The state of Nigerian roads is shameful. It is unfortunate that Nigeria’s roads have become death traps for millions of road users. In 2017, the Federal Road Safety Corps reported 5,121 road deaths, a 1.3% increase compared to 2016. But the World Health Organisation (WHO) said the figure released by the FRSC is very likely to be largely underreported. The WHO in its 2018 global status report estimated the number of road deaths in Nigeria at around 40 000 annually.
In spite the huge allocation appropriated for road construction and maintenance annually, the state of our roads is far worse. According the World Bank, the cost of constructing a kilometer of road in Nigeria is between N400 million and N1 billion.
The 2019 budget, N124bn was proposed for the construction of roads across the country whileN103.3bn was proposed for road repairs. In spite the amount being just a drop in the ocean compared to the state of roads across the country, majority of the sum appropriated for construction and maintenance of these roads are never released, the little released are also embezzled by contractors, politicians and civil servants.
Apart from insecurity, disease, the other cause of avoidable death in Nigeria remains road crash. IMPACT NEWS submits that these deaths on our road should be placed at the door steps of our leaders, civil servants and the contractors who connived to embezzled funds meant for construction and maintenance of roads.
For instance the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which is the major high way in the country and the link between Lagos, the commercial nerve centre of the country and other states of the country remains under construction for decades. That road like many others in the country has claimed lots of lives due to the state of the road. In 2016, the Federal Government budgeted N50bn for the expressway, yet the road remains under construction.
We are not unaware that it is not all gloom in the Federal Government’s efforts to put roads in the country in good shape. In 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari signed Executive Order seven that granted go ahead for the construction of 794km roads across the country by private organisations.
The executive order which is focused on Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme, is targeted in its pilot phase at 19 critical roads across 11 states spread across the six geo-political zones of the country.
Six construction and manufacturing companies would partner with the government to construct the roads while they are expected to recover their costs through tax rebates.
It is therefore important that as a matter of urgency and importance, roads across the country should be fixed for safety of Nigerians. On another hand, the cost of constructing roads in Nigeria should be reviewed and ensured that the process is thoroughly devoid of corruption and wastage.
