Just complete Abuja to Lokoja road

The three-day chaos at Koton Karfe end of the Abuja to Lokoja road from December 21 to 23, 2025, was a scandalous consequence of corruption, negligence, and poor planning. The road that connects the North with the Southern half of Nigeria has been under construction for almost 20 years now, since former President Olusegun Obasanjo awarded the dualization contract in 2007. Over this period, it has remained a nightmare to motorists while government after government verbalises its completion in political rhetoric.

Nigerians, who were unfortunate enough to decide to ply the road those three days, experienced an unbelievable logjam, as hundreds, if not thousands, of articulated vehicles and other cars were trapped for hours. Without the logjam, motorists could drive through Koton Karfe in say, fleeting five minutes. But those three days, motorists were stuck there for an average of torturous and humiliating 12 hours.

Motorists and travellers were exposed to unquantifiable human suffering, like exhaustion, from which some persons actually died. Those who fell sick did not have access to emergency medical attention. Many vehicles overheated and broke down; babies trapped in the confusion cried endlessly. Water became a scarce commodity, as almost every available sachet of water in Koton Karfe sold out. Cattle and goats being transported from North to South either died or their owners hurriedly slaughtered them as they became sickly from exhaustion. Mobile networks ceased, such that many motorists climbed the surrounding hills and higher planes in search of a mobile network to communicate with their loved ones.

The lackadaisical response by government agencies to the confusion was unthinkable, in spite of the fact that social media was awash with the harrowing experiences of travellers, beginning from Sunday, December 21, 2025. Thousands of travellers who faced the initial fire had posted videos and photographs of the nightmare on social media platforms; major media platforms had begun to report the confusion. But it was not until December 23, 2025, that the Corps Marshall of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Malam Shehu Mohammed, attended to the crisis.

As Nigerians would later discover, the logjam was caused by the failure of a contractor to complete an important bridge, reducing the dual carriageway to a single lane. Thousands of vehicles that plied the road from both directions struggled to snake through the small space, competing with ubiquitous articulated vehicles that are compelled to use the Abuja to Lokoja road, as the alternative route through Mokwa-Jebba has since been closed. This blockage of one of the two carriageways on the Koton Karfe to Lokoja road was evidence of carelessness involving the contractors, government, and the FRSC, which should have alerted the authorities to the disastrous implications of such a decision during Christmas and New Year festivities, when the road is busiest.

It is disturbing that the road project remains uncompleted in spite of the status of the contractors involved in its execution and the huge budgetary allocations to it.

In April 2021, the government of former President Muhammadu Buhari pledged to complete the road by December 2021. This did not happen. The Minister of Works, David Umahi, in August 2023, toured the road and promised a new deal. Sections of the road are being constructed, rather haphazardly, by different contractors. But it will take a lot of coordinated effort to smooth it into an ideal highway. In November 2025, the minister threatened to revoke the contract of several contractors if they failed to deliver on schedule. Though 2026 is the deadline for its completion, the timeline is doubtful, considering the current pace of work on the road.

The non-completion of the road is caused by the lack of continuity and policy inconsistencies on the part of successive governments. The same is responsible for the non-completion of almost 20 other federal roads across Nigeria for an unbelievable number of years. They include the following: Minna to Suleja road (15 years); Kano to Maiduguri (20); Abuja to Keffi (12); and Kaduna to Abuja (9). Others include Port Harcourt to Enugu (16); East to West (20); Lagos to Abeokuta (21); Lagos to Ibadan (20); Oyo to Ogbomosho (15); Gombe to Potiskum (15); Jalingo to Numan (10); and Jebba to Mokwa (35). There are also the major roads from Sarkin Pawa to Kaduna (35); from Enugu to Onitsha (20), and from Makurdi to Ankpa (25).

The notorious logjam that occurred in Koton Karfe in December 2025 will recur if the government is not decisive about its completion. There are dire economic and social consequences of leaving these roads in terrible shape, especially a major road that connects the North and South, like the Abuja to Lokoja road. The government should ensure it is completed, along with other major roads, to save Nigerians from this avoidable agony.

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