The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi has lamented the sorry state of many federal roads in the country, saying some no longer have just potholes but boreholes.
The Minister gave the verdict while addressing contractors from the six geo-political zones at the ministry headquarters on Tuesday, in Abuja following an assessment tour of the nation’s road infrastructure.
According to him, with what is currently obtainable, no federal road can last up to seven years. Umahi, based on his assessment of the situation, called out contractors who did such shoddy jobs with inferior materials.
Umahi lamented that he felt the pain of commuters while travelling on the roads based on the instruction of President Bola Tinubu who ordered him to give feedback on findings.
He said, “There is no project being constructed right now in Nigeria that is going to last for seven years. The question is are we going to be maintaining or reconstructing our roads every 10 years? That is what we have been doing. I travelled from Abuja to Benin City through Lokoja, all the stretches of the road are on contract, and ongoing, this is through the policy of the last administration but how much of the roads are motorable? I travelled through the roads myself and I shed tears for the kind of pains our people are going through.”
“I spent 14 hours on the road having started my journey at 10 am and got to Benin City at 2 pm the next day and I was very happy I experienced the pains. President Tinubu said I must travel through all the projects so that I could brief him on my experience and tell him the truth.
“Unless Mr. President does something about our procurement, his lofty intention to help this country may not be achieved. documents will be sent to the Bureau of Public Procurement for a no-objection certificate and it will stay for six months. How will the contractors do the additional job you directed them to do without backup authorisation.”
Responding to fears that the price of cement would escalate if the government begins to do concrete roads, the Minister said such claims were false and simply part of campaign blackmail against him by the cabals in the construction industry.
“This is my line of instructions and I will do whatever the president instructs me to do he is the only one and God that can cancel my instructions so don’t waste your time reporting me to anyone apart from these two. No matter the amount of blackmail and lies, it will not prevail,” Umahi submitted.
