Emmanuel Bello, a former commissioner of
information in Taraba state, says the minister in
charge of roads should stop flying and start
using roads to know how bad they are.
It is the ministry of power, works and housing,
which Babatunde Fashola, presides over, that is
in charge of roads.
Speaking with journalists on Monday, Bello said
the elitist class do not feel the pain millions
Nigerians go through on the roads because air
transport “has a way of detaching the nation’s
policy makers from reality”.
The public affairs analyst said more attention
needs to be paid to the country’s roads because
“Nigeria is still a road economy and we have to
conquer the land before colonising the air.”
He said there should be nothing as federal roads
so states could “wade in to reduce the hardship
of their people.”
“I believe our elite don’t feel the pains millions
go through daily on the roads. I have nothing
against air transportation as I use it too. Our
political class should do more road
transportation,” Bello said.
“In fact, they should patronise public transport
from time to time to appreciate the horrors and
nightmares called Nigerian roads. The road from
Jalingo to Numan on your way to Gombe, for
instance, is a horror flick. It is a federal road but
we must forget this thing called federal roads
and urge state governments to wade in to reduce
the hardship of their people.
“The minister in charge of the road sector must
just find a way to stop flying and start using the
roads. I think he should spend a week going
round these roads to know what we are talking
about.
“He can’t fix all the roads at once but he should
do biometrics of these highways, not just in one
part of the country but all over.
“I believe the governors must come together and
collaborate on this one too. And we must stop
seeing roads as belonging to the federal
government. I think there is even a policy in
place where if they fix the so-called federal
roads passing through their domains, they get
refunded.
“At the local government level, efforts must be
made to at least grade roads and make life
bearable for the farmers and other road users.
We can’t claim to be serious about development
until and unless we declare a state of emergency
in the road sector.”