Date Published: 10/21/09

Mimiko visits Works Minster over state of federal roads

Olusegun Mimiko

The Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko on Tuesday took the case of the bad federal roads in his State to the Federal Government describing the roads as not only appalling but in a dire state of intervention from the federal government.

Dr Mimiko who visited the Minister of Works, Housing and Urban Development, Dr Hassan Muhammad Lawal at his Mabushi office in Abuja lamented that the state of Nigeria’s roads were very challenging stressing that in Ondo State, the roads were not only in critical stages of disrepair but also required urgent emergency measures in order to arrest the spates of carnages on the roads.

Particularly, Dr Mimiko noted that the situation of all the federal roads in his State through which travelers going to the Eastern and the Northern parts of the nation pass through were in such critical states thus eliciting the question of a State neglected by the government. This situation, he noted, had made him to mobilize contractors to rehabilitate some of these federal roads in order to ameliorate the plights of commuters plying these roads. He, therefore, enjoined the Federal Government to urgently come to the rescue of the State especially as the yuletide fast approaches in order to ensure that lives and man-hours were not lost to the bad roads.

In his response, the Minister who expressed sympathy with the Governor on the recent accident involving his convoy in which some lives were lost, attributed the state of the Nigerian roads to years of neglect and dwindling resources.

To him, no responsible government would close its eyes and allow gullies to take over its roads and assured that contracts for the rehabilitation of all the federal roads, which of Ondo State inclusive, would soon commence as soon as the rains are over. Dr Mimiko equally visited the Minster of Environment, Mr. John Odey where he canvassed for equity in the distribution of the Ecological Funds saying that Ondo State had been neglected in the past in the allocation of the funds. He equally assured the Environment Minster that Ondo State would contribute its counterpart funding as at when due if considered.

In his response, the Minister commended Dr Mimiko, himself a former Minister of Housing and Urban Development for his efforts on environmental issues and assured him that Ondo State would benefit from the Fund adding that already his Ministry was already working with the State’s Ministry of Forestry on the afforestation problem and assured that President Musa Yar’Ardua had assured that there would be equity in the distribution of the Ecological Funds saying that participation would be in 2:1 ratio. While federal government takes 2, state would take 1 to ensure effective monitoring by all.