FIXING THE DELAPIDATED ROADS 

Roads are the arteries and veins of the economy. Government should put them in order

The Sultan of Sokoto, H.M. Sa’adu Muhammad Abubakar was forced to cry out after his agonising experience on the Suleja-Minna-Bida Road last week. “I would like to use this opportunity to inform the world or inform Nigerians and the government of Nigeria that the Suleja-Minna Road is still crying for attention,” the monarch said while describing what they went through as a nightmare. But the challenge of travelling in the country is not restricted to a state or a particular road, it is national. Only recently, after an inspection tour of federal roads across the six geopolitical zones, the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi painted an embarrassing picture of how many roads have degenerated from potholes to boreholes. The question now is, what is he going to do about the situation beyond the usual official lamentation to which Nigerians are now familiar? 

Stretched across the country, these roads are a major nerve of economic activities. It should be obvious, therefore, why THISDAY sounds like a broken record on this matter. Apart from the unacceptable loss of man-hours and the unbearable discomfort Nigerian road users suffer, the body count is mounting due to avoidable accidents even as the dilapidated roads are killing entrepreneurship that needs the infrastructure to transport agricultural and allied products. We fear that unless the federal government attends to these roads urgently and establishes a sustainable strategy for their maintenance, local economies will grind to a halt and worsen the unemployment situation we have on our hands. And most certainly, Nigerians who would be travelling for the upcoming Yuletide are assured of a harrowing experience.  

Indeed, a more robust legislative oversight becomes more imperative because there is an organic linkage between the poor state of our roads and the negligence of the executive that has over the years not only underprovided for the infrastructure in its annual budgets but has also failed to utilise even the meagre allocations to the sector. We therefore urge a more creative and sustainable funding strategy for our road infrastructure as the nation’s economic revival and development stands no chance of success without good roads that would complement other modes of transportation for the movement of goods and services across the country.  

Since budgetary allocation will never be enough for roads development and maintenance, a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement had been proposed for some federal highways. The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) was established as a regulatory body and charged with the responsibility of developing guidelines for monitoring contract compliance during construction, operation, and termination and supporting government in achieving such compliance. But there has been little or no commitment to attract private capital for the critical sector. The Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme and Sukuk funding for roads rehabilitation are laudable attempts to ameliorate the conditions but not enough to make any remarkable difference in the quantity and quality of roads through the length and breadth of the country. 

Apart from many of the major highways being littered with craters, driving at night is comparable to walking through a dark alley because of lack of streetlights. Besides, the unpassable state of the roads has literally made them den for robbers and kidnappers, who waylay innocent passengers at any time of the day to carry out their nefarious activities. We therefore call on the authorities at all levels to fulfil their constitutional and civil duty to the public by fixing major roads to mitigate the distressing harvest of deaths. It amounts to criminal negligence that many lives are being wasted on our roads despite the promises made by successive administrations.