Senate faults N38bn budget for road repairs as inadequate

• Says federal roads maintenance requires N400bn annually

As Nigerians are lamenting over the deplorable state of roads in the country, the Senate has lean its voice as it has described as grossly inadequate, the N38bn earmarked for federal road repairs in the 2021 budget.

The law makers lamented that with the amount proposed for it, nothing meaningful could be achieved by the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency,(FERMA) across the country.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on FERMA, Senator Gersome Bassey, who stated this recently, disclosed that the country required N400bn annually to maintain the federal roads across the country.

According to him,  “For the 35 kilometres federal roads in the country to be motorable at all times, the sum of N400bn is required on yearly basis for maintenance.”

Bassey affirmed that the N38bn earmarked for maintenance of over 35,000 kilometres federal roads across the country should be reviewed upward because it would not give Nigerians the desired results.

The law maker said  “What the committee submitted to the Appropriation Committee in the 2021 fiscal year is the N38bn proposed for it by the executive which cannot cover up to one quarter of the entire length of deplorable roads in the country .

“Unfortunately, despite having the power of appropriation, we cannot as a committee jerk up the sum since we are not in a position to carry out the estimation of work to be done on each of the specific portion of the road.

“Doing that without proposals to that effect from the executive, may lead to project insertion or padding as often alleged in the media.”