VZCZCXRO4561
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHUJA #2434/01 2581418
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 151418Z SEP 06
FM AMEMBASSY ABUJA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7141
INFO RUEHOS/AMCONSUL LAGOS 5043
RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 002434 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS DOT FOR SAMPLE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELTN ECON NI
SUBJECT: NIGERIA'S ROAD NETWORK IS CRUMBLING AND DANGEROUS 
 
 
¶1. Summary.  Road travel in Nigeria is challenging for private 
citizens and commercial drivers.  In 2004, at least 34,000 persons 
were killed on Nigeria's roads.  The cost of failing to improve road 
safety is about 2% to 3% of GDP annually.  Many drivers are not 
licensed and many vehicles are poorly maintained.  Nigeria's poor 
road network imposes a major cost on Nigeria's citizens and 
businesses in terms of high accident rates, as well as 
inefficiencies and higher shipping costs for raw materials and 
finished products.  This drives up prices for businesses and 
consumers while hampering employment and industrial production.  End 
summary. 
 
¶2. Road travel in Nigeria is challenging for private citizens as 
well as commercial drivers.  The State Department's travel warning 
for Nigeria cautions, "Road travel is dangerous.  Robberies by armed 
gangs have been reported on rural roads and within major cities. 
Travelers should avoid driving at night.  Because of poor vehicle 
maintenance and driving conditions, public transportation throughout 
Nigeria can be dangerous and should be avoided." Embassy Abuja's 
policy for road travel within its area of responsibility in Nigeria 
requires all official vehicles and travelers to be within a city's 
limits by dusk.  Night travel by road outside of cities generally is 
prohibited. 
 
¶3. Nigeria, whose land area is slightly double that of California, 
has roughly 195,000 km (121,250 miles) of roads - more than 
two-thirds of which remained unpaved in 1999.  California's public 
road network in 2004, in contrast, consisted of nearly 170,000 miles 
worth of roads. 
Statistics for road accidents in Nigeria are incomplete, but the 
state of road travel is not good.  A January 2006 Lagos newspaper 
editorial termed the country's road network "deplorable."  The piece 
charged even federal highways were "virtual death traps" and 
asserted that some Nigerian road networks' "abject condition" 
existed only otherwise in "war-ravaged countries."  Another Lagos 
newspaper editorial noted the same month, "Nigerian roads are raging 
and sloshing with blood - human blood."  The editorial criticized 
the Government of Nigeria for its lack of funding for roads, 
corruption in awarding road contracts, and the poor construction 
work certified by "crooked public officials." 
 
¶4. The Federal Road Safety Commission reported that 14,271 road 
accidents occurred in Nigeria in 2004 in which 16,857 persons were 
injured and 5,524 were killed.  Burned-out vehicles at the roadside 
are common across Nigeria, and these figures are implausibly low for 
the country's estimated population of 132 million.  More 
realistically, Nigeria's Minister of Works said in January 2004 the 
country's bad roads cost it 85 lives lost daily, or 31,025 annually. 
Prompt Assistance to Victims of Road Accidents (PATVORA), a Nigerian 
nonprofit agency, cited the Standards Organization of Nigeria's 
director general as reporting 34,000 persons died on Nigeria's roads 
in 2004.  To compare, a preliminary U.S. Department of 
Transportation report concluded that 43,200 persons died on U.S. 
highways in 2005 and 2.68 million were injured, in a country of 
about 300 million inhabitants and with far more automobiles.  Under 
reporting of accidents likely is common due to Nigerians' distrust 
of officialdom, and citizens' common belief that their government, 
at whatever level, likely will not act on their complaints or 
injuries. 
 
¶5. Nigeria's Minister of works said in January 2004 the country's 
bad roads cost it about 135 billion naira ($1.055 billion) annually. 
 PATVORA estimated the yearly cost to Nigerian society of failing to 
improve road safety at about 2% to 3% of the country's gross 
domestic product and reported that traffic accidents' annual cost to 
Nigeria exceeded the development aid the country received each year. 
 The economic impact of road injuries is severe, because the 
economically active are the most vulnerable to such injuries and 
many accident victims are primary breadwinners.  PATVORA, citing a 
2003 Central Bank of Nigeria study, noted that more than 8% of 
hospital patients in Nigeria were road-crash victims.  Although 
Nigeria has for its population a relatively small number of 
privately owned vehicles, this means crashes often involve 
overloaded buses and passenger vans with high casualty counts. 
 
¶6. PATVORA concluded the human error was responsible for 58% of 
accidents; environmental factors, 22%; mechanical reasons, 15%; and 
"other," 5%.  More than 60% of Nigerian drivers did not take any 
type of practical driving test before obtaining a license and 90% of 
motorcyclists did not take a formal test.  Nigerian vehicles often 
do not have working headlights and/or tail lights, and drivers 
commonly do not use their headlights in the mistaken belief this 
will prolong a car's life.  Urban passengers rely heavily on okadas 
(motorcycles taxis) for cheap transportation, but okada drivers and 
passengers rarely wear safety helmets.  PATVORA reported in 2005 
that the majority of road journeys in the country were made in 
"dilapidated vehicles." 
 
¶7. Other Nigerian road dangers PATVORA observed were an absence of 
road signs, poor night visibility and bad weather, especially during 
 
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the rainy season and the dusty harmattan dry season.  Many major 
roads in Nigeria are unlit, making after-dark travel more dangerous 
because of traffic accidents and armed robbers.  Nigeria has "poor 
facilities" for road-safety control measures, a "non-existent" 
emergency trauma care system, an underfunded national road-safety 
agency, low rate of insurance coverage, and limited road-safety 
organizations. 
 
¶8. The consequences of a poor road network are magnified because 
Nigerians' other transport options are limited.  Nigeria has six 
major airports, but air travel has own safety problems and only a 
tiny portion of Nigerians can affird air travel. The country has 
about 3,500 km (about 2,190 miles) of railroads, almost all of which 
has limited narrow gauge carrying capacity, but there is virtually 
passenger rail service. Cargo service is very limited again pushing 
most overland shipping onto the road networks. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶9. Nigeria's poor road network imposes a major cost on Nigeria's 
citizens and businesses in terms of high accident rates, as well as 
inefficiencies and higher shipping costs for raw materials and 
finished products.  The lack of access to markets and supplies 
drives up prices for businesses and consumers while hampering 
employment and industrial production.  A lack of law and order on 
roadways, and extortion by policemen demanding bribes for vehicles' 
passage, also increase the cost of doing business in Nigeria.  As 
poor farmers move to the city and redundant industrial workers 
migrate to other cities in search of jobs, this increases Nigeria's 
need for the economic benefits an improved road network could 
provide.