintained roads take a debilitating toll on his vehicles.

"Nigerians spend a lot of money on maintaining their vehicles because of potholes, which damage tyres, wheel rims, shock absorbers and other components," said quantity surveyor Alani Amusa.

Time spent in traffic jams is also dead time, robbing businesses of productivity and effective workers. When they eventually arrive, they are often exhausted.

..View gallery Motorists drive along on waterlogged bumpy Ikorodu-Shagamu road, in Ogijo, Nigeria's Ogun State, …Motorists stuck for hours in jams are sitting ducks for armed robbers.

And bad roads mean more accidents. Nigeria had the highest road fatality rates in Africa in 2010 at 33.7 deaths per 100,000, the World Health Organization said in a report published last year.

Recently, petrol tanker drivers threatened to go on strike if the bad roads were not fixed, blaming potholes and gullies for causing accidents.

Nigerian states and the federal authorities have been in dispute about who is responsible for maintaining and improving the roads -- meaning nothing gets done.

The Lagos State government for example has been at loggerheads with Abuja over reimbursements for repairs to federal-owned roads dating back to when Lagos was the country's capital.

- Corruption, under-funding -

..View gallery Motorists drive along on waterlogged bumpy Ikorodu-Shagamu road, in Ogijo, Nigeria's Ogun State, …As in so many walks of Nigerian life, corruption is also part of the problem.

"Contractors like to cut corners by not working to specification," said Amusa, who is involved in a number of road projects in Lagos state.

"They connive with corrupt officials to use sub-standard materials in order to maximise their profits.

Many roads lack proper drainage, turning them into swimming pools within minutes of a downpour; roadside culverts overflow; tarmac disintegrates; traffic lights and road signs are often absent.

Project costs can also be grossly inflated.

The 338-kilometre (212-mile) dual carriageway linking southern oil-producing states was awarded at a cost of 138.9 billion naira ($835 million, 670 million euros) in 2006 under former president Olusegun Obasanjo.

Eight years later, the cost has increased nearly three-fold to 347 billion naira -- and the road is not yet finished.

Questions have been asked too about the cost of reconstruction of the 127.8-kilometre Lagos-Ibadan expressway -- the busiest road in west Africa, carrying an average of 250,000 vehicles per day.

The contract was awarded for 167.9 billion naira but some experts believe it could have been revamped for a lot less.

Most people, though, just want their own muddy, potholed streets paved and well-maintained to make the journey from their front doors to the main road less of a bone-shaking obstacle course.

Works Minister Mike Onolememen blamed chronic under-funding from the federal government, which has led to contractors revising up their project costs to accommodate rising prices of materials.

"About 500 billion naira was needed every year for the next four years to pave bad roads," he said. So far, he said the treasury has released just a quarter of the sum for the coming year.

http://news.yahoo.com/nigerias-road-shame-goes-online-hope-better-days-035920087.html

Seun

please front page

Not also do we need good roads, we need rules and enforcement of rules.
In PH some of the Timariv official coordinating traffic have no idea on what they are doing and because they are too busy trying to get people to break the law, sometimes they actually cause more traffic.

All that advertising the negative aspects of your country online achieves is discourage investment and provide ammunition for those that seem to gain some sort of weird pride by disparaging your country. Nigerians are the only people so far that i know that believe humiliating themselves will bring about improvements. On the other hand, it is likely that true Nigerians are not the ones that started this campaign. Could be other Africans. It could be Expatriates. It is easy to imagine a couple of expatriates in Lagos, "having a laugh", sending these images to social media and then think - nodge-nodge wink-wink -these people are so stupid we can get them to send even more pictures of their decrepit nation online to disgrace themselves. A little like those days when expatriates would bring out their cameras in some back streets Accra and tell little black boys to jump around and scratch the top of their heads. The expatriates would take pictures and every black person in the community would think its harmless fun. But later the Expatriates would return to Germany or some other place and show those pictures, saying that black kids act and look like monkeys.

Litmus:
All that advertising the negative aspects of your country online achieves is discourage investment and provide ammunition for those that seem to gain some sort of weird pride by disparaging your country. Nigerians are the only people so far that i know that believe humiliating themselves will bring about improvements. On the other hand, it is likely that true Nigerians are not the ones that started this campaign. Could be other Africans. It could be Expatriates. It is easy to imagine a couple of expatriates in Lagos, "having a laugh", sending these images to social media and then think - nodge-nodge wink-wink -these people are so stupid we can get them to send even more pictures of their decrepit nation online to disgrace themselves. A little like those days when expatriates would bring out their cameras in some back streets Accra and tell little black boys to jump around and scratch the top of their heads. The expatriates would take pictures and every black person in the community would think its harmless fun. But later the Expatriates would return to Germany or some other place and show those pictures, saying that black kids act and look like monkeys.

^^^^

No sir, that's not good enough.

It is sad that you have nothing to say about holding government accountable. Instead, you have harsh words for Nigerians who have been frustrated to the point that they have been forced to 'name and shame' their leaders online.

By the admission of the federal government's own agencies, 65% of Nigerian roads are in a poor or bad state. (see the other thread on this topic for details) That is the real issue here. That is the real crime here. Other Nigerians are angry enough about it to challenge the government through all available channels. What are YOU doing about it?

You have to take a stand. In one of your other posts on another thread you claimed to have no interest in Nigerian politics or Nigerian political parties. And yet in the same post, you considered yourself to be the ideal barometer for measurement of key political matters. Talk about a contradiction.

Those who have taken the war against bad, irresponsible and downright criminal government to the web are taking citizens action against a government that has consistently failed to live up to its end of the Social Contract. If you consider the actions of these people (who are holding their government accountable) to be nothing more than washing our dirty linen in public, then so be it.

We will hold our government (at all levels) accountable. By any means necessary.

Meanwhile, many people don't know what is being done with tax payers money. I really shake my head at the way some people reason. They prefer to support people with failed promises.

I have a right to demand what is right but few people realise that. Until the ills of ignorance is curbed in this country, we shall continue to roll out the drums and dance at every project being commissioned here

Litmus:
All that advertising the negative aspects of your country online achieves is discourage investment and provide ammunition for those that seem to gain some sort of weird pride by disparaging your country. Nigerians are the only people so far that i know that believe humiliating themselves will bring about improvements. On the other hand, it is likely that true Nigerians are not the ones that started this campaign. Could be other Africans. It could be Expatriates. It is easy to imagine a couple of expatriates in Lagos, "having a laugh", sending these images to social media and then think - nodge-nodge wink-wink -these people are so stupid we can get them to send even more pictures of their decrepit nation online to disgrace themselves. A little like those days when expatriates would bring out their cameras in some back streets Accra and tell little black boys to jump around and scratch the top of their heads. The expatriates would take pictures and every black person in the community would think its harmless fun. But later the Expatriates would return to Germany or some other place and show those pictures, saying that black kids act and look like monkeys.

This is an extremely disgraceful post.

Only naming and shaming has any effect on the people in charge in Nigeria. It was public ridicule that made the FG renovate those deplorable police barracks in Lagos. You think the families in those barracks care about anyone outside Nigeria scoffing at them?

lol

If shaming will make Amaechi put street lights in PHC...then I better bring out my camera...]