NIHTE seeks Senate to facilitate Tinubu’s assent on Road Sector Reform Bills
By Matthew Denis
The Nigerian Institutions of Highway and Transportation Engineers (NIHTE) has appealed to the 10th National Assembly to facilitate President Bola Tinubu’s assent to the Road Sector Reform Bills.
This was disclosed by the National Chairman of NIHTE, Engr. Saidu Hassan during a courtesy visit to the Chairman of Senate Committee on Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) on Wednesday.
He said, “In 2012 a Road Sector Reform Committee was constituted by the Ministry of Works and the committee produced Road Sector Reform Bills that have been passed by the 8th and 9th National Assembly .
“Unfortunately, the Bills weren’t assented to by the previous Administration. We therefore urge the Senate to facilitate the Presidential assent to the Road Sector Reform Bills (that is the Federal Road Authority and National Road Fund Bills) which would provide sound Governance structure based on sectoral professionalism as well as creating sustainable and robust funding for road Development and maintenance in the country.”
The Chairman stressed that the institution is working on her position on the concrete pavement policy and they promise to submit the report to the Senate Committee in a matter of weeks.
According to him some of the excerpts of the NIHTE professionals’ input to the government policy on flexible and rigid pavement should be encouraged for use at heavily trafficked routes and sections with poor subgrade.
“We enjoin the committee to urge the Ministry of Works to immediately begin to Control Axle loads on our roads and highways by introducing weigh-in-motion systems.
“The new policy should be subjected to research and professional considerations in collaboration with public and private sector stakeholders across the country.
“We urge the Senate to demand that the Ministry of Solid Minerals accelerate the exploitation of the bitumen reserves in the country through private investors which will help in conserving our foreign exchange and greatly assist us in the provision of good roads in the country at reduced cost.”
Engr. Hassan recommended very strongly that the Ministry of Steel urgently complete the Ajaokuta Steel Complex with the view to enable access to local steel production to reduce the cost of concrete pavement construction.
He said, “We affirm our support in actualising the agenda of the committee and that of the entire legislatures.”
Responding, the Chairman Senate Committee on FERMA, Senator Babangida Hussaini assured the engineers that the committee will play a critical role in collaborating with them to ensure that the roads network across the country is improved.
He said, “The issue of road maintenance in the country is being taken with levity and some Nigerians take advantage of the spoilt portion of the road to do their businesses.”
Speaking on flexible and rigid pavements he stressed that more research needs to be carried out for a deeper analysis of the cost and benefits of the two pavements.
He said, “I was part of the team that participated in the rigid pavement under the Dangote, Apapa Shaki Ojota projects that is still ongoing. I think we need to be mindful of the benefits that come along with flexible as well, noting that each of them has features of advantages and disadvantages.
“We need to put our money where we can get value for it and I’m not an advocate of the general perception but I like to have facts, engineering reports and experiences of other countries on a particular project.”
Senator Hussaini who was the Former Permanent Secretary Federal Ministry of Works revealed that the U.S. is the pioneer of rigid pavement but most of the roads in the U.S. today use flexible pavement, which he needs to be convinced that “is the best way to go.”
The Senator noted, “Service Providers are part of the system and I believe all of us need to be circumspect in the way we react to issues.”
He stressed that they as Legislators will always do their roles in synergising with other arms of government for better roads network and maintenance in the country.
