The Senate, on Thursday, urged the Federal Government to, as a matter of necessity, approve rehabilitation of deplorable roads across the country.
By Naomi Sharang
The Senate, on Thursday, urged the Federal Government to, as a matter of necessity, approve rehabilitation of deplorable roads across the country.
The upper chamber’s call was sequel to resolution on a motion by Sen. Danjuma Goje (APC-Gombe) at plenary in Abuja.
The motion is titled, “Federal Government’s approval of N4.2 trillion for the construction of Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road and other major road projects nationwide.”
The senate equally commended the Federal Government for embarking on these ambitious and laudable projects that would go a long way in guaranteeing socio-economic and political wellbeing of the citizenry.
It also urged the government to extend the Renewed Hope Super Highway Road Project to the North-East, so as to ensure full inclusion of the zone into the mainstream economic activities of the government.
Moving the motion, Goje recalled that at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting of Monday, Feb. 3, the Federal Government approved the sum of N4.2 trillion.
“The sum is for the construction of Lagos-Calabar road and other major highways and bridges across the country,” he said.
He noted that these massive road infrastructure projects were conceived to deliberately address the deplorable state of some Federal road networks nationwide and reconstruction/rehabilitation of some.
Goje commended President Bola Tinubu for the bold initiative, saying it would go a long way to improve the transport system.
“It will also address the challenges of insecurity as criminal elements have taken advantage of the deplorable nature of highway road networks to perpetrate nefarious and dastardly acts.”
Goje, however, noted that from the breakdown of the highway projects, the North-East had only two projects.
“The roads are Yola-Fufore- Gurin Road in Adamawa (N11.81 billion) and Lamido Road in Taraba (N7.68 billion) out of the approved sum of N4.2 trillion,” he said.
The lawmaker hinted that apart from the two roads, there were other very important road networks in bad conditions.
“Such roads include the Bauchi-Gombe road; Biu-Gombe road; Potiskum-Gombe road among others, which urgently require serious reconstruction and rehabilitation.’
He further said that the North-East was yet to be connected to the Super Highway Project embarked upon by the present administration.
Contributing, Sen. Idiat Adebule (APC-Lagos), said that work on Lagos-Badagry road, which commenced since 2023 had yet to be completed.
“These are roads that we will plead with the senate to please call the attention of the ministry to do something about it too,” Adebule said.
Also speaking, Sen. Isah Jibril (APC-Kogi), said “In as much as I sympathise with the other contributors that have zeroed in on their various localities, I want to say that this motion is specific to the North-East.
“I don’t want it to be diluted. Let us focus on this one, please. If you have your own request, bring it to the floor. Let’s concentrate on the North-East as it has been presented here.
“But going forward, Your Excellency, road construction is not a one-year project. I think what the Federal Ministry of Works needs to do is to identify all the roads that are in deplorable conditions in Nigeria and come up with a four-five-year plan.”
In his remarks, the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, called for a roadmap on how to maintain roads and ensure reconstruction of roads across the country.
“Even if we declare an emergency on road construction and rehabilitation, we must have a roadmap for maintenance of existing road infrastructure in the country.
“Otherwise, all the trillions will still be inundated with these kinds of issues and yet, no positive change will be recorded.” (NAN)
