Senate calls for emergency on roads

Ike Ekweremau, Deputy Senate President

Senate calls for emergency on roads

The Nigerian Senate has expressed worry over the deplorable condition of roads across the country.

To this effect, The Senate’s Committee on Works on Thursday urged the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on roads.

Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, speaking while inaugurating the Committee, said Nigerians would be pleased with President Goodluck Jonathan if there was massive repair of the collapsing roads across the country.

According to him, good road network has become the most effective parameter for Nigerians to measure the performance of government.
Ekweremadu said the dividend of democracy many Nigerians ‘understand today are good roads’.

“We must focus on roads because if we fail this time, it will be too bad. What Nigerians want to see are good roads”, he said.

Road construction

He enjoined road contractors to review the cost of road construction saying, ‘the cost of road construction in Nigeria is higher than in most other countries. This is unacceptable’.

Ekweremadu asked the committee and the ministry of works to hit the ground running, saying Nigerians will not accept any excuses for failure.

Chairman of the Committee Ayogu Eze, explained that the proposed intervention fund will complement the budget for the sector in each fiscal year.

State of emergency on roads

Bemoaning the state of roads, he urged the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on roads.
Eze said: “We must declare a state of emergency on our roads. We will be held responsible at the end of four years if Nigerians fail to see reasonable changes on our roads; our roads are in terrible shape and the task to fix them is onerous. We think there is the need to create special funds in addition to budget for the Ministry of Works”.

He noted that most of the highways have been under pressure because of the collapse of our water ways and other transportation modes.
He added that the poor state of Nigerian highways has become another threat to foreign investment inflow into the country.
“We must get our roads right if we must attract foreign investors into the country”, he said.

NP/Ehimen/Ekata