The Nigerian Minister of Works, Dave Umahi has disclosed that there is no existing federal road in the country that can last up to seven years.
Umahi said he made the findings while on a road inspection tour crisscrossing the entire nation. He stated that some roads are riddled with potholes and have deteriorated into “boreholes”.
The Minister who also accused contractors of cheating Nigerians with the materials they use to construct roads in the country, stated that they increase the cost of their projects to swindle Nigerians through contract variation and the use of asphalt materials, which are subject to the international price of crude oil.
Also stressing the importance of thorough documentation and clearance procedures, Umahi added that contracts would not be signed without the necessary design plans and original road blueprints.
He said;
“There is no project being constructed right now in Nigeria that is going to last for seven years. The question is are we going to be maintaining or reconstructing our roads every 10 years? That is what we have been doing. I travelled from Abuja to Benin City through Lokoja, all the stretches of the road are on contract, and ongoing, this is through the policy of the last administration but how much of the roads are motorable? I travelled through the roads myself and I shed tears for the kind of pain our people are going through.
“I spent 14 hours on the road having started my journey at 10 am and got to Benin City at 2 pm the next day and I was very happy I experienced the pains. President Tinubu said I must travel through all the projects so that I could brief him on my experience and tell him the truth.
“Unless Mr. President does something about our procurement, his lofty intention to help this country may not be achieved. documents will be sent to the Bureau of Public Procurement for a no-objection certificate and it will stay for six months. How will the contractors do the additional job you directed them to do without backup authorisation.”
The minister also described the claim of cement prices going up to N9,000 if the government starts doing concrete roads, as false.
He said;
“This is my line of instructions and I will do whatever the president instructs me to do he is the only one and God that can cancel my instructions so don’t waste your time reporting me to anyone apart from these two. No matter the amount of blackmail and lies, it will not prevail.”
