A Kogi-born political activist, Usman Okai Austin, on Friday appealed to President Bola Tinubu to give the dilapidated Lokoja-Abuja highway the same urgency and funding accorded to the Abuja-Kaduna expressway, describing the pace of work on the road as alarming.
Speaking to journalists in Anyigba, Okai alleged that the Federal Government had awarded portions of the project to little-known contractors who lack the capacity for the work and operate without adequate supervision.
He urged Tinubu to direct the Minister of Works to reassign the contracts to well-equipped, reputable construction firms and to ensure steady funding.
“Commuters are suffering,” Okai said. “People are spending nights trapped between Lokoja and Abuja, yet this is the major artery connecting the Federal Capital Territory to the southern part of the country.”
The roughly 200-kilometre highway is a key link between northern Nigeria and the country’s South-West, South-East and South-South regions.
Okai noted that the project was first awarded in 2006, toward the end of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration. It was split into several sections at an initial cost of about 42 billion naira and was scheduled for completion within 30 months.
The road has since suffered two decades of setbacks. Work stalled under the administrations of Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari amid repeated contract reviews, cost increases and funding shortfalls, according to Okai.
The Tinubu administration intervened in late 2025 and early 2026, terminating the contracts of underperforming firms and reawarding key sections, including one to Julius Berger Nigeria Plc in March 2026.
Okai said, however, that conditions on the ground had not changed.
“Unfortunately, there is no sign of Julius Berger on that stretch,” he said. “Instead, the unknown contractors are still there doing nothing, claiming poor funding.”
“Whatever the case may be, it is time for decisive action because Nigerians are going through hell on that road daily,” he added.
He called on the Minister of Works to treat the Lokoja-Abuja corridor as a top national priority to end the daily hardship faced by motorists and travellers.
