By Ezra Ukanwa, Abuja

The Senate Committee on Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), and the National Institute of Highway and Transportation Engineers (NIHTE) have expressed deep concern over the poor state of road infrastructure across the country, highlighting its detrimental impact on Nigeria’s economy. 

Specifically, they observed that the nation’s economy is being indirectly affected by the poor maintenance culture leading to bad roads, which has deprived Nigerians at lower socio-economic levels of opportunities to secure menial jobs and provide for themselves and their families.

The observation was made when the National Chairman, NIHTE, Engr. Saidu Hassan, led a delegation to pay a courtesy visit to the Chairman, Senate Committee on FERMA, Babangida Hussaini, on Wednesday, in Abuja. 

Speaking earlier, Senator Hussaini, while calling for synergy between the National Assembly and NIHTE to address bad road roads in the country, said that previous FERMA budgets lacked feasible maintenance cost structure. 

He said: “You see the issue of roads and maintenance in general is  a national problem which we kind of treat with levity. 

“I say this because we don’t even understand what maintenance is. Talk to any Nigerian on the street or even the supposedly informed ones and they tell you, Nigeria, we don’t have a maintenance culture. Is not true, maintenance is not a culture, maintenance is an economy. 

“The day we accept that maintenance is an economy, that is the day we will take maintenance to drive our national economy. Take for instance, when you have a failed light bulb here, it represents food on the table to that electrician who is hanging outside, It presents the market and profit or loss for that electrician that my own brother from the southeast who raised money to go to India or China to go and import that item, it represents profit or loss for him. 

“If you take the multiplier effect of replacing that bulb, you will be shocked to see the number of people who feed on this one single item of work. Take the FERMA budget, you will find items of procurement. For instance equipment, but you can’t ever find a line indicating maintenance cost of those equipment, depriving our technical hands the opportunity for them to earn a living. 

“When there is a failed pump here, it represents food on the table for the plumber on the street. The day we appreciate what maintenance is all about, that is the day maintenance will drive our economy. Take maintenance to the next level.”

Speaking on the need for the courtesy visit,  Engr. Hassan, said: “We want to collaborate with them to see that our roads are one of the best roads or to see that things are done professionally and to also give them our technical support. 

“We want to see that our members also adhere to court standards and specifications in whatever they do. At least this visit has enabled us to see that the senator also understands and also talks to us about maintenance because what we lack in this country is a maintenance culture. 

“Because the moment you finish your work today, the maintenance start on that day, you don’t wait until after the lifecycle of that road to start talking about maintenance and when you look at it, most of our roads are in the state they are today because the maintenance started on the lifecycle end of the road so there’s no way you can get the best of it.”