No Bridge, No Roads, No Shame : Uba Maigari, Where’s the Namnai Bridge?

There are failures, and then there is Namnai.

Three Nigerians are dead — not from war, not from disease, but from a failure of basic infrastructure. A boat capsized in the Namnai River on Friday. Three lives lost. Mothers. Sisters. Daughters. Their only crime? Trying to cross a river that should have been spanned by a bridge long ago.

Let's be clear: this wasn't an act of God. It was a man-made disaster — created by years of federal neglect, silence, and systemic irresponsibility.

The Namnai Bridge, a critical federal structure connecting Jalingo to Wukari and Benue, collapsed in August 2024. Since then, the Federal Government has done absolutely nothing. No temporary structure. No emergency detour. No contractor on-site. Not even a real response. Instead, the people were handed canoes and planks. That was the "alternative" offered by the government of a 21st-century nation.

The consequences were inevitable. The boat capsized. People drowned. And the government remained silent — again.

Don't blame nature. Blame those in Abuja who have chosen to ignore Taraba. Blame the federal lawmakers who represent this state yet have done next to nothing to bring national attention to this decay. Where were they when the bridge collapsed? Where were they when the only means to cross became a wooden canoe? Where are they now?

While other senators are lobbying for rail lines, power plants, roads, and tech hubs in their constituencies, our so-called federal representatives are watching their people die trying to cross a river.

It took Governor Agbu Kefas — a state governor — to step in. He secured federal approval. He moved to award the contract to Craneburg. Work was set to begin. Then a federal minister showed up and stopped everything. For reasons that still haven't been explained.

Let's not forget: that same minister, Uba Maigari, stood at the bridge site in April and boldly said, "Construction will begin in one week. Hold us accountable." Four months later, the only thing that came was tragedy.

Back in 2005, when the Nukkai Bridge failed, the Nigerian Army moved in immediately. A floating bridge was built in days. That was 20 years ago. Today, in 2025, the same country can't build a temporary crossing. What changed?

The economic impact has been brutal. Jalingo is home to dozens of rice mills. With the bridge gone, the cost of transporting rice has surged. Heavy trucks now take longer, more dangerous routes. Cement prices in Jalingo have gone up too — all because a key artery has been severed and left to rot.

And this is just one bridge.

The bigger problem is broader and more dangerous: every federal road leading into Taraba is in a deplorable condition. The Jalingo–Numan road is a disaster zone. Ibbi bridge is abandoned. The Wukari–Katsina Ala road is a death trap. The Central Zone of the state — one of Nigeria's richest regions in terms of agriculture and resources — remains cut off and ignored. Gembu, a high-altitude goldmine for tourism and exports, is landlocked in 2025.

How much longer will Taraba be treated like a colony, not a federating unit?

Taraba is not asking for favors. Taraba is not begging. Taraba is demanding what is rightfully hers.

This state contributes to the Nigerian project. It deserves working roads. It deserves functioning bridges. It deserves the same urgency that other regions receive when disaster strikes.

The time for speeches is over. What we need now is steel, cement, and asphalt — not empty promises.

Build the bridge. Fix the roads. And treat Taraba like it matters.

Oloye Ayodele Samuel is a journalist publisher of Taraba Truth and Facts Newspaper and CEO of Rock FM Jalingo, Taraba State