Date Published: 09/02/09
2nd September 2009. Press Release.
“DISBAND FEDERAL WORKS MINISTRY AND HAND FEDERAL ROADS TO STATES,” SAYS LAGOS AC.
The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress has described the state of federal roads in the country as a disgrace to the entire country and has called for quick and urgent actions to be taken to ensure that federal roads are restored to manageable standards.
In a release in Lagos, signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the AC, Joe Igbokwe, Lagos AC observes that in virtually all the states of the federal, federal roads have become terrible nightmares while the federal ministry of works pockets huge amounts of money every year as budgets for the maintenance of federal roads. It therefore calls for a radical situation where federal roads in each state are handed over to the states and the appropriate funding given to such states for such maintenance.
“When we see the massive investment the present Lagos State government is presently making to ensure that federal roads are motorable, we wonder what actually are the duties of the federal ministry of works, which has proved grossly incapable of carrying out even minimal repairs on federal roads all over the federation. With the queer and awkward federalism we are saddled with in Nigeria, one wonders why roads should be continually placed under the federal tier of government, even when that tier had shown, beyond all doubts that it cannot carry out minimal repairs on such roads.
“Our doubts about the necessity for the continued saddling of the federal tier with the repair and maintenance of roads are reified with the decrepit and fast deteriorating nature of federal roads all over the country. By any standards, Nigerian roads rank among the worst in the world, even when huge allocations are made yearly to the federal ministry of works with virtually nothing to show for such huge allocations. We wonder the relevance of the federal ministry of works in the present situation and call that the ministry be disbanded and the votes and allocations be distributed to the respective states in line with the mileage of so-called federal roads in each state. By that, the states would be responsible for the management, repair and maintenance of federal roads in their areas than the present state, where federal roads have become unmitigated death traps, with no relief in sight.
“Lagos AC is aware of the massive resources the Lagos State government is employing to upgrade the Lagos-Badagry Gateway from an impassable four lane road to a world class ten-way Broadway. We insist that in a situation where the federal ministry of works collects huge allocations to supervise the complete decay of our roads, such would not have been the task of a state working so hard to meet the basic needs of its teeming population. We therefore call that the allocations of the federal ministry of works be shared among the states in proportion to the federal roads in each of the states while the federal ministry f works should be immediately scrapped since it had shown that it is no more of value to Nigerians. Again, by its own it incapacity, it has shown its incongruity with a federal structure we are pretending to be running.
Joe Igbokwe.
Publicity Secretary,
Lagos AC.
