By Jude Njoku

The Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Works, is currently executing 184 road contracts across the the six geo-political zones in Nigeria.

The Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, an architect, who disclosed this in an interview, explained that majority of contracts were inherited by the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

A breakdown shows that the South East has 45 projects, followed by the South South with 32 projects. The North Central and South West zones have 30 projects each while North East and North West have 27 and 20 projects respectively.

The Minister reiterated government’s resolve to improve the road sector for enhanced economic activities and social integration.

Onolememen said the Jonathan administration inherited Federal roads which were generally described as death trap. According to him, only about 5,000 kilometres of Federal roads were in a fair condition in 2011.

He was elated that presently, 25,000 kilometres of the 35,000 kilometres of Federal roads “are now in good and motorable conditions, with some of the road alignments comparing favorably with roads in the developed part of the World”.

The Minister stated that throughout the six geo- political zones, travel times have been reduced between origins and destinations. Similarly, the cost of vehicle maintenance has been drastically reduced while accidents and carnage on Nigerian roads have been reduced due to better pavement design and construction.

Onolememen noted that the advent of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, SURE-P, which ensured additional funding of selected projects in the road sector, has resulted in enhanced service delivery in the sector and led to the remarkable progress witnessed in 2013 on the dualization of four key arterial roads across the country.

These roads include the dualization of Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja highway, Kano-Maiduguri highway and the rehabilitation of Onitsha-Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway.

Others include the rehabilitation of Benin-Ore-Shagamu expressway, Lagos-Shagamu-Ibadan expressway and the construction of the new Loko-Oweto Bridge over River Benue in Nasarawa and Benue States,as well as the early works on the 2nd Niger Bridge in Anambra and Delta States, among others.

The Minister identified challenges impeding the speedy delivery of these projects to include the insurgency in the North-East, excess axle load of trucks beyond acceptable tonnage on highways, indiscriminate cutting across the highways, burning of tyres on the roads, erection of bumps on roads, destruction of road furniture as well as encroachment on right of ways.