The Senate on Tuesday appealed to the Federal Government to urgently approve a N300 billion Emergency Intervention Fund for rehabilitation of the collapsing critical roads in Niger State.
The upper chamber of the National Assembly in its resolution during plenary pointed out that the intervention would support current government’s infrastructure rehabilitation efforts to support ease of doing business and fast-track its economic recovery agenda
While noting that Niger State is strategic link in the North and South economic corridors, the lawmakers in the Senate urged the government to direct the Federal Ministry of Works to carry out emergency stabilization of the failed portions of Bida – Lapai – Lambatta road to ease movement and safety of passengers and goods along the route.
In addition, they also resolved that a National Legislative Roundtable on the State of Infrastructure for Economic Development be convoked to bring critical stakeholders in the transport and logistics industries together with a view to identifying urgent actions for the decaying road networks nationwide.
The resolutions were sequel to the adoption of a motion moved by Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi during plenary.
The lawmaker said: “The Senate noted with disbelief and shock the very ugly scene playing out in Niger State since February 24 to September 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;
“Recall that Niger State has the longest federal road network of 2,263km out of a total of 32,000km of national federal roads network. The federal roads in Niger state stretched from the Abuja – Kaduna end to the Jebba – Mokwa – Makera – Tegina – Birnin Gwarimpa – Kaduna road to the Mokwa – New Bussa – Agwara – Kigera end which lies to the border with the republic of Benin.
“Overall, the following are critical linkage roads within Niger state that provide logistical and vehicular movements between the North and South; especially the South West and North West Corridors. Because of the massive land area of Niger State at 76,363km (representing about nine 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 pits great pressure on the roads and thus are seriously devastating to the state of the roads.
“Cursory observation and reports indicate that many trucks and tankers are loaded with up to 90,000 Tonnes of goods and all vehicles are consistently loaded well above their approved tonnage.
“All the major link roads have totally failed with fatal accidents occurring on a daily basis with loss of lives, goods and vehicles”, Abdullahi lamented.
According to him, the decay of the road networks triggered the recent protest of truck and tanker drivers, particularly the very bad condition of the Bida – Minna road which is currently undergoing construction.
He explained that the only road portion that is passable is the Mokwa Junction – Bida road which is itself under intense pressure by the heavy duty haulage activities of trucks and tankers and may not last two years under the current scenario.
The legislator also mentioned the Kontagora – Yauri road as also motorable but hard to access, hence the pressure on state roads.
He expatiated: “Disturbed 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 abandoned by contractors. The result is continuous pressure on the few good ones.
“Indeed, it is very sad that the main trunk road from Jebba – Mokwa – Tegina – Kaduna has been completely abandoned even though contracts have been awarded for the Jebba – Tegina section 1 and 2 since 2028 without funds sufficient to even mobilise the contractors.
“This is true also for Makera – Kontagora – Yauri which has been awarded since 2013; Bida – Lapai- Lambatta awarded since 2018 also but poor funding means stalled work. The massive accidents and losses on this road were responsible for the current blockade in the state.
“Agrees that nee ways and means for funding infrastructure in Nigeria must be seriously considered while also strengthening enforcement in the issues of excess weight load by trucks and tankers considering that over 90 percent of haulage of heavy goods are by road transport; pending when the ongoing train projects are delivered to ease the pressure.
“Further agrees that the current blockade had seriously affected economic activities in the country with heavy losses by investors and enterprises.
“It is therefore, important that urgent and emergency measures are out in place to forestall further occurrence while also considering a legislative round table in the state of transport infrastructure and institutional strengthening to support the economic diversification efforts and growth of the Nigerian economy”, the Senator appealed.
