By Ibraheem Al-hassan
The second phase of Ministerial Platform which commenced on 3rd June, 2013, featured Ministry of works and that of Transport. As usual, the forum has started living up to its billing as a medium where views are freely canvassed especially with the questions and answers session as well as suggestions to the Government through the Ministers. The Ministers were there for the sectoral presentation of the score cards of their Ministries and this is with a view to creating awareness on the activities of Government. This latter fact was accentuated by the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, when he was giving the opening remark on the first day of the event holden at the National Press centre, Radio House, Abuja.
(http://fmi.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/DSC01145-1.jpg) (http://fmi.gov.ng/arc-onelememen-assures-of-improvement-in-road-infrastructure-as-it-records-significant-achievements/dsc01145-1/)Mr. Labaran Maku had said that the objective of the Ministerial Platform was to provide a platform for public engagement on the governance process, "in line with the tenets of democracy, which is anchored on accountability, transparency and inclusiveness."
Mr. Maku has opined that for democracy to make the desired impact, public officials must be accountable and responsive to the needs and aspirations of the citizens.
At the 3rd June event, the Minister of Works, Arc. Onolemhemen described the current road sector reforms by the Goodluck Jonathan's administration as "a significant stride in the development of the infrastructure." To him, Nigerian roads, which were described as death traps, had suffered neglect for too long; while a number of on-going road rehabilitation works were moving at snail speed. Whenever people were travelling on the roads, the Minister rightly described their countenance as that of people in total despair. It was on this note that the present administration decided that there must be conscious effort to reclaim back the roads from total collapse.
Currently, the score-card given by the Works Minister revealed that there are on-going road projects worth N850 billion being executed by the Federal Government in the Northern part of the country. This include, the conversion to dual carriageway of the Maiduguri-Kano Road, which covers 510 kilometres; dualization of the 212 kilometre, Lokoja-Abuja Road; construction of roads leading to the borders with Chad and Niger Republic as well as the construction of Oweto Bridge across River Benue which would link Benue and Nasarawa States.
The Works Minister also revealed that Government is determined to complete all road projects embarked on in the northern part of the country so as to promote social and economic activities in the region.
Arc Onolemhemen also revealed that thirty-two roads worth about N126 billion were completed within the period under review. These include the conversion to dual carriageway of Ibadan-Ilorin Road, Vom-Manchok road in Plateau State, the repairs of Third Mainland Bridge Phase Two, rehabilitation of Funtua-Gusau-Sokoto road, rehabilitation of Owerri-Aba Road, and the Katsina-Daura Road in Katsina State.
Perhaps what gave the Works Ministry the impetus to achieve so much on roads project was the launching of its "Operation Safe Passage", embarked upon by the Ministry last year. Through the programme, some failed portions of federal highways across the country were recovered. The recovered portion of roads, include Ilorin-Jebba, Lafia-Makurdi, Lagos-Ibadan, Kano-Katsina, Enugu-Port Harcourt, Oturkpo-9th Mile and Odukpani-Itu.
One cannot but agree with the Minister when he said, "About two years on, Nigerian roads can no longer be described as death traps due to the remarkable improvement in the condition of the roads as a result of the unprecedented rehabilitation, construction and expansion of major arterial highways under the leadership of President Goodluck Jonathan, today." According to him, the impact of these projects is the reduction in traveling hours as well as reduction in accidents mostly caused by bad road.
In the same vein, Mr. Onolememen said, the Ministry in collaboration with multilateral agencies such as the World Bank and the African Development Bank completed the reconstruction and strengthening of the pavement of Ikom-Mfum Road in Cross River State and Abakaliki-Mbok Road in Ebonyi State.
The Minister also reported that the Ministry is exploring Public Private Partnership to reconstruct the Second Niger Bridge in Anambra and Delta States, Apakun/Oshodi-Murtala Mohammed International Airport Road in Lagos State and the Nupeko Bridge across the River Niger.
In the area of road maintenance, in 2012 alone, when Mr. President instructed that roads must be rehabilitated before Christmas, for trips to be smoother, a total of 1,980 kilometres of road corridors were maintained by the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA); while an area of 1,337,343 square metres of pot-holes were patched. In addition, over 4000 youths have been engaged, mobilized and trained by FERMA on road maintenance and are currently carrying out works in most of federal highways across the country under the SURE-P interventions.
From all indication the current reform initiative is definitely yielding positive results, if sustained, more progress will be achieved.
Ibraheem Al-hassan, a Senior Information Officer, works with the National Press Centre.Via: Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria