By Favour Nnabugwu

The Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, SURE-P has assured Nigerians of smooth driving through the nation’s roads as funds are being provided for road rehabilitations.

The Convener, SURE-P/ Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA on Public Works, Dr. Ngozi Olojeme, boasted that Nigerian roads are safe for smooth driving.

“Roads are actively being maintained in the phase one of the project. Nigerian roads were left in a dilapidated state to the extent that a lot of lives were lost. FERMA is devoting its energy to road maintenance all over the country. We have to work daily to achieve our mandate. We have been travelling across the states to ensure results are achieved. We are doing it geopolitically and every state will be adequately represented, so that Nigerians can travel on well maintained roads,” she said.

Dr. Olojeme boasted: “Nigerian roads are no more death traps. If you say they were death traps, yes, but now, they are not.”

She spoke while leading SURE-P’s technical partners, Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, FERMA, on an inspection tour of the Abuja-Kaduna highway where workers were patching different portions of the road and clearing the grass along the median.

She also disclosed that five motorised truck slashers have been  procured to hasten work on five major roads. They are Enugu-Port-Harcourt, Benin-Ore, Benin-Asaba, Ibadan-Ife, and Abuja-Kaduna highways.

Reaffirming the Federal Government’s determination to keep the Federal highways free of potholes all-year round, Olojeme stated that about 5,000 workers youths have been employed so far, and that the figure would be scaled up to 10,000 by year-end in first instance.

The aim, she said, was that they would provide safe, motorable road linkages across the economic zones of the country.

Speaking on cracks that were visible along the roads, she said keeping watch and patching them was the essence of the SURE-P public works programme.