The Senate on Wednesday, urged the Federal Government to consider concessions as means of funding road infrastructure across the country.
The Senate also set up an ad-hoc committee to come up with a compendium of all the affected federal roads and erosion sites across the country either awarded, but abandoned by contractors or had not been awarded at all, to be forwarded to the executive arm for urgent intervention.
It also advised the government to seek alternative funding sources like the Muhammadu Buhari administration did with SUKUK and two others to enable it to deliver on road infrastructure projects.
These resolutions were sequel to a motion, titled, ‘Collapse of road infrastructure in Nigeria’, by the Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau ( APC, Kano North) and co-sponsored by other 107 senators during plenary.
Barau, while presenting the motion, lamented that “so many federal roads are in very deplorable conditions that hardly any part of the country can boast of a motorable road.”
According to him, some of the roads havd been awarded for either construction or rehabilitation only to be abandoned by the contractors after moving to the site.
He said, “Some of these federal roads have been awarded for either construction or rehabilitation only to be abandoned by the contractors after moving to site.
“Several trillions of naira have been spent on road construction and rehabilitation in Nigeria since democracy returned to Nigeria in 1999 with minimal impact on our roads.”
The deputy senate president said that the collapse of the road infrastructure had virtually cut off many parts of the country with its attendant negative impact on trade and commerce.
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