Senate Seeks N300bn To Fix Niger Roads

The Senate has urged the Federal Government to provide N300billion as an emergency intervention fund to rehabilitate deplorable roads in Niger state.

The Senate also urged the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on the critical roads in Niger State linking economic corridors in the North and South.

It urged the Federal Government to direct the Federal Ministry of Works to carry out emergency stabilisation of the failed portions of Bida-Lapai-Lambatta road to ease the current suffering and rate of accidents and loss of goods and investments on the road.

It urged the “Federal Government to consider an Emergency Intervention Fund for the critical roads in Niger State to the tune of N300 billion to concurrently fix the roads as part of the infrastructure rehabilitation efforts of the government to support ease of doing business and economic recovery across the country.”

The Upper Chamber also called for the convocation of a National Legislative Roundtable on the State of Infrastructure for Economic Development, which will bring all critical stakeholders in the transport and logistics industries together with a view to identifying urgent actions to address the current challenges.

The resolutions of the Upper Chamber followed a motion titled: “The state of Federal roads in Niger State: Call for a state of emergency” moved by Deputy Chief Whip, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abudullahi, who represents Niger North.

In his contribution, Senator Mohammed Sani Musa (Niger East) accused the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, of bias in budgetary provisions for road construction and repairs in Niger State.

Musa said: “Any time we talk about infrastructure, some of the lousy excuses we have is that we have two (former) Presidents that come from that State.

“But these are the two presidents that have done very well in other states. So don’t we deserve to have a good thing in our state? Our roads are in shambles. They are not motorable.

“The Minister of Works is one sided. What we really need is equal opportunity for every sector. I don’t see the reason why other states will benefit from Federal roads and Niger State will not have it.

“That is not fair and I will call on the Senate to do the needful. The (2022) budget is coming and we are going to raise this issue again and we are going to appeal to the leadership to do the needful.”