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House of Reps Saddened at the State of Nigerian Roads

By on December 11, 2012

Lawmakers at the National Assembly

The deplorable state of Nigerian Roads  has caught the attention of the members of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This comes weeks after various reports from the Media have revealed that there is a lot of work to be done on the road network in the country.

The House Committee on Works lamented that despite the huge amount of N1.4 trillion being allocated to road construction and maintenance in the country, the conditions are very dire and unfortunate.

It also noted that the new desire for foreign loans by the States to finance road projects some of which have been recycled could be very dangerous for the National economy .

Already the Minister of Works Architect Mike Onolememen stated that the Government will need about N2 Trillion to fix the roads nationwide, but one wonders what the past allocations have been utilized for as it has not been in the construction or rehabilitation of roads.

Major Expressways like the Lagos- Ibadan  and the Benin-Ore routes have been eyesores as unnecessary traffic Jams and avoidable accidents have occurred in this routes because of the slow pace of work by the Government contractors.

Chairman of the Committee Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi speaking at a four day hearing on the ‘State of Federal Roads across the Country’, said “it is  sad to note that between 1999 and 2012 the National Assembly had appropriated N1.4 trillion and the roads are still way behind in terms of standards”.

One of the aspects of the Works and Housing Ministry over the years that has been missing, but has been restored in this administration is Road Projects Monitoring and Evaluation, which existed in the Buhari, Babangida, and Abacha administrations but seemed to have fizzled out in the Obasanjo Administration.

Under the operations of the Road Projects Monitoring and Evaluation team , there was effective supervision and reports on roads constructed or rehabilitated with reports given and necessary actions taken by Government.

With the Monitoring and Evaluation being fully restored, it is expected that the next four years will witness significant changes in the construction and maintenance model of roads in Nigeria.