.From political aspiration to a practical and accountable programme
By Barr Peter Chidozie Okoroji
Diaspora Secretary-General, ISPC 2027, and National Coordinator, ISPC 2027 Ireland
This article proposes the elements that should form a credible internal-roads programme under a prospective Charles Orie administration. Unless formally adopted and published by the aspirant, the detailed measures remain the author’s policy recommendations rather than binding manifesto commitments.
Across Imo State, the condition of many internal roads has become more than an inconvenience. Deteriorated streets affect access to schools, primary healthcare, markets, workplaces and places of worship; they damage vehicles, lengthen journeys, obstruct emergency response and increase the cost of moving agricultural produce and other goods. During the rainy season, inadequate drainage, erosion, flooding and failed road surfaces can leave communities partially isolated. Any serious development agenda for 2027 must therefore treat internal roads as essential economic and social infrastructure rather than as occasional campaign projects.
Chief Charles Orie’s emerging Vision 2027 provides an opportunity to place this issue within a wider discussion about community-centred development. For that vision to gain policy credibility, however, it must move beyond a general promise to build roads and define how priorities will be selected, projects designed, contracts procured, construction supervised and completed assets maintained. The proposals set out here describe the framework that, in my view, should be adopted and subjected to public consultation.
The first requirement is an evidence-based road inventory. A new administration should not begin by announcing projects from a political platform; it should establish the condition, function and ownership of the existing network. Every internal road proposed for state intervention should be assessed according to traffic, population served, access to farms and markets, links to schools and health facilities, flood and erosion risk, economic importance and the availability of alternative routes. Publishing these criteria would help prevent project selection from becoming an exercise in patronage.
The second requirement is to treat drainage and road construction as one engineering system. Pothole filling may provide temporary relief, but resurfacing a road without correcting the movement of water often guarantees early failure. Designs must therefore account for soil conditions, rainfall, catchment, culverts, side drains, outfalls and erosion protection. Drainage should lead water safely to an appropriate discharge point rather than transfer flooding from one street to another. Where communities are vulnerable to severe erosion, geotechnical and environmental assessment must precede construction.
The third requirement is a transparent prioritisation programme. Because resources will always be limited, government should publish a rolling multi-year schedule distinguishing emergency safety works, rehabilitation, reconstruction and routine maintenance. Each listed project should identify its location, responsible agency, estimated cost, funding source, procurement status, expected completion date and supervising engineer. Changes to the schedule should be explained publicly rather than concealed behind revised announcements.
Community participation should improve technical planning without replacing professional judgement. Residents often know which streets flood first, which routes carry schoolchildren, where ambulances become trapped and which links are most important to local commerce. Ward-level consultations and accessible complaint channels can therefore identify needs that central planning may overlook. Engineers must still determine the appropriate design, but communities should be able to see how their evidence influenced the final priority list.
Procurement and quality assurance will determine whether the programme survives beyond the next rainy season. Contracts should be awarded through lawful and competitive processes, with published specifications, bills of quantities and delivery milestones. Independent material testing, documented site inspections and defects-liability provisions should be mandatory. Payments should correspond to verified work completed, while contractors who repeatedly deliver substandard projects should face transparent sanctions consistent with procurement law.
Maintenance must be funded from the beginning rather than treated as an afterthought. Small cracks, blocked drains and damaged shoulders are cheaper to repair early than after they develop into structural failure. A dedicated maintenance plan should assign inspection cycles, response times and budgets, supported by a public reporting system through which residents can submit geotagged evidence of defects. Maintenance performance should be reported by road and by local government area.
The programme must also clarify institutional responsibility. Some roads fall under local governments, others under the state and still others under federal jurisdiction. A credible administration should publish a road-ownership map, coordinate interventions across tiers of government and avoid using jurisdictional disputes as an excuse for prolonged neglect. Where the state undertakes work on another tier’s asset, the legal, financial and maintenance arrangements should be documented.
Financing should combine realism with fairness. A costed roads programme must be integrated into the state’s medium-term expenditure framework and should not rely on an ever-expanding list of unfunded promises. Priorities may be delivered through annual capital budgets, carefully structured partnerships or targeted development financing, but every arrangement must disclose the state’s obligations, repayment exposure and long-term maintenance costs. Borrowing should be tied to economically and socially defensible assets, not political prestige.
The programme should also support the local economy without compromising competence. Procurement can encourage the use of qualified local engineers, contractors, artisans and suppliers, while training programmes can strengthen construction and maintenance skills. However, “local content” must not become permission to lower standards or award contracts to politically connected firms without capacity. Value for money requires competition, technical qualification and enforceable performance.
Progress should be measured through outcomes rather than kilometres announced. Useful indicators would include the proportion of completed roads passing independent quality tests, the percentage remaining in good condition after successive rainy seasons, reductions in journey time, improved access to schools and health facilities, fewer flood-related closures, maintenance response times and citizen satisfaction. A public project dashboard, supported by photographs, coordinates and expenditure data, would allow citizens and the media to distinguish delivery from publicity.
A further principle is geographical fairness. Every senatorial zone and local government area has legitimate infrastructure needs, but equal allocation is not always equitable allocation. Project selection should reflect population, network condition, economic importance, social need and historical neglect while ensuring that no community is excluded for political reasons. Publishing the formula would make distribution easier to defend and harder to manipulate.
Chief Charles Orie’s Vision 2027 can make internal roads a defining element of community renewal if it adopts these disciplines and converts them into a formal, costed and time-bound commitment. The objective should not be to promise that every road will be reconstructed immediately, which would be financially unrealistic, but to establish a system in which citizens know which roads will be addressed, why they were selected, what standards apply and when maintenance will occur.
The internal-roads crisis did not develop overnight and will not be solved through emergency patching or ceremonial commissioning. It requires planning, drainage, sound engineering, transparent procurement, independent supervision, routine maintenance and sustained engagement with communities. If these principles become part of a published 2027 programme, residents will be able to assess Chief Orie’s vision not by the attractiveness of its language but by the credibility of its design and, if entrusted with office, the durability of the roads delivered.
Disclosure: Barr Peter Chidozie Okoroji serves as Diaspora Secretary-General of ISPC 2027 and National Coordinator of ISPC 2027 Ireland. His political affiliation and official roles are material to this viewpoint and are disclosed so readers can assess the article in context. The detailed road-policy measures are his recommendations unless and until they are formally adopted by Chief Charles Orie or the campaign.
