The Benin–Sapele–Effurun Highway as a Case Study of a National Crisis
By Olorogun Paul Ejakpomewhe Abu, JP
Nigeria’s deteriorating road network is more than an infrastructure problem. It is a reflection of deeper weaknesses in governance, planning, maintenance culture, contract management, engineering standards and public accountability.
The World Bank reported in December 2024 that approximately 80 percent of Nigeria’s road network was in poor condition, identifying inadequate infrastructure, insufficient funding and climate pressures—including higher temperatures and increased rainfall—as major challenges.
The Benin–Sapele–Effurun Highway provides a particularly compelling case study.
This strategically important corridor serves communities, businesses, industries, farmers, transport operators and thousands of ordinary Nigerians. Yet sections of the road have suffered prolonged deterioration, congestion, vehicle damage and dangerous travelling conditions.
The Federal Government eventually terminated the contract for Section 1, Benin–Imasabor, awarded to Levant Construction Ltd, after the contractor failed to meet its obligations despite warnings and a final termination notice. The Minister of Works also disclosed that the Edo State Government had been asked to intervene on some of the worst sections.
The termination was necessary, but it raises a larger question: Why should a strategic national highway deteriorate for so long before government intervention becomes decisive?
The answer lies beyond one contractor or one administration.
Nigeria’s fundamental problem is the absence of a sufficiently robust, transparent and consistently enforced life-cycle road-management system.
The country has too often followed a cycle of: construction → neglect → deterioration → emergency intervention → reconstruction → neglect.
What Nigeria needs instead is: plan → design → build → maintain → monitor → rehabilitate → preserve.
The Benin–Sapele–Effurun road should therefore be viewed not merely as a road-reconstruction project, but as an opportunity to demonstrate a new model of infrastructure governance.
Introduction: When Roads Become Symbols of Government Failure
There are few things that reveal the quality of governance in a country more clearly than the condition of its roads.
Governments can announce ambitious economic programmes, industrial policies, agricultural initiatives and infrastructure plans. But the ordinary citizen encounters government not primarily in government offices or political speeches.
The citizen encounters government on the road.
The road determines whether a farmer can get produce to market, whether a manufacturer can receive raw materials, whether a trader can move goods profitably, whether an ambulance can reach a hospital, whether a student can get to school and whether a worker can travel safely.
In Nigeria, the condition of the nation’s roads increasingly tells a troubling story.
When the World Bank states that approximately 80 percent of Nigeria’s road network is in poor condition, the figure should not be treated simply as an engineering statistic.
It represents lost productivity.
It represents higher transport costs.
It represents reduced competitiveness.
It represents lost economic opportunities.
And, ultimately, it represents a failure to adequately preserve one of the country’s most important public assets.
The Benin–Sapele–Effurun Road Is More Than a Road
The Benin–Sapele–Effurun corridor is not simply a highway connecting three cities.
It is an economic artery.
It links communities and commercial centres across Edo and Delta States and serves a region with substantial agricultural, industrial, commercial and energy activity.
Thousands of people depend on the corridor every day.
Heavy trucks use it to transport goods.
Farmers depend on it to reach markets.
Businesses depend on it to receive supplies and distribute products.
Families depend on it for mobility.
Yet sections of the corridor have suffered prolonged deterioration, forcing motorists and commercial operators to endure congestion, delays, increased vehicle operating costs and dangerous travelling conditions.
The question Nigerians should therefore ask is not merely:
Why is the road bad?
The more important question is:
Why was it allowed to become this bad?
That distinction is fundamental.
Roads generally do not collapse overnight.
They deteriorate progressively.
A drainage channel becomes blocked.
A crack appears.
Water penetrates the pavement.
The shoulder weakens.
A pothole develops.
Heavy traffic enlarges it.
The pavement structure deteriorates.
Eventually, a road that could have been preserved through relatively inexpensive preventive maintenance requires major rehabilitation or complete reconstruction.
Nigeria has repeatedly allowed this cycle to occur.
The Cost of Ignoring Maintenance
Perhaps the greatest weakness in Nigeria’s road policy is its maintenance culture.
The World Bank has historically warned that delayed maintenance creates substantially higher costs for road users and government. Its earlier work on Nigeria identified inadequate maintenance, weak institutional arrangements and shortcomings in planning and procurement among factors contributing to deterioration.
The basic principle should be straightforward: Maintenance is not an expenditure that follows construction. Maintenance is part of the investment itself.
A road is an asset.
And every valuable asset requires continuous management.
Nigeria too often follows the expensive cycle of: Construct → neglect → deteriorate → emergency intervention → reconstruct → neglect again.
This is economically irrational.
If government invests billions constructing a highway and subsequently fails to maintain it, the country is effectively destroying part of its own investment.
The Benin–Sapele–Effurun Contract: A Governance Lesson
The recent history of the Benin–Sapele–Effurun project illustrates another serious problem: contract management.
In June 2025, the Federal Government ordered the termination of Levant Construction Ltd’s contract for Section 1, Benin–Imasabor, because of non-performance.
According to the Minister of Works, the contractor had received repeated warnings and a final termination notice but failed to remobilise. The Minister also stated that the Edo State Government had intervened on approximately 23 kilometres of some of the worst sections at a reported cost of ₦35 billion.
The decision to terminate the contract was important. But it raises a more fundamental question:
Why did the project reach this point before decisive action was taken? The problem is bigger than the contractor. Government is responsible for contract supervision.
A properly managed infrastructure contract should have:
– clearly defined milestones;
– measurable performance indicators;
– independent quality assurance;
– verified payment certificates;
– penalties for unjustified delays;
– performance guarantees;
– transparent reporting;
– and clearly defined termination provisions.
Government should know at every stage whether a contractor is performing.
If a contractor is failing, intervention should occur early—not after motorists have endured years of hardship.
Contract termination should therefore not be regarded as the achievement.
Successful delivery and long-term performance are the achievement.
Contract Award Is Not Project Delivery
Nigeria needs to change the way it measures infrastructure success.
The award of a contract is not an achievement.
Mobilisation is not an achievement.
A groundbreaking ceremony is not an achievement.
A project signboard is certainly not an achievement.
Even completing a road is not necessarily the final achievement.
The real achievement is: A road that remains safe, durable and economically useful for many years after construction. This requires Nigeria to move from a project mentality to an asset-management mentality.
Instead of asking: How much did we spend constructing this road?
We should ask: How much did we spend over the entire life of this road, and how many years of reliable service did Nigerian taxpayers receive in return?
That is the question mature infrastructure management asks.
Drainage: The Engineering Failure We Continue to Underestimate.
In the Niger Delta, this issue becomes particularly important.
The region experiences substantial rainfall, flooding and high water tables.
A road built in such an environment cannot be designed as though it were being constructed on dry, stable terrain.
Drainage is fundamental.
Water is one of the greatest enemies of pavement.
When drainage fails, water penetrates the road structure, weakens the subgrade and accelerates pavement deterioration.
The World Bank has historically identified inadequate drainage among the factors contributing to road deterioration in Nigeria.
The lesson is simple: Drainage is not an accessory to the road. Drainage is part of the road.
This is particularly relevant to the Benin–Sapele–Effurun corridor.
The engineering solution must reflect the environment.
Heavy Trucks and Axle Loading
The corridor also carries substantial commercial traffic.
Heavy trucks and tankers are essential to Nigeria’s economy, but they impose significant loads on road infrastructure.
Therefore, road policy must address both sides of the equation.
Government must:
- design roads for actual traffic volumes and axle loads;
- enforce axle-load regulations;
- maintain drainage;
- inspect pavement conditions regularly; and
- carry out preventive maintenance.
Otherwise, Nigeria risks repeatedly reconstructing roads that are subsequently damaged by the same traffic they were built to carry.
Road engineering and traffic enforcement must therefore be treated as interconnected responsibilities.
The Hidden Tax Paid by Every Nigerian
A failed road imposes a tax that does not appear on any tax bill.
Consider a commercial vehicle travelling between Benin and Delta.
If poor road conditions add several hours to its journey, the operator pays for:
– additional fuel;
– additional driver time;
– tyre wear;
– suspension damage;
– vehicle depreciation;
– delayed deliveries;
– increased maintenance;
– and increased accident exposure.
The transporter must recover those costs.
They eventually become part of the price paid by consumers.
Thus a bad road contributes to inflation.
It raises the cost of doing business.
It reduces productivity.
It makes Nigerian businesses less competitive.
Research on Nigeria’s road-freight system has identified increased travel time and maintenance costs associated with poor road infrastructure.
This is why road infrastructure should be regarded as part of Nigeria’s economic and industrial policy.
A country cannot seriously pursue economic transformation while allowing the arteries of commerce to remain chronically dysfunctional.
The Human Cost
There is another dimension that cannot be reduced to economics.
People die on Nigerian roads.
Nigeria recorded 5,421 road deaths from 9,570 crashes in 2024, according to Federal Road Safety Corps figures reported by the Associated Press.
Poor infrastructure is only one factor among several—including driver behaviour, vehicle condition, enforcement and weather—but road quality can compound those risks.
Behind every statistic is a human being.
A husband.
A wife.
A parent.
A child.
A breadwinner.
A student.
A worker.
A passenger.
A road accident does not simply produce a number in a government report.
It can destroy an entire family.
Government therefore has a moral obligation to provide infrastructure that does not unnecessarily increase those risks.
The Federal–State Blame Game Must End
Another recurring weakness in Nigerian governance is jurisdictional argument.
A road is classified as federal.
A state government says it is not its responsibility.
The Federal Government says it has awarded the contract.
Meanwhile, citizens remain stranded.
The citizen does not care which tier of government owns the road.
The citizen wants to know:
«Who is going to fix it?»
Where a federal highway becomes dangerously impassable, there should be a formal mechanism allowing state governments to undertake emergency intervention while the Federal Government proceeds with permanent rehabilitation.
The priority should be public safety and economic continuity—not bureaucratic jurisdiction.
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Nigeria Does Not Need to Invent the Solution
Nigeria can learn from international road-management systems.
Countries such as South Africa have developed road-asset management approaches in which pavement condition, traffic information and other infrastructure data are used to plan maintenance and rehabilitation.
The broader lesson is important.
The objective is not simply to construct roads.
It is to continuously manage the condition of roads as national assets.
Nigeria should therefore establish a national road-asset management system capable of answering, for every major highway:
– What is its current condition?
– When was it constructed?
– Who constructed it?
– What has been spent on it?
– What traffic does it carry?
– What maintenance has been performed?
– What work is currently required?
– How long is its remaining service life?
This would fundamentally change the way Nigeria manages infrastructure.
From Paying for Work to Paying for Performance
Nigeria should also seriously consider expanding performance-based road maintenance contracts.
Under conventional arrangements, contractors are paid for specified works.
Under a performance-based system, greater emphasis is placed on maintaining the road to predetermined standards over a defined period.
Those standards can cover:
– pavement condition;
– potholes;
– drainage;
– shoulders;
– road markings;
– signage;
– vegetation control;
– and safety features.
The Asian Development Bank recognises performance-based road maintenance as an important approach to road-asset management.
The principle is simple:
Do not merely pay a contractor to repair potholes. Pay the contractor to keep the road in good condition.
That changes the incentive structure.
Under one system, repeated repairs can become an income stream.
Under the other, repeated deterioration becomes a liability.
Nigeria needs more of the second approach.
Money Matters—but Money Alone Will Not Solve the Problem
It would be unfair to suggest that Nigeria’s road crisis is entirely a governance problem.
Funding matters.
The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency proposed a total 2026 budget of approximately ₦229.999 billion, including about ₦191 billion in capital expenditure, reflecting the enormous scale of maintenance requirements.
FERMA has also called for predictable funding to enable proactive rather than reactive maintenance.
This is important.
However, funding alone cannot solve the problem.
Nigeria needs: adequate funding + competent engineering + transparent procurement + effective supervision + preventive maintenance + accountability.
One without the others leaves the system vulnerable.
The Current Administration Deserves Both Credit and Scrutiny
A credible civic intervention should acknowledge progress where progress exists.
The Federal Government has undertaken road interventions across the country and has taken action against contractors that it considers non-performing.
The termination of the Levant contract demonstrates that the government is willing to take action when contractual performance falls short.
That should be acknowledged.
But acknowledgement should not end scrutiny.
The more important question for the present administration is:
«Is Nigeria changing the system that repeatedly allows roads to fail?»
If the answer is yes, the current road-reconstruction programme could become part of a meaningful national transformation.
If the answer is no, Nigeria risks repeating the same cycle under another name.
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The Benin–Sapele–Effurun Road Should Become a National Test Case
The Benin–Sapele–Effurun corridor presents the Federal Government with an extraordinary opportunity.
The road should not merely be rebuilt.
It should be rebuilt properly, transparently and sustainably.
The public should be able to ask:
– What is the total project cost?
– Who are the contractors?
– What are the completion dates?
– What are the engineering specifications?
– How will drainage be handled?
– What traffic loading has been assumed?
– How will quality be independently verified?
– What maintenance obligations will contractors carry after completion?
– What happens if a contractor fails?
– How will the public monitor progress?
And most importantly:
«Who will be responsible for ensuring that the road remains in good condition ten years after completion?»
If nobody has a satisfactory answer to that final question, then Nigeria has not solved the problem.
It has merely postponed it.
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What Nigeria Should Do Now
Nigeria needs a national road-governance framework built around at least ten measures.
- Create a National Road Asset Management System
Every major federal highway should have a digital record containing its condition, traffic volume, pavement history, drainage condition, maintenance history, contractor information and projected maintenance requirements.
- Introduce Mandatory Preventive Maintenance
Maintenance should be programmed before deterioration becomes severe.
- Publish Major Road Contracts
Citizens should be able to see the contractor, contract value, commencement date, completion date, percentage completed, payments, variations, delays and current physical status.
- Establish Independent Engineering Audits
Contractors should not effectively be allowed to determine whether their own work meets the required standard.
- Strengthen Performance Bonds
A contractor that abandons a strategic project should face meaningful financial consequences.
- Adopt Performance-Based Maintenance Contracts
Where appropriate, contractors should be paid according to the condition and service level of the road over time.
- Make Drainage a Core Performance Indicator
A highway should not be considered successfully rehabilitated if its drainage system remains inadequate.
- Enforce Axle-Load Regulations
Heavy commercial traffic must be properly regulated to protect national infrastructure.
- Establish Federal–State Emergency Intervention Protocols
No citizen should suffer because two levels of government are arguing over jurisdiction.
- Publish an Annual National Road Condition Report
Nigerians should be able to see which roads are:
Good → Fair → Deteriorating → Critical → Failed.
Government should publish what action is being taken and when it is expected to be completed.
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Nigeria Does Not Need More Road Promises
Nigeria has had enough road promises.
What Nigeria needs is a road-governance system.
A system in which government does not wait for a road to collapse before acting.
A system in which contractors are rewarded for durability rather than merely activity.
A system in which engineers—not political considerations—determine appropriate technical solutions.
A system in which drainage is treated as seriously as pavement.
A system in which overloaded vehicles are properly regulated.
A system in which public expenditure can be tracked.
A system in which citizens can see whether projects are progressing.
And a system in which the performance of a road is measured years after the minister who commissioned it has left office.
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Conclusion: The Road to National Development
The Benin–Sapele–Warri road is more than a transportation corridor.
It is a mirror reflecting some of Nigeria’s deepest governance challenges.
It reflects our maintenance culture.
It reflects our approach to public procurement.
It reflects the quality of contract management.
It reflects our engineering discipline.
It reflects our attitude towards accountability.
And it reflects whether we genuinely understand infrastructure as a foundation for economic development.
But the story does not have to end there.
Nigeria can change the way it manages its roads.
The country can adopt modern asset-management systems.
It can introduce performance-based maintenance.
It can strengthen independent engineering oversight.
It can make public contracts more transparent.
It can enforce axle-load regulations.
It can prioritise preventive maintenance.
And it can establish a culture in which infrastructure is protected as carefully as it is constructed.
The ultimate objective should not be to build roads that look impressive when inaugurated.
The objective should be to build roads that continue to work long after the inauguration ceremony has ended.
A good road allows farmers to reach markets.
It allows businesses to move goods.
It allows industries to receive raw materials.
It allows emergency services to save lives.
It allows workers to reach their workplaces.
It allows children to reach schools.
It reduces the cost of doing business.
It strengthens regional integration.
And it gives citizens something that should never be regarded as a privilege:
the ability to move safely and efficiently within their own country.
The Benin–Sapele–Warri highway should therefore not merely be repaired.
It should become a test of whether Nigeria is finally prepared to move from infrastructure politics to infrastructure governance.
Because Nigeria does not need another cycle of:
promise → contract → construction → neglect → deterioration → emergency reconstruction.
What Nigeria needs is:
plan → build → maintain → monitor → preserve → prosper.
That is the road Nigeria must travel if it genuinely intends to become a productive, competitive and economically integrated nation.
A Final Message to Those in Authority
To the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Minister of Works, the National Assembly, state governors, legislators, engineers, contractors and every public official entrusted with Nigeria’s infrastructure:
Please do not see this as an attack. See it as a citizen’s appeal.
The people are not asking for miracles.
They are asking for roads that work.
They are asking for the responsible management of public resources.
They are asking that contracts be honoured.
They are asking that contractors who fail be held accountable.
They are asking that roads be maintained before they collapse.
They are asking that engineering decisions be guided by science rather than expediency.
And they are asking that government remember that every naira spent on infrastructure ultimately belongs to the Nigerian people.
The Benin–Sapele–Warri road is one road.
But the principle is national.
Fix the road. Fix the system. Protect the investment.
If we do that, the road will not merely carry vehicles.
It will carry Nigeria’s economic future.
