{"id":79805,"date":"2025-12-08T15:14:44","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=79805"},"modified":"2025-12-08T15:14:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:14:44","slug":"kogi-the-road-that-connects-every-region-now-endangers-every-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/12\/08\/kogi-the-road-that-connects-every-region-now-endangers-every-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Kogi: The Road That Connects Every Region Now Endangers Every Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Oyekunle Olalekan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There was a time when the long stretch of highway running through the middle of Nigeria symbolised unity. It was the route that carried families to reunions, traders to markets, students to school, and workers to opportunity. That road was the lifeline that stitched our regions together, a shared path, a shared hope.<\/p>\n<p>But today, that same road has become the nation\u2019s most painful wound.<\/p>\n<p>Across the central corridor, travellers now journey with trembling hearts. Buses move in fear, not confidence.<\/p>\n<p>Every stop along the highway comes with silent prayers. The road that once connected homes now threatens to break them.<\/p>\n<p>In recent months, the nation has woken up repeatedly to chilling news: travellers ambushed in the middle of the highway, entire buses hijacked, ransom calls echoing through the phones of helpless families.<\/p>\n<p>Stories of kidnapped students, traders, children, and clergy have shaken communities to their core. Some victims were rescued after courageous operations; others are still missing, their families clinging to hope in the dark.<\/p>\n<p>The human cost is immeasurable. Mothers stay awake through the night waiting for travel updates. Fathers count the hours, fearing the worst. Students postpone journeys out of dread.<\/p>\n<p>Traders lose income because the safest option is to stay home. Even the most essential movement, the simple act of travelling across one\u2019s own country has become a gamble with fate.<\/p>\n<p>This is more than a regional crisis. When danger grips the central road that binds the country together, the entire nation bleeds. If that artery fails, movement fails. If movement fails, unity fails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Oyekunle Olalekan There was a time when the long stretch of highway running through the middle of Nigeria symbolised unity. It was the route that carried families to reunions, traders to markets, students to school, and workers to opportunity. That road was the lifeline that stitched our regions together, a shared path, a shared [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":79806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-79805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79805"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79807,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79805\/revisions\/79807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}