Minister of Works, Arch. Mike Onolememen yesterday said the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan has made Nigerian roads better and safer.
The Minister who spoke at the last day of the Presidential Public Affairs Forum organised by the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs added that the administration has shown a clear understanding of the connection between good road networks and economic growth.
“This underscores the Federal Government’s commitment to ensuring that Nigerian roads become not only better and safer, but also comparable to roads in the developed parts of the world so as to promote the happiness of the greater number of our citizens who rely on federal roads for economic and social engagements.
“As we progress with the Transformation of the Road Sector, I wish to assure fellow citizens that the administration of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will leave no stone unturned in its avowed commitment to bequeath better and safer world-class roads to Nigerians. By May 29, 2011, Nigerian roads were described as death traps and many roads were abandoned, while a number of on-going projects were moving at snail speed”, he said.
He said that in order to reverse the ugly trend, the Federal Ministry of works under his leadership embarked on aggressive reorganization to reposition the Ministry for effective highway project management.
In this regard he said the existing two highway departments were restructured into twelve departments, viz: Six (6) Departments of Highway Construction & Rehabilitation are domiciled in each of the six geo-political zones of the country for closer and more effective supervision and management of highway projects.
Thus far, we have completed 62 road projects and have recorded impressive progress on many more. The President Jonathan Administration’s intervention in the road sector has improved Federal roads from about 4,500km of fair roads in 2011 to about 25,000km by December 2013, out of the 35,000km of federal highways. Over 70% of our road network is now motorable when compared to about 16% at the inception of this Administration”, he insisted.
In terms of other dividends accruing to the entire nation arising from the transformation of the works sector, he said travel times between origins and destinations on most of the arterial routes have greatly improved, maintenance costs of vehicles and fuel consumption have been reduced as a result of improved road network, the transport companies have slashed their fares because the roads are getting better.
He emphasised that, “the shift in Institutional Structures has brought about the revival of many underperforming projects like the Dualization of Abuja – Lokoja Highway and the Kano – Maiduguri Highway which earlier had design challenges: leading to Six (6) Zonal Ministerial Independent Monitoring Teams, made up of membership from the private sector, which were set up to monitor on-going highway construction and rehabilitation works and render independent quarterly reports.