For years, the distance between Kaduna’s urban centres and its rural communities was measured not only in kilometres but also in opportunities lost. A farmer could harvest a good crop and still struggle to get it to market because of a bad road.
A child could live only a few kilometres from school, while a patient could be separated from medical care by a difficult journey. This is why Governor Uba Sani’s decision to make roads a major pillar of his administration’s development agenda deserves more than passing attention.
There is something uniquely powerful about roads because their impact is difficult to hide. Unlike promises contained in policy documents, a completed road is visible, usable and immediately connected to people’s daily lives.
It reduces travel time, eases transportation, opens access to markets and allows communities that once felt forgotten to experience the physical presence of government. In Kaduna, that transformation is now taking place across the state on a scale that is difficult to ignore.
The numbers tell an important part of the story. Dr Abdullahi Baba-Ahmed, Managing Director of the Kaduna State Roads Agency, recently disclosed that the administration had initiated 160 road projects covering 1,355 kilometres across the state, with about 60 per cent either completed or under construction.
The projects extend across all 23 local government areas, taking road construction beyond Kaduna metropolis, Zaria and other major urban centres into communities where poor accessibility has constrained economic and social development for years.
But 1,355 kilometres should not be treated merely as an impressive statistic. Behind every kilometre is a community, a farmer, a trader, a student, a patient or a family whose daily life can become easier when the road connecting them to the rest of the state improves.
This is the real significance of the programme. It is an attempt to bring Kaduna’s hinterland closer to the state’s economic mainstream and ensure that development is not concentrated only around the major cities. The agricultural benefits are particularly important.
Kaduna has some of the country’s most productive farming communities, but production means little if farmers cannot move their harvest to buyers and markets efficiently. Poor roads increase transportation costs, discourage buyers and expose farmers to losses when produce takes too long to reach consumers.
Better roads, therefore, create a chain of benefits that extends from the farm to the transporter, trader, processor and, ultimately, the consumer. That is why projects around Maigana, Ikara, Kudan, Kubau, Giwa, Sanga, Birnin Gwari and parts of Southern Kaduna matter.
They are not simply stretches of asphalt scattered across a map but links between communities and the economic opportunities that poor roads have kept beyond their reach. When a road becomes accessible, the benefits can spread to farmers, traders, transporters, artisans, schools, health facilities and local businesses.
The Gadan Gayan-Gwaraji-Kujama corridor provides one of the clearest examples. The 35-kilometre road includes a major bridge across the River Kaduna and connects dozens of farming communities. It demonstrates what becomes possible when government looks beyond the traditional urban centres and invests in communities whose economic importance is often greater than their visibility. The road, which spans Igabi, Kajuru and Chikun local government areas, includes a 130-metre bridge and links more than 76 farming communities.
The objective is not to beautify Kaduna but to open up communities and allow their productive potential to connect with the wider economy. I am also struck by the geographical spread of the projects. For too long, rural communities in many parts of Nigeria have watched government development concentrate around capitals and major commercial centres.
Governor Uba Sani’s approach has been different in Kaduna, with projects extending into areas where residents have spent years living with difficult roads. That gives the road programme a significance beyond construction because it reinforces the simple idea that government should be felt wherever citizens live and work.
There is another aspect of the programme that deserves recognition. According to Dr Baba-Ahmed, he has not experienced interference from Governor Sani or members of the state cabinet, with the governor giving KADRA the freedom to concentrate on delivering projects.
The governor’s recurring concern, he said, is whether projects reach ordinary residents, farmers and less privileged communities. That kind of hands-off approach gives technical managers the room to concentrate on engineering requirements, accessibility and the practical benefits of infrastructure.
The importance of that approach becomes clearer in places such as Birnin Gwari, where insecurity previously made movement and development extremely difficult. Improved security has opened previously inaccessible areas to construction, with a 36-kilometre road now being constructed in remote parts of the local government. KADRA has identified the Bagoma-Gagumi road as a 36-kilometre project in Birnin Gwari.
A road cannot be built effectively where contractors cannot safely reach the site, so improved security is doing more than protecting lives and property. It is creating the conditions for government to physically return to communities that had become isolated.
In turn, roads can reinforce that return. They can support the movement of farmers, traders, teachers, health workers and security personnel while helping economic activity regain ground in communities that once struggled with insecurity.
The administration’s decision to continue inherited road projects is also important because a road does not become useful because of the administration that initiated it; it becomes useful when people can drive on it.
