Will the Federal Road Authority ever be created?

The need to transform the road sector in Nigeria necessitated the proposed Federal Road Authority which was first initiated in 1971. Will it ever come to past?

George Kuffour, a citizen of Ghana during his first time visit to Nigeria, came by road rather than fly, because of the closeness of the two countries.

On getting to the seme-border, the entry point to Nigeria, that is, Lagos, what he saw was beyond his imagination. He was driven through bumpy roads right from the border down to Mile two bus-stop.

He was amazed that Nigeria, which is regarded as the giant of Africa could have bad roads when his own small country compared to Nigeria in population could boast of good and motorable roads across the country.

Kuffour is just one of those who are surprised to see bad roads in Nigeria. Every government in place has always promised to address the issue. Some went as far as creating different agencies but it has not yielded any result.

Apapa-Oshodi road begging for attention

One of those agencies created in the past to address the bad roads in the country is the Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA, which was saddled with the responsibility of reconstructing and carrying out maintenance but it has become one of other establishments which just exist.

Due to the non-performance of FERMA, the Federal Roads Authority, FRA and National Road Fund, NRF was initiated in 1971 but due to lack of political will, it has not seen the light of the day till date.

Former minister of works, Dr. Hassan Lawal while in office, assured that no effort would be spared in ensuring early establishment of the authority which, would promote the development of engineering in Nigeria and improve the road network.

He observed that engineering profession is facing great challenge in Nigeria and the entire world, while advanced countries are tackling the decaying infrastructure, the developing countries are battling with the provision of basic facilities to promote economic development.

Many years after he left office, the Federal Roads Authority is yet to see the light of the day. Meanwhile, the present minister of works, Arc Mike Onolememen has decided to see what he can do in that aspect by setting up a Road Sector Reform Committee.

The committee amongst others recommended that government should abide by international best practices in road development by urgently establishing the Federal Roads Authority, FRA and National Road Fund, NRF.

According to the report, when established, the Federal Roads Authority would subsume the functions of the FERMA as it would be responsible for all road related projects in the country, including road construction and maintenance while the federal ministry of works would be responsible for policy formulation and supervision.

There is no doubt that Nigerian roads account for more than 90 per cent of the movement of peoples, goods and services.

Federal roads link the whole country, with a total length of 34,000 kilometres, the longest in Africa. Although it is of strategic importance for national security and commerce, the road is the only transport mode without its own semi-autonomous agency.

Meanwhile, when the price of petroleum was raised from 19 kobo to 25 kobo per litre during the Buhari administration, there was a proposal to use parts of the proceeds to set up a road fund. The Aboyade Presidential Advisory Committee then, was used to set up the Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure, DFFRI.

During the Abacha administration, the proceeds were used to set up the Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF, which made major interventions, in road construction, education, healthcare amongst others.

In 1988, with the establishment of the Federal Road Safety Commission, the Wole Soyinka Governing Council realised that there would be no proper funding of the Agency if there was no Federal Agency for Roads. Therefore, it set up a Committee for the Federal Roads Authority, headed by Engr. Inuwa.

In 1997, the Federal Government set up the Steering Committee for Road Vision 2000, headed by Engr. Michael Adesina from NACCIMA, charged with the task to midwife the National Road Fund and The Roads Board. Maintenance was to be the first focus of the proposed Road Agency. The Abdulsalami Abubakar Government decided to pass the proposal to the incoming Olusegun Obasanjo Administration.

Although President Obasanjo promised to set up the Agency in his "first 100 days in office," the Minister at the time and the bureaucracy did not support the idea. Instead, the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, FERMA was set up.

In June 2008, the then Federal Ministry of Transportation under Diezani Alison-Madueke in collaboration with the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE submitted recommendations to the Government of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua towards the setting up of the Road Fund and the Authority by June 2009. The then Federal Executive Council, FEC approved the recommendations, for a Bill to set up the Road Fund and the Federal Roads Authority but nothing has happen since then.

However, when set up, the FRA is expected to achieve its aim as the allocations from the Subsidy Re-investment Programme SURE-P, will  be complimented by grants, road development bonds, tolls, revenue from concessions, import duty or road related rolling stock, and it could serve as the take-off fund for the proposed Federal Roads Authority.

A road under construction

The delay in setting up a Road Fund has denied Nigerian roads billions of Naira every year, leaving the sole burden of funding roads to budgetary extractions from the Federal Government.

At the outset, funding was a major problem because FERMA was akin to the case of a child coming before its parent. Maintenance is but one of the functions of a full-fledged authority for road administration. The duplication in road management like the Federal Highways Department, Federal Roads Maintenance Engineer in each state and zonal offices which are responsible for construction and major rehabilitation are some of the reasons why FERMA has become vulnerable.

Stakeholders in the road sector are optimistic that the Kolade Committee has the wherewithal to ensure delivery of the Road Agency. They said it will be a major achievement in re-investing the revenues from appropriate pricing of petroleum products. According to them, it is the only permanent solution to the challenge of funding and management of roads in Nigeria.

Chairman of the committee, Dr. Bernard Obika who presented the report to the Minister, Arc Mike Onolememen stated that the Federal Road Authority, as recommended, will be private sector driven to eliminate the usual civil service bureaucracy.

He said it will allow the ministry of Works to focus on guidelines, supervisory and policy implementation aspects.  He noted that the National Road Fund when operational will warehouse adequate funds to sustain an all year round and continuous maintenance of the federal, state and local government roads. 

The committee stated that in order for Nigeria to move towards a sustainable economy commensurate with vision 2020, it needs to increase the total road network from current 193,000 to over 300,000km by 2020. 

It further recommended that the paved network will need to increase from current 60,000km to over 200,000 by the year 2020 with paving of an average 14,000km of roads every year requiring an estimate of N600billion per year.

The minister of works, Arc Mike Onolememen promised that federal government will use the Kolade Committee Report to midwife the reforms in the road sector as part of the transformation agenda of the present administration. 

He assured that government will stop at nothing to establish a Federal Road Authority and a National Road Fund should it be the exclusive requirements to transforming the Nigerian road sector to meet with global standards in road development.

However, the establishment of the Federal Roads Authority has become the slogan of every government since 1971; will the present minister of works, Arc Onolememen make a difference by establishing the much-talked about Federal Roads Authority? Only time will tell.