Save Our Soul: The Road That Government Forgot

An Open Letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, Senator Ned Nwoko, Hon. Ngozi Okolie, Hon. Frank Esenwa, Hon. Innocent Esewezie, the NDDC and Every Son and Daughter of Illah

By Frank Ofili

Every community has something it is famous for.

Some are known for their rivers.

Others for their hills.

Some for their universities.

My beloved Illah is gradually becoming famous for something else – a community with a road that has become a national embarrassment.

I never imagined I would live long enough to see the Asaba–Illah road become almost impassable.

As children growing up at Ngegwu, we did not have much, but we had hope. We woke before sunrise, harvested cassava, yams, vegetables and whatever else the season offered, balanced them on our heads and headed for Ugbolu Market or Otu Ajaji (then known as Otu Anam) markets.

Those journeys were never easy.

The sun showed us no mercy.

The loads were heavy.

Our legs often protested.

But somehow, we laughed along the way.

Children have a strange gift. They can turn suffering into adventure.

Little did we know that decades later, the greatest obstacle to taking farm produce to the market would not be the weight on our heads but the absence of a usable road beneath our feet.

A road is more than asphalt. It is hope, commerce, education and life itself. This is a heartfelt appeal to all our leaders to save the Asaba–Illah–Abuja Road before another generation grows up believing neglect is normal. If you believe every Nigerian community deserves access to good roads, please read, share and tag the relevant authorities.

Today, farmers produce food they cannot easily transport.

Commercial drivers pray before entering the road.

Passengers arrive at their destinations with aching backs and damaged vehicles.

Expectant mothers, school children, traders and civil servants all share one painful question:

What exactly did we do to deserve this?

The irony is almost unbelievable.

This is not some forgotten village footpath.

This is a road linking Asaba, the capital of Delta State, with Illah and neighbouring communities before continuing through Edo and Kogi states towards Abuja, the federal capital.

This is a federal inter-state road.

Yet it has been abandoned until nature has almost reclaimed it.

We hear wonderful news every week.

The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.

The Sokoto-Badagry Super Highway.

Roads here.

Bridges there.

Flyovers everywhere.

And I genuinely applaud these projects because a nation cannot develop without infrastructure.

But permit me to ask one simple question.

Does development have a postal code?

Must every major project end where our own begins?

Must Illah forever remain the forgotten child standing outside the national dining table, hoping someone remembers there is one more plate to serve?

They say Delta State today enjoys unprecedented allocations.

Indeed, one can see road construction in several parts of the state.

That is commendable.

But somewhere between Asaba and Illah, development appears to have missed a turning.

The Niger Delta Development Commission was created to intervene where infrastructure has failed.

Surely, if ever there was a road crying for intervention, this is it.

Yet silence.

Painful silence.

Perhaps what hurts most is that Illah has never turned its back on democracy.

We vote.

We participate.

We believe.

In 2023, our people came out in large numbers to support those they believed would represent their interests.

Today, Illah and other communities along that corridor, have a Governor.

We have a Senator.

We have a Member of the House of Representatives.

We have a Member of the Delta State House of Assembly.

We have a Local Government Chairman.

We have political appointees.

We have voices.

But our road still has none.

So today, I lend it mine.

Mr. President, your administration has shown that infrastructure is one of its priorities. We respectfully ask you to look towards this forgotten corridor. Sometimes the most important roads are not the ones that make the biggest headlines, but the ones that quietly sustain ordinary Nigerians.

Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, this is a humble appeal from one of your citizens. The M.O.R.E. Agenda should also reach the farmers, traders, students and families whose lives depend on this road every single day.

Senator Ned Nwoko, you are the highest elected political office holder in Anioma. We know your passion for development. Please make this road your next great battle. We would proudly remember the leader who transformed decades of complaints into kilometres of smooth asphalt.

Hon. Ngozi Okolie. Hon. Frank Esenwa. Hon. Innocent Esewezie.

This is your constituency. This is your people. We ask not for miracles, only determined leadership until this road is restored.

And to the NDDC, this is exactly why your Commission exists.

This appeal is not about politics.

Potholes do not know political parties.

Mud does not ask whether you voted APC, PDP, Labour Party or APGA.

A broken bridge does not check your voter card before collapsing beneath your tyres.

Bad roads are remarkably democratic. They punish everyone equally.

I dream of the day children travelling to Illah will ask their parents:

“Daddy, were people really saying this road used to be terrible?”

And their parents will laugh and reply:

“Yes. But good leaders listened, and they fixed it.”

That is the story I want history to tell.

Not another committee.

Not another promise.

Not another inspection visit.

A road.

A real road.

A road that honours the sweat of the farmer.

A road that carries pregnant women safely to hospitals.

A road that allows traders to prosper.

A road that tells every child growing up in Illah that government has not forgotten them.

This is my appeal.

This is our appeal.

Please…

Save the Asaba–Illah–Abuja road.

Because sometimes, rebuilding a road is the same thing as restoring the dignity of a people.