Fashola gives reasons for bad roads in the country

The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said abuses by road users and insurgency, are some of the reasons the nation’s roads are in bad state.

Fashola stated this on Thursday at the 29th Meeting of the National Council on Works in Calabar.

The meeting, themed ‘Infrastructure as the pathway for prosperity,’ attracted permanent secretaries, directors of work, and commissioners of works, among others.

Represented by the Minister of State, Works and Housing, Abubakar Aliyu, Fashola said: “The need to look beyond public budgets and the clamour for other funding sources for road projects are recurring decimals in the literature of Nigerian highways development.

“The challenge of insurgency in some parts of the country, road-users’ abuses like the uncontrollable excessive axle loads by trucks, unauthorised use of federal roads right-of-ways, and many other problems which are begging for solutions can be explored to create a pathway for prosperity.”

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The minister also noted that the theme of the meeting “was carefully chosen to address the complex issues of road infrastructure development in our dear country towards proffering tangible solutions, comfortable environment to sustain business and the effects of giving the people back what they actually deserve as citizens of our great nation.”

Continuing, the former Lagos State Governor added: “Our mandate in this meeting is to find new enduring possibilities on how to establish the link between infrastructure development and job creation, poverty alleviation, wealth creation and the empowerment of the informal sector, among others, in ensuring that the 10 million jobs target per annum by Mr President is attained.”

The Governor of Cross River State, Prof Ben Ayade, who declared the meeting open, thanked the minister for holding the meeting in Calabar.

Ayade was represented by his deputy, Prof. Ivara Esu.

The governor also drew the attention of the minister to the deplorable state of the Calabar-Itu road and called for its urgent repair.

“I empathise with those who travel through Calabar-Itu road. A journey that usually lasts one hour now takes about five hours. Is FERMA still in existence? Let FERMA maintain roads so that they will last for some time. Let us revive our maintenance culture”, he said.

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