Time To Rehabilitate The Roads

Now that the rainy season is gone, it is expected that the federal and state governments will embark on rehabilitation of roads nationwide to reduce the hardship encountered by motorists as well as commuters.

Gone is the excuse that rain is preventing the repair of roads or construction of new ones often given by officials of government.

This is why we considered the directive issued to the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, by President Goodluck Jonathan to start fixing all federal roads throughout the country timely.

It is timely because in another four or five months, the rains will begin again and impede work being done on the roads.

This is the time for all the agencies of government in charge of road construction and rehabilitation throughout the country to swing into action by commencing work in earnest. An overview of all the roads in the country will reveal that many of them are in a deplorable state and in need of urgent state intervention. Roads are so bad that the life span of vehicles plying them have reduced drastically.

New cars can hardly spend three years before they start creaking as a result of untarred roads and those with large potholes which are a common feature on the roads.

The rot is all pervasive. It is not limited to roads in the hinterland alone but those designated as state and federal roads.

It is instructive to note that the Minister of Work had taken the challenge given him by Mr. President seriously by appointing six federal highway directors to oversee the fixing of federal roads in the country. It is our hope that this will not just be about motion without movement.

The minister must identify critical roads that are very important to the economy of the country.

In this regard, we want the minister to take cognisance of roads that can be considered as the livewire of the nation owing to the large volume of traffic plying them on daily basis. These roads include the concessioned Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Apapa-Oshodi expressway, Ibadan-Ilorin expressroad, Abuja-Lokoja expressway, Lagos-Benin expressway and others stretched throughout the length and breadth of the country.

It is also our expectation that the state and local governments will take a cue from the federal government and commence massive rehabilitation and construction of roads for people at the grassroots to ensure smooth movement of commuters as well as goods and services.

Thre should no longer be excuses for non performance. The various road rehabilitation gangs should swing into action now and commence a massive rehabilitation of roads nationwide. This is what the citizens expect of the various administrations.