NASS Rues N1.414trn Road Allocation without Results

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The National Assembly has appropriated about N1.414 trillion to the nation’s road sector since 1999, yet of the 34, 400 km of federal roads, only 12,040 have been paved and they are, in fact, replete with varying degrees of potholes.

Chairman of the Federal House of Representatives Committee on Works, Hon. Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi (PDP, Enugu) made the disclosure today in Abuja at the four-day public hearing on the urgent need to address the near total collapse of federal roads across the country, and A Bill For An Act To Provide For The Maintenance of Public Infrastructure, 2011 And for Other Matters connected therewith.

Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen said about N500bn will be needed annually in the next four years to fix the country’s ailing road infrastructures.

“Between 1999 and 2012, the National Assembly had appropriated about N1.414tr to the road sector. And yet out of about 34,400 km of federal road network, only about 35 percent (12, 040) is paved and substantial percentage of it is in varying degree of distress and is pothole-ridden,” Ozomgbachi said.

“In a country of about 160 million people with an approximate land area of 910,768 square kilometres in which over 90 per cent of the passengers and freight movement are done by road due to almost non-functional water-ways and rail transportation, the situation assumes even a status of national emergency.”

He disclosed that statistics from the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) for Accidents in the First Half of 2012 put the figure at 1,936 fatalities and substantial part of it attributable to the poor state of our roads.

In his presentation, the minister also revealed that the average budget of about N100bn for road development is grossly inadequate for the nation's 35,000 km of federal road network and for a country that budgets N300bn and N150bn for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation respectively.

“What is needed is about N500bn yearly in the next four years to fix the country's ailing road infrastructure and bring it in sync with road infrastructure development in other thriving nations in the world,” he added.