A highway through the Mambilla Plateau in Taraba State, abandoned since 1961, is finally under construction. The Gembu-Mbamnga-Yang-Lip road project started in January 2025 and will be completed by July 2027, costing ₦71 billion under the Tinubu administration.
The road's absence has cost lives. Pregnant women from Lip Village and surrounding communities had to cross the Donga River by canoe, foot bridge, or bicycle to reach hospitals. Emergency journeys that should have taken hours took days. Some did not survive the crossing.
This debt runs deeper than infrastructure. When Northern Cameroons voted to join Nigeria in a 1961 UN referendum, the communities presented conditions. They wanted autonomy, with Mubi as their capital. They wanted a road through their territory. The Sardauna, Sir Ahmadu Bello, came himself to persuade them. They accepted his word. Nigeria broke it.
Meanwhile, Southern Cameroons, which voted to join the Republic of Cameroon, got what was promised. Cameroon created two regions from the trusteeship territory. Buea kept its regional capital status. Bamenda became a new one. The cousins who chose Cameroon were honoured. The cousins who chose Nigeria were forgotten.
Today, Nigeria has 36 states with 36 capitals. The Amana Region, which spans parts of Adamawa, Taraba, and Borno States, is not one of them. Mubi, its historic capital, never received the designation. The autonomy was never formalised. The road was never built.
One bridge on the new highway is complete. A second is under construction. The project links the Mambilla Plateau to the Cameroon border. The villagers I spoke to measured the road's value not in kilometres or cost, but in what it prevents. No more emergencies on forest paths. No more deaths in the crossing. No more children born beside rivers because mothers could not reach maternity wards.
They were cautious with their optimism. Even incomplete, they said, the road feels like a breath of fresh air. When it finishes in 2027, they will measure what it means to finally be seen by the country they chose.
