Deplorable State of Federal Roads

The deplorable state of federal roads across Nigeria has really made Nigerians to critically assess the achievements of the former Minister of Works, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, after eight years in office.

Immediately he was appointed the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, after touring some federal road across the country, lamented their deplorable state. In one instance, the minister said some of the roads no longer have just potholes but boreholes.

He also expressed deep concern over the staggering N14 trillion debts inherited by the federal government.

After a tour of federal roads in Lagos, a state Fashola had governed for eight years and represented for another eight years at the Federal Executive Council (FEC), it took Umahi from the South-east, to express concern over the poor conditions of almost all the critical bridges in the state.

Briefing the media after an on-the-spot assessment of the Third Mainland Bridge, the minister said: “Almost all the bridges in Lagos are having problems.”

Before Fashola left office, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was not completed. In fact, it was said last week that the road would be delivered by November.

 Even the Third Mainland Bridge Fashola frequently worked on was left littered with terrible potholes. Ijora-Apapa road was in sorry state.

Major roads such as the Benin-Auchi Highway, Abuja-Kaduna Expressway, Ibadan-Ilesha Expressway, Abuja-Lokoja Expressway, Benin-Warri Expressway, Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, Onitsha-Enugu Expressway, Calabar-Itu Road, East-West Road, Obollo Afor-Makurdi Road, Makurdi-Wukara-Jalingo Road and many others were left in deplorable state. Yet a whopping N14 trillion debt was left behind.

As Lagos State governor, Fashola was a celebrated achiever. But many believe that his performance during the eight years he spent at the federal level was unimpressive and uninspiring.

As governor, he had criticised former President Goodluck Jonathan’s government, boasting that fixing the power was not “a rocket science.”  But when he suddenly found himself at the Ministry of Power and headed it for four years, it was darkness that was supplied to Nigerians and not electricity. In his various speeches as power minister, he reportedly claimed to have raised power generation to above 7,000MW when the actual generation still hovers below 5,000MW till today.