Nigeria’s Transport Crisis: Why Better Roads Alone Cannot Make Journeys Safer
By JOANNA ILUSANMI
FOR many Nigerians, travelling on a major highway still involves an uncomfortable calculation of risk.
Potholes force drivers to slow down or swerve. Broken-down trucks occupy lanes. At night, poor markings can make already dangerous roads harder to navigate.
Meanwhile, pedestrians, motorcycles and vehicles often compete for limited road space.
The consequences can be devastating.
In June 2025, eight members of an extended family were killed after a vehicle reportedly left the rain-soaked Kaduna-Zaria highway and struck pedestrians. They were reportedly standing by the roadside when the tragedy occurred.
That incident illustrates a wider problem. Road safety is not determined only by driver behaviour. It also depends on the condition, design, maintenance and management of the transport environment.
A Persistent Road-Safety Crisis
Official statistics show why the issue remains urgent.
The Federal Road Safety Corps recorded 5,081 road-crash fatalities in 2023 and 5,421 in 2024. Its figures also put 2025 fatalities at 5,289, according to the figures cited in the report. That amounts to 15,791 deaths across the three years.
Although recorded crashes fell from 10,617 in 2023 to 9,570 in 2024, fatalities increased. Then, in 2025, crashes rose to 10,446 while reported deaths declined slightly to 5,289.
The problem has continued into 2026. The National Bureau of Statistics has also continued publishing quarterly road-transport data, underscoring the scale of the country’s road-safety burden.
There is another complication.
The World Health Organisation estimated 36,722 road-traffic deaths in Nigeria in 2021, compared with 6,205 fatalities reported through national administrative systems. The difference reflects, among other things, the challenges of collecting and reconciling road-death data.
Consequently, official crash figures should be read with an understanding that they may not capture the full burden of road deaths.
When Roads Carry Too Much
Yet Nigeria’s transport challenge extends beyond potholes and road crashes.
For decades, successive governments have promoted a transport system in which roads, railways, waterways, ports and aviation complement one another.
In practice, however, roads continue to carry much of the passenger and freight burden.
That imbalance has consequences.
A farmer sending produce to a distant market may depend on a long road journey. A manufacturer moving goods to a port may face the same constraint. Even where rail infrastructure exists, poor last-mile connections can force cargo back onto roads.
At the 2026 Transport Industry Summit in Lagos, Dr. Segun Ochuko Obayendo, Technical Adviser to the Vice President on Transportation, Logistics and Innovation, argued that Nigeria must stop treating transport modes as isolated projects.
He called for greater standardisation and professionalisation within the road sector. More importantly, he argued that the different modes should work together.
That approach could reduce pressure on individual transport corridors. It could also lower logistics costs and improve the movement of people and goods.
The Budget Is Not the Same as Delivery
Nigeria’s transport plans have not been short on financial commitments.
NISER estimates that the 2026 Federal Budget allocated about ₦6.87 trillion to transport infrastructure, representing more than half of total federal capital expenditure. Yet the institute also reported that capital releases remained below 60 per cent between 2023 and 2025.
That gap matters.
An appropriation creates a financial provision. It does not automatically produce a completed road, railway, terminal or waterway facility.
Likewise, construction does not guarantee long-term safety.
Roads require routine maintenance. Bridges require inspection. Rail systems require reliable operations. Ports need efficient connections. Waterways require navigable channels and functioning terminals.
Without those supporting systems, infrastructure investments can lose much of their economic value.
Aviation Faces Its Own Infrastructure Test
Roads are not the only part of the transport system facing pressure.
The Federal Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development proposed ₦184.39 billion for 2026, with priorities including safety systems, digital infrastructure and human-capacity development.
Yet the ministry’s 2025 budget presentation reported that only 30.9 per cent of its 2024 capital appropriation had been utilised. Personnel spending, by contrast, recorded full utilisation, while overhead utilisation was almost complete.
The figures point to a broader infrastructure question.
Nigeria does not only need to appropriate money. It needs to convert allocations into functioning assets and then maintain them.
Integration Is the Missing Link
Railways cannot fully reduce road pressure when factories, farms and ports lack reliable last-mile connections.
Similarly, inland waterways cannot carry their potential freight burden without terminals, vessels, navigational support and links to roads and rail.
Air transport also depends on functioning airports, access roads and supporting infrastructure.
Therefore, building one mode in isolation cannot solve the wider transport problem.
The more difficult task is integration.
For ordinary travellers, however, the debate remains straightforward: can they complete a journey safely?
For businesses, the question is whether goods can move reliably and at reasonable cost.
And for government, the test is whether transport infrastructure can support economic activity rather than impose additional costs on households and businesses.
Nigeria’s transport challenge, therefore, is not simply about constructing more roads.
It is about creating a system in which roads are safer, alternative transport modes are functional, infrastructure is maintained and the different parts of the network work together.
Until that happens, every new transport plan will face the same fundamental test: whether Nigerians can travel and move goods without treating every journey as a gamble.
