The Senate has again raised serious concern over the bad state of road networks across the country.
The Senate, calling on the federal government to earmark N300 billion emergency fund for the repair of critical roads in Niger State, urged the federal government to direct the Federal Ministry of Works to carry out emergency stabilization of the failed portions of the road to ease the current suffering and rate of accidents and loss of goods and investments on the road.
The Senate decision followed the consideration and approval of a motion sponsored by Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullah from North and co-sponsored by Senator Musa Mohammed Sani (Niger East); Senator Yahaya A. Abdullahi (Kebbi North); Senator Bima Mohammed Enagi (Niger South); Sen Smart Adeyemi (Kogi West); Sen Mohammed Adamu Alero (Kebbi Central) and Senator Uba (Kaduna Central).
Leading debate on the motion titled: The State of Federal Roads in Niger State: Call for a State of Emergency, Senator Aliyu Sabi drew the attention of the Senate to the ugly scene playing out in Niger State since February 24, 2021, in which heavy trucks and tanker drivers blocked all entry and exit roads to protest the horrible state of Federal roads passing through the state.
The lawmaker who is also the Senate Deputy Chief Whip noted that “all the major link roads have totally failed with fatal accidents occurring on a daily basis with loss of life, goods and vehicles. A development that angered the trucks and tanker drivers to begin the protest as the only available alternative route to exit the state is the Bida-Minna road which is currently undergoing construction. This road itself is a failed road with many portions that cannot withstand any heavy truck movement as it is.”
Senator Aliyu Sabi further stressed that the current rate of funding of federal roads in the state is unfortunately dismal and cannot deliver which has led to many of the projects being abandoned by contractors.
“Because of the massive land area of Niger State at 76, 363KM2 (representing about 9 percent of the total land area of the country), all movements from North to South substantially traverse the state. Indeed, the massive haulage of heavy industrial goods such as petroleum products, iron rods, cement, finished manufactured goods, machines and equipment, electronic materials and goods, building materials etc, in which trucks and tankers are overloaded puts great pressure on the roads and thus are seriously devastating to the state of the roads,” he said.
A cross-section of other senators who contributed to the debate on the motion lamented the general bad road networks in the country while describing the motion as timely since the National Assembly is about to receive the 2022 budget proposal.
In his contribution, Senator Sani Musa accused the Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola, of neglecting the Niger State by not giving priority to the deplorable condition of roads in the state.
“Abuja – Makurdi road. alone about N56 billion was allocated to it while only about N4 billion was allocated to critical roads in Niger State in the 2021 budget. This is nothing but bias,” he said.
The Senate later called for a National Legislative Roundtable on the state of Infrastructure for Economic Development which will bring all critical stakeholders in the transport and logistics industries together with a view to identifying urgent actions to address the current challenges.
In a similar vein, Senator Lekan Mustapha (APC Ogun East) moved a motion for urgent rehabilitation of all federal roads across the country.
He noted that the problem of bad roads is not peculiar to a zone but one that cuts across all zones.
The Senate in response to the motion urged the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Budget to release funds for emergency repair of all federal roads.
