By Chibuzor Emejor
Recently, I was on official duty to five states in Nigeria. As part of my official engagement, Cross River, Rivers, Imo, Abia and Ebonyi States were visited. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had mandated a team of journalists drawn from various media houses to carry-out post-assessment of the newly introduced Growth Enhancement Support [GES] Scheme of the present administration designed to provide fertilizers and improved seeds to the registered farmers in Nigeria without the age-long interference of the middlemen in the procurement and distribution process of these farm inputs.
As a result, we were detailed to meet agro-input dealers, registered farmers and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector in these States. So the journey began as we hit the road. Initially, it was a pleasant one because of the discussions among newsmen on serious national issues and cool weather condition and its ambiance.
However, the joy of travelling was short-lived due to the sorry state of our roads across the States. They are in dilapidated and deplorable state. For instance, Nasarawa – Benue-Ogoja road is a total shame, Cross River—Rivers road is nothing to write home about, Owerri-Mbaise—Umuahia road is a death trap, Port Harcourt–Enugu expressway is near total collapse while Enugu—Abakakili Road is a sorry tale. Some portions of these roads are washed out, riddled with big potholes and in some cases, are impassable.
Speaking against this background, the former Secretary General of the Common wealth, Emeka Anyaoku, said Nigerian roads have become “a huge slaughter slab, where lives appear to worth little or nothing.”
Anyaoku said the state of Nigerian roads portrays the nation as unsafe place on earth, as foreign investors would be reluctant to invest in a place where lives and property are not safe.
He attributed the cause of road traffic crashes in Nigeria to poor condition of the roads, adding that one of the most potent indicators of the state of any nation is the condition of its roads.
At an annual lecture series organised by Federal Road Safety Corps [FRSC] in Abuja, the diplomat queried “do our government ministers and leaders who we know often travel and see the condition of roads in other countries never feel embarrassed by the condition of roads in our resource-rich country? Do they not notice the large potholes that litter the roads and even bridges?
Anyaoku maintained that Nigerian roads are worse than the ones found in war- torn countries like Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, among others.
He added that they smear the country’s image in the comity of nations and in the perception of the investors.
“Such unfavourable image inevitably leads to stymieing the Federal Government’s current effort to develop Nigeria’s tourism. The ripple effect of an unfavourable image for any country in this context can also extend to adverse effects on foreign investment; for investors are inclined to be reluctant to go wherever it is judged that life and property are not safe.”
He identified “ineffective holistic transportation policy” by the federal and state governments as well as “absence of a well defined and effective implementation of an integrated policy “on the movement of men and materials as contributing factors to road crashes in Nigeria.
Though, it has been observed that work has commenced in some of these roads, the progress of work moves at snail’s pace. In addition, the quality of job on these roads leaves much to be desired.
For instance, Enugu-Port-Harcourt expressway does not need the so-called “repair” work going on there currently. The road requires complete reconstruction because of its terrible dilapidated state. It beats one’s imagination why the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency [FERMA] is cutting the damaged spots and patching them. This scenario, according to many observers, falls short of expectation of road users in this route.
It is no longer news that there has been daily loss of lives and property occasioned by the sorry state of these roads. More often than not, the trucks struggling to mend these roads fall and obstruct movement, or they are trapped or seized in the gullies on these roads for days or even weeks. It is unarguable that about 95 per cent of Nigerian populace who move about by roads are endangered, while the government officials saddled with the responsibility of providing good road networks and other infrastructure do not travel by road. So, they do not know the level of degradation and devastation of these roads. They fly by air.
However, the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, has blamed inadequate funding as being responsible for the deplorable state of federal roads. He said about N500 billion would be required annually in the next four years in order to fix Nigerian ailing roads and bring them to sync with road infrastructure development in other thriving nations in the world. According to him, “the average annual budget of about N100 billion for road development is grossly inadequate for the nation’s 35,000 kilometres of federal roads.” The minister mentioned that from past experience, budget provisions were not fully released, adding that in 2012, only N110 billion was released out of a total budgetary provision of N143 billion.
Onolememen spoke at a Public Hearing organised recently by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Works on the “Need to Address the Near Total Collapse of Federal Roads Across the Country”.
Against this backdrop, he recommended alternative ways of funding highway infrastructure by the Federal Government which include: adoption of annuity contracts for key arterial routes; borrowing from multilateral agencies and Pension Fund for the key highway infrastructure; floating of road bonds for highway projects and viability gap funding. Other alternative funding arrangements which he suggested included the implementation of the five per cent fuel surcharges; user-related charges and conventional Public Private Partnership finance for road infrastructure.
Onolememen gave details of efforts to re-invigorate and make the management of the nation’s federal roads and on-going projects more effective which include restructuring of the two highways departments into twelve departments, the decentralisation of the management of the nation’s existing road networks and the development of the recovery of new and deteriorated routes.
He also mentioned the constitution of six independent Zonal monitoring teams in October 2011 re posting directly to him in order to provide independent assessments and enhance the execution of all on-going road projects nationwide.
He added that in order to hone-in these new changes in the management structure of the ministry a four-day Retreat for management staff was organised in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State in October 2011 with the theme: “Improving Road Sector Infrastructure for Socio-Economic Transformation.” The Minister further expatiated on efforts to improve critical routes on federal roads network which are the Shagamu-Ore-Benin Dual carriageway, Onitsha-Enugu Dual carriageway, Enugu-Port Harcourt Dual carriageway, Lagos-Ibadan Dual Carriageway, dualisation of Abuja-Lokoja-Benin Road, dualisation of Kano-Maiduguri Road and the construction of Loko-Oweto Bridge.
He stated that a Transaction Advisor has been commissioned for the 2nd Niger Bridge under the Public Private Partnership model which is expected to culminate in the award of the concession for the bridge by early 2013.These efforts, he said were also complemented by the “Operation Safe Passage on Federal Highways” aimed at recovering deplorable sections of major roads to ameliorate the sufferings of road users during the festive period.
Given the fact that good road networks are critical to socio-economic development of any nation, the present administration under the leadership of President Goodluck Jonathan, must go beyond rhetoric and good promises, to fix Nigerian roads for majority whose sources of livelihood depend on them.
It has been suggested many fora that there is the need for resuscitation of rail system and waterways transportation to reduce the heavy reliance on road transport. In most countries of the world, heavy-duty goods are not transported on the roads. They destroy the road life-span. As part of the efforts to ensure good maintenance of roads, Steel and Haulage Companies should be taxed. Also, there may be need to re-introduce toll gates across Nigeria.
For now, Many Nigerian road-users are groaning under the pangs of travelling by road. It is like going to war-front. It can also be likened to near suicide mission. May God help ordinary Nigerians.
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