Minister of Works Dave Umahi expresses discontent in Nigerian roads

None of the ongoing road projects in the nation, according to Minister of Works Dave Umahi, can endure seven years.

During a meeting with contractors in charge of federal road construction on Tuesday in Abuja, he mentioned this.

He said that the materials used to build roads were stolen from Nigerians by contractors. 

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 after every 10 years? That is what we’ve been doing. 

“I travelled from Abuja to Benin City through Lokoja, all the stretches of the road are on contract, ongoing. This is through the policy of the last administration, but how many 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’ll brief him on my experience and tell him the truth.”

He referred to the assertions that the price of cement would reach N9,000 per bag if the government constructed concrete roads as untrue and a significant blackmail effort against him by the construction sector cabals.

“I travelled to the South West, I’m not totally unhappy with the project there and supervision as I gave them 80 marks. I’m happy that the directors are doing their work. I went to the part of the North Central, I’m very dissatisfied with the quality work and supervision. I went to Kaduna and I disagree with the design of the Abuja-Kaduna- Zaria-Kano Road.”

He claimed that the ministry employees who neglected to properly manage contracts bore the blood of the victims of traffic accidents.

 “Unless Mr President does something about it, his lofty intention to help this country may not totally be achieved. Documents will be sent to the Bureau of Public Procurement for a no objection certificate and it’ll stay for six months. How will the contractors do the additional job you directed them to do without a backup authorisation.”

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