Famed for being a monetary and industrial powerhouse and boasting of internet hosting Africa’s largest market when it comes to geographical measurement and quantity of products, Onitsha is the jewel nestled on the banks of the majestic River Niger.
Like a multifaceted prism, it refracted and mirrored brilliance in its glory days. As Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio would say in his guide Onitsha, town unfolded in opposition to financial vibrancy and a wealthy cultural tapestry.
Gloomily, the jewel is in peril and not shines. Its misplaced lustre echoes the fragility of goals, as soon as radiant however now fractured, casting fragmented shadows the place there have been dazzling glows previously. Its industrial actions have introduced it each prosperity and challenges.
The well-regarded Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe, said in his 2023 Ofala message that Onitsha is failing. He contended that its residents are hurting from continual urbanisation pressures of fixed site visitors congestion, dwindling alternatives, youth unemployment, gangsterism, touting, homelessness, petty and armed theft, cultism, drug habit, and baby prostitution.
These issues happen due to a scarcity of preparation and planning to stem the tide of uncontrolled rural-urban migration that has been surging. Sadly, urbanisation has did not result in inclusive prosperity, leading to a proliferation of city vices.
Once more, Onitsha, like Aba, Warri, Zaria, and Oyo, has the added drawback of being a big conurbation that isn’t a state capital. Not being a seat of presidency has meant it has needed to take care of the historic downside of infamous under-resourcing and under-funding.
Heavy site visitors congestion stays probably the most formidable adversary of all these challenges because it hinders financial progress on this industrial heartbeat. Anybody aware of Onitsha can attest to the each day struggles of navigating its congested roads. The convergence of assorted site visitors streams, together with heavy-duty autos, intra-city transportation, and industrial actions, has created an ideal congestion storm that impedes residents and companies. The arteries of town, as soon as flowing easily with the change of products and providers, at the moment are choked, resulting in a myriad of penalties reverberating by way of the native financial system.
Although impaired, with synthetic limbs, Onitsha can bounce again as a result of permitting it to fail isn’t an possibility. Simply as a prosthesis can present assist and allow performance for people with bodily limitations, it requires strategic measures or interventions to revive and improve its performance. Within the metaphorical sense, crucial highway infrastructure would act as a assist system for financial mobility.
Needed roads will facilitate the sleek circulate of products and providers, serving as mobility assist for companies to navigate and thrive throughout the metropolis and allow it to achieve its full potential.
Fortuitously, the present Governor of Anambra State, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, promised to prioritise Onitsha throughout his gubernatorial electioneering campaigns. Throughout his inauguration as governor, he reiterated that he would clear up Onitsha and make it a contemporary metropolis.
He insisted that he would equally clear the river Niger, modernise Onitsha and make it the Dubai of Africa. Protecting this promise, on the idea of workplace, Soludo commenced cleansing Okpoko, a extremely populated and blighted suburb of Onitsha.
Whereas clean-up initiatives are commendable, they fail to handle the elemental points impeding town’s financial progress. Clear-up efforts are important for sustaining a wholesome and aesthetically pleasing setting, however they’re simply the tip of the iceberg. This big’s limbs are virtually lacking, and it’s in dire want of prostheses fairly than bandages.
This piece, due to this fact, argues that addressing Onitsha’s site visitors woes necessitates a strategic funding in substantial highway growth fairly than mere superficial clean-up efforts. Investing in these initiatives isn’t solely a dedication to infrastructure; it’s an funding within the vibrant heartbeat of a thriving metropolis, paving the best way for financial progress, improved mobility, and a greater high quality of life for its residents.
Subsequently, Governor Charles Soludo, with lower than 1 / 4 of his tenure remaining, should prioritise and spend money on crucial highway infrastructure for Onitsha. A strategic give attention to important infrastructure initiatives is significant for unlocking its full potential and making certain sustained financial progress.
In the end, Soludo’s legacy will probably be assessed by the lasting affect of his investments in Onitsha. The power to ascertain a basis for sustainable growth, financial prosperity, and an improved high quality of life will decide the enduring legacy of his tenure.
Important highway concepts, like bypasses for Onitsha, have been launched beforehand. Many have been proposed and deliberate for a number of years however haven’t been carried out on account of a scarcity of funds, political will, or technical challenges.
As an example, the World Financial institution designed the Borromeo roundabout by way of Omagba Format to 33 Junction within the Nineteen Eighties. It was not carried out and could be too costly to assemble as a result of many of the space is now constructed up.
An choice to compensate for this misplaced alternative would come with setting up a brilliant bypass that hyperlinks Tarzan Junction, Nkpor, on Enugu-Onitsha Specific Option to 33 Junction Nkwelle Ezunaka. The significance of this five-kilometre highway have to be thought of. It can decongest the GRA Trans-Nkisi Highway, the one outlet from Onitsha to the huge Oyi -Anambra Hall.
This highway is crucial, particularly now that strain has been sustained within the Nationwide Meeting for the dualisation of the 33-Otuocha-Omasi Adani-Otukpa Freeway. This is able to then imply a seamless connection between the foremost arterial of Enugu Expressway and the North with out passing by way of the internal metropolis and serve to present the indigenous neighborhood of Inland City some breather.
One other very important highway undertaking to be thought of could be the dualisation of Uga Junction to the Second Niger Bridge Junction of Atani Highway, which is about two kilometres. This is able to significantly ease site visitors at Higher Iweka and supply a clean and protected hyperlink from the industrial centre to Second Niger Bridge on the one hand and entry to Nnewi, Ihiala and Imo State on the opposite.
Improved highway infrastructure contributes to a safer and safer setting by enhancing emergency response capabilities, offering higher mobility for regulation enforcement, and creating city areas much less prone to prison actions. Strategic planning and funding in highway growth could be essential in selling total neighborhood safety and resilience.
The time for excuses is over. The Anambra State Authorities should act now and prioritise such roads. The federal government should mobilise the mandatory assets, interact the related stakeholders, and execute these initiatives rapidly and effectively. Within the face of those challenges, all should rally collectively to make sure Onitsha’s survival and forestall the looming spectre of failure.
Restoration of this hope is feasible with the right political will. Just like the light daybreak after the darkest night time, the primary rays of daylight pierce by way of the obscurity, casting away shadows and portray the sky in hues of prospects.
Actually, Onitsha can shine once more regardless of fractures and setbacks. In essence, the symbolic advantages of offering prostheses for Onitsha lengthen far past a limb’s bodily alternative. They embody enhanced accessibility, financial resurgence, improved safety, higher social well-being, and cultural rejuvenation. They equally foster a collective dedication to making a extra inclusive and supportive society for the general enchancment of Onitsha and the welfare of its residents.Onukwuli, PhD, wrote from Bolton, UK. He could be reached through:[email protected]
