Difficult to travel on the main roads of Benin at night. The Calavi-Cotonou axes, the Cotonou Porto-Novo or Cotonou Lomé interstate roads are almost all in the dark. For miles and miles, users must drive like stuntmen to avoid accidents.
Users of Benin's main roads are tired of exposing their lives to traffic accidents. To the degradation of the tracks, Added to this is the lack of public lighting. Many of them shout their fed up. Taxi drivers are in the foreground : “The Cotonou Porto-Novo section is not lit. It's total black and the night, it is complicated for us to move from the bridge to the sèmè crossroads. From the Sèmè crossroads to Le Berlier, certains endroits sont éclairés et d’autres non » déplore un conducteur de taxi interurbains. « C’est très difficile pour nous les chauffeurs et conducteurs de moto quand la nuit tombe. First of all, the Sèmè crossroads bridge axis is not a highway and this causes a lot of accidents.. If at least, the only way was lit it will be good. Drivers and motorcyclists are obliged to drive more carefully and yet, we don't escape all the time. If the Head of State can think of rehabilitating the track, it will be good” gears up another ready to embark a few passengers for his daily shuttle. One of the consequences is given by this other driver : "As the road is not lit, we regularly fall into potholes and punctures are welcome".
Just like those road professionals who frequent it, ordinary users also who use these routes to reach their workplaces or homes complain. This is the case of Clément Assoclé, resident of the municipality of Sèmè-Podji : “I am tired of denouncing. For years, we denounce this situation in the discontent on the radios but apparently the authorities do not listen to us. While the lack of lighting causes a lot of damage ”he says, a little disappointed.
In Cotonou, the situation is no better. Bridges are sometimes without light. <<Lack of public lighting is a crucial problem we face. Today you circulate and you do not even know that you are in Cotonou, economic capital of Benin », loose with despair Christian, a citizen before adding “Apart from the new roads built by the government in place, everything else is in total darkness. It saddens me”.
« And Porto-Novo, political capital of the country, but I tell you when you take the interstate lane, it's serious. Even the toll station in Èkpè and which has been taking money every day for several years. Avant, it was 150f per passage for light vehicles and after that it became 300 FCFA. We were told that the money will be used for repairs and public lighting, but today what do we see?? The streetlights do not light up even at this toll booth. We are thus abandoned to insecurity” storm Barnabé Agbékponou, very upbeat.
For him, the rights of users and populations are flouted. “We contribute to public lighting. Take your bills, you will see taxes for rural electrification and public lighting but our roads are in the dark. The money collected goes where and is used for what? », he asks himself before asking the authorities to react. “If the toll bridge is responsible for lighting, we seek the indulgence of those responsible for the toll to do so and if it is the town hall or the government, they have to take responsibility because the lack of lighting on the road creates a lot of accidents at night,” adds Clément Assoclé during an intervention on a local radio station.. The lack of public lighting is not limited to Cotonou and Porto-Novo, it's almost general. « Going to Abomey-Calavi at night, or extend on Bohicon, it's a nightmare, shuttle Ouidah-Grand Popo, on the roads leading to Bohicon, Parakou, it's black everywhere. We don't understand anything » points out Mathieu Hontonnou, another growler.
This is also the case, for example, on the Godomey-Calavi-Akassato section where most of the streetlights supposed to illuminate this road are no longer functional.. A situation of road insecurity due in places to the non-functioning of the streetlights installed, A situation of road insecurity due in places to the non-functioning of the streetlights installed. A situation of road insecurity due in places to the non-functioning of the streetlights installed. A situation of road insecurity due in places to the non-functioning of the streetlights installed, le mal est plus profond. Les panneaux et leurs batteries ont été enlevés par des individus indélicats. Result, la zone communément appelée « Forêt » située juste avant le péage de Ouidah est dans une obscurité incomparable. « Outre le mauvais état de nos routes, the area commonly called “Forest” located just before the Ouidah tollbooth is in incomparable darkness. “Besides the poor state of our roads. the area commonly called “Forest” located just before the Ouidah tollbooth is in incomparable darkness. “Besides the poor state of our roads, the area commonly called “Forest” located just before the Ouidah tollbooth is in incomparable darkness. “Besides the poor state of our roads, the area commonly called “Forest” located just before the Ouidah tollbooth is in incomparable darkness. “Besides the poor state of our roads. For the latter, the situation is inexplicable and explains that "These different paths are taken by different authorities but, we don't see them getting outraged by this. Reducing the cases of accidents and insecurity on our roads also depends on the good visibility offered by the lighting system to the users that we are”.
According to information, public lighting is no longer the responsibility of the Beninese electric power company (Sbee). The municipalities and the government each manage the lighting of the roads according to their nature..
Arnaud ACAKPO (Coll)