A ferry across Lokoja – Shintako inland waterways reveals great potentials and opportunities wasted by successive governments of Kogi State. It is an untapped potential of the confluence state that is capable of fetching for the government millions of Naira in revenues from trade, tourism and its associated business.
As your eyes gaze through the beautiful waters and landscape of Bassa Local Government in Kogi State through the Shintako River by ferry, you are yet to experience the tragedy that awaits you on your arrival to Shintako.
The Tragedy is the Deplorable State of the Shintako – Oguma Road.
The road which cuts across various communities in the three districts of Bassa Local Government was first constructed in 1973 under the then military administration of Yakubu Gowon by Messr Oni & Sons Nigeria Limited. In May 2002, the road was rehabilitated by Former President Olusegun Obasanjo through the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing Development. The road is question is a Federal Road
Sixteen years down the line, there have not been any attempt to reconstruct or better still rehabilitate the Shintako – Oguma Road. Our People in Bassa and Dekina Local Government go through hell on a daily basis when passing through the very bad road that has turned out to be death traps today.
We spend a fortune in repairing our cars after every passage of the road. A lot of vehicle engines have been lost as a result of the deplorable state of the road. Shintako to Oguma should ordinarily be a journey of 30mins but owing to the bad state of the road, it takes 2 hours to get to Oguma from Shintako.
The importance of the Shintako – Oguma road cannot be over emphasized. Fixing the road will bring succor to our people and contributed to the ease of doing business in Dekina and Bassa Local Government respectively. Large and Small Scale businesses will thrive and the economic life of our communities in Dekina and Bassa Local Government would resuscitated.
I would like to use this medium to call on the APC led Federal Government under the very distinctive leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari and the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing to please come to the aid of our people in Bassa local Government by reconstructing the Shintako – Oguma Road.
Permit me to say at this point that if this is the only project the APC led federal Government of President Muhammadu Buhari can do for us in Kogi East we will be immersely grateful.
– Sanni Idakwo Philips is an aspirant for the House of Representative seeking to Represent Dekina / Bassa Federal Constituency of Kogi State.
