Pay FERMA your N1tr debt to ensure good roads, senator tells FG

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Federal Roads Agency (FERMA), Gershom Bassey, has called on President Buhari to clear N1 trillion it owes the agency and assent to the Federal Road Authority Bill on his table to ensure good roads for Nigerians.

Bassey, who represents Cross River South in the Senate, made the call in a statement, yesterday, in Calabar while giving an account of his performance at the upper chamber.

He said: “We have done an investigation in the Senate, where we agreed that FERMA would require a minimum of N300 billion every year to maintain our roads and there is a backlog of over N1 trillion that had not been paid.

“The budget for FERMA has been slashed to N18 billion from N45 billion it was last year. We need to maintain the road infrastructure that we have. My colleague has talked about rehabilitation but that is very different from maintenance, we need to maintain the road infrastructure we have and the maintenance contracts are for six months typically.

“I think we need to do something about it and prioritise our roads, especially when it is probably the only means of moving goods, services and people from one point to another. Air fares are too high and we don’t have inland waterways, our only way of moving goods, people and services from one point to another is by road; therefore, we must prioritise road maintenance and I want this Senate to urge the President to take another look at the budget for FERMA because we need money to maintain our roads.”

Commending Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Group Managing Director (GMD), Mr. Mele Kyari, on what Nigeria is doing to exploit opportunities to supply gas as presented on the floor of the Senate when the GMD appeared, Bassey said, “I am happy NNPC is proactive in trying to exploit those opportunities, which will have serious consequences for foreign exchange earnings in Nigeria.”