The agony of the FUTO, Nekede, and Ihiagwa community.

On my way to Owerri town from where I reside in Umuchima (a village in Ihiagwa town), I felt the agony and pain of the Futo, Nekede, and Ihiagwa community.

One would have thought that having two prestigious tertiary institutions within one L.G.A (Owerri west) would mean lucrative business opportunities, good communication network, and most importantly good transportation network. Agreed, every business around the Futo, Nekede, and Ihiagwa community is highly lucrative because thousands of students around must buy what they eat, what they wear, and even their academic accessories. Moreover, the communication network serves the basic needs of a normal Nigerian, good 2G network for voice calls, although the internet network is not especially handsome, but it is relatively good. However, the pain of the common man residing in Futo, Nekede, or Ihiagwa lies in the transportation network.

My journey started when I entered a bike from my lodge at Umuchima with the aim of getting to Ihiagwa market square where I could board a bus going to owerri. The first thing that surprised me was the bike man’s quick diversion from the major road leading straight to market square into a rugged footpath that would pass through Umuelem(a village in Ihiagwa Town) before getting to market square. I refused to complain because I thought the means is not my concern, all I know is that am heading to market square. The crooked path with several water logged zones needed expertise to drive through. The bike man twisted and turned, clutched and braked, used his legs as support where necessary for nearly 10 minutes till we finally got to Ihiagwa market square. Funny enough that is just the beginning of the journey.

Boarding a bus to Owerri town from market square is easier than peeling egusi as the driver will be begging you to board his bus. I boarded a bus paid the fare and waited for the main journey to begin. Turning on the ignition of the rugged Mitsubishi L300 bus, the driver began the journey to Owerri. Instead of the normal straight road that lead to Naze junction through Nekede, the driver faced the bus towards Mgboke (a village in IhiagwaTown). Concerned as i was, i asked him why he didn't follow the normal road. As a Nigerian he replied with a question ‘have you passed that Nekede road recently' i said no, He then told me how the road has grown from bad to worse during this rainy season with one million and one water-logged ditches which would swallow any vehicle that tries to pass through it, he recounted how on several occasions his bus got stuck along that road, he said 'in fact that road is simply impassable'. I was touched by his story and secretly expected the road we followed to avoid the bad Ihiagwa/Nekede road to be navigable, but to my utmost dismay the road was nothing to write home about. We moved from one water-logged pothole to another as our bus swayed and rolled in an undulating manner. One would expect just a Few potholes, but for close to 20 minutes we were still swaying and rolling in these deadly potholes. I kept asking myself, if this navigable road is this bad how then will the impassable one be? After about 25 minutes we joined the Nekede road again. By now the swaying and rolling has become an integral part of the journey.

Therefore, the only other thing that caught my interest was the junction leading to the front gate of Federal Polytechnic Nekede, sincerly speaking there is no sign that this junction leads to an institution is national repute. Apart from the presence of a sign board that identifies the polytechnic, one would hardly believe that this junction leads to a national tertiary institution, this is due to the dirty environment that greets visitors and worst of all the dilapidated road. With potholes, ditches, and mud filled everywhere I pitied the students who have to ply this road each day. Before we got to Owerri, over an hour has passed, this is a journey that normally takes 30 to 45 minutes to complete. Seriously, the present state of disrepair of the Ihiagwa Nekede road keeps one wondering whether the road was constructed before Lord Lugard Amalgamated Nigeria.

The people of FUTO, Nekede and Ihiagwa community are in deep pain and agony; we can no longer get to Owerri town due to our dilapidated road. As it is, we have nobody else to run to except our Government, we plead with the Government to come to our rescue quickly, to restore our dignity and that of her prestigious institutions, to make life easy for Nekede and Futo students, and above all to prove to us that she listens to the voice of her suffering masses.

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