MARCEL MBAMALU
Enugu’s BRT Blitz: Modern Roads, Shattered Lives
Dr Marcel Mbamalu
Join our WhatsApp ChannelEnugu’s push to become a globally competitive city by stopping the operation of Keke and yellow buses is vexatiously ambitious. According to the Commissioner for Transport, Obi Ozor, the affected (roads) corridors include Okpara Avenue, Abakaliki Road, New Haven Junction, Naira Triangle, Emene Airport, Ogui Road, Chime Avenue, Bisala Road, Rangers Avenue, WAEC, Nkpokiti, Zik’s Avenue, Presidential Road, and the entire Agbani Road stretch.
These five major highways, now designated as Bus Rapid Transit routes under Governor Peter Mbah’s vision of a modern, multimodal city, are also the busiest for Keke riders and yellow buses, carrying the highest number of passengers.
The commissioner might be right that tricycles were never designed for high-speed highways, but are yellow buses not meant for them too? Cleaner roads and organised traffic are welcome, yet these corridors are vital for daily commuters and livelihoods. Why can’t both the buses and BRT operate, allowing competition to reduce costs, especially if BRT fares rise beyond ordinary people’s reach?
Beyond efficiency, the plan raises deeper questions. What standards of modernity is the government following? The United Nations frames it around human rights, welfare, dignity, and development, which reduces poverty and inequality. If that is the benchmark, do Enugu’s reforms align with it? Will rural communities benefit, and will those dependent on small-scale transport feel secure and supported?
One must also ask whether the government is prioritising public service or its own transport company. As the commissioner said, “BRT buses operate on the primary roads, yellow buses serve the secondary routes, and tricycles provide last-mile connectivity. Everyone has a place in the value chain.”
In a manner of speaking, this amounts to imitating global standards while citizens lack basic needs
Isn’t it alarming that while Nigerian states, including Enugu, claim to pursue international standards, they often ignore the processes that ensure inclusive development. Can a state be considered developed when rural communities remain cut off by crumbling roads, lack potable water, and face dysfunctional healthcare?
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a human-centred framework for measuring genuine development, highlighting goals such as Clean Water and Sanitation, Good Health and Well-being, Decent Work and Economic Growth, and Sustainable Cities and Communities. True modernity requires basic services and opportunities for all, not just urban infrastructure.
Yet in Enugu, some rural roads remain impassable. Residents of OgwuObollo Afor–Umuitodo–Ibenda–Obollo Eke in Udenu LGA endure a 19.8 km corridor cut off in the rainy season, while Agu Umabor in Nsukka faces eroding, nearly unusable access. Parts of Udi North and the road to the Federal College of Education, Eha Amufu, also remain in deplorable condition.
Water access is equally dire. About 28 per cent of the population lacks basic water services. In November 2024, ENRUWASSA acknowledged abandoned rural water schemes across 10 councils. In EhaEtiti, all six villages lack potable water. Obinofia Ndiuno (Ezeagu LGA) relies on distant streams and springs, while many EhaAmufu residents depend on the unsafe Ebonyi River.
Healthcare remains neglected. A July 2025 report noted the opening of a new Type2 primary healthcare centre in Otuku, yet many communities, including Otuku in Emene (Enugu East LGA), have lacked functional primary care for over 20 years, forcing residents to travel 10 km or more even for routine services.
The SDGs make it clear: real modernity begins with people, not highways. Prioritising the capital city because the government house is there neglects the majority who live outside urban cores. Comfort and security cannot be measured by cleaner buses or well-paved roads alone. Yes, the new BRT buses, according to the commissioner, are equipped with padded seats, functional air-conditioning, WiFi, and strict safety features. Will BRT buses stop bandit attacks?
The principle of the SDGs is especially relevant in Enugu, where thousands of Keke riders are educated youths who created their own jobs in the absence of formal employment, sustaining livelihoods, supporting families, and contributing to the local economy.
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Meanwhile, the Enugu State Government continues to disrupt livelihoods, even as Mr. Ozor insists the new scheme is “not to take away jobs.”
Stripping youths of their Keke livelihoods not only removes their source of income but also exposes them to dangerous alternatives. In a context where banditry has become a lucrative option in parts of Nigeria, one must ask: are these young people not at risk of being drawn into crime or armed networks? Some could have considered returning to farming, but in communities like Eha-Amufu, where large farms have been overtaken by herders from the North, options are severely limited.
The commissioner added that transport unions wishing to participate in BRT bus or terminal operations must submit proposals, including financial models. Yet the process is unclear.
How can Keke riders, many lacking capital, navigate this? And can the public trust a promise from an administration that has not compensated traders whose shops were demolished for bus terminals? Such assurances risk being empty rhetoric, further marginalising those the reforms claim to support.
Not a few believe that there has been a pattern of stripping people of livelihoods, not just in Enugu but in many other states across the country
For instance, the Mbah administration demolished thousands of businesses, an educational institution, private motor parks, and residential buildings around Ogbete Main Market, Garki Awkunanaw market, Nsukka main market, and associated motor parks to make way for proposed ultra-modern transport hubs.
Traders, especially in Nsukka, were given 72-hour vacate notices, sparking criticism and court actions over the lack of alternatives or compensation. Approximately 10,000 traders were affected, and banks, institutions, workers’ quarters, and market businesses were also swept up.
Nearly two years later, affected traders, particularly in Nsukka, continue to lament the absence of compensation despite submitting detailed records of lost shops. At the same time, taxes increased, adding financial strain.
This pattern also aligns with the looming displacement of POS operators under federal rules, compounding economic insecurity. Loss of businesses and homes for road construction, combined with rising levees, magnifies the vulnerability of already displaced citizens
Now I cannot but wonder what the implications for the wider South East would be.
Southwest governors have long been criticised for failing to protect Igbo businesses, a pattern that stretches back to the civil war, when many lost their enterprises. This trend has continued; as other communities still view the Igbo as domineering because of their business acumen. Yet Igbo governors have not created a strong business environment at home, forcing many to continue migrating to other states for opportunities.
Not quite long, Lagos State carried out large-scale demolitions at the Trade Fair Complex and surrounding properties, destroying shops and structures predominantly owned by South Eastern traders. These demolitions occurred without clear compensation or due process. The Abia State House of Assembly condemned what it called “targeted, insensitive and economically harmful” actions, noting that about 2,750 properties in the Trade Fair area alone have been demolished since 2019.
This reality shows that as Igbo businesses struggle in other regions, the Enugu government’s recent actions add further pressure, compounding the economic and social strain on the people.
Development should lift people, not displace them. Modernisation must recognise and protect human-centred enterprises, including the thousands of educated Keke riders sustaining livelihoods across Enugu. The central challenge remains: whose interests do these policies truly serve?
Yet leaving the busiest, most profitable routes for government control risks undermining federal and democratic principles and hints at a drift toward a social state where the government alone dominates the economy, sidelining Nigeria’s mixed economic system.
Governor Mbah must therefore provide a clear blueprint for engaging with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and other transport stakeholders. Reforms should include concrete measures to cushion the impact on transporters who may lose work. These workers are not faceless; they have families and dependents whose livelihoods rely on these jobs. A responsible transition plan must ensure that progress in transport infrastructure does not come at the expense of ordinary citizens’ welfare.
