Federal Roads Maintenance Agency was enacted precisely 2002 by the National Assembly. FERMA indeed became Nigeria’s first institutional mechanism for monitoring and maintaining all Federal roads in the country. Alas! What’s happening along the line most of our Federal roads are in dilapidated state, which causes losses of lives on daily basis across the nooks and crannies of the country.
It’s cause of concern to Nigerians the deteriorating conditions of our roadway pavement is susceptible to suffering damage and cause serious crash.
Poor maintenance of the roads by FERMA resulted in; falling shoulders, potholes, cracked pavement, and even sinkholes. Any of these can result in damaging vehicles, such as problems with the suspension of tires. Hitting a pothole or dip in the road can lead to a tire blowing out that would throw the vehicle out of the roadway pavement, causing a crash.
Sorrowfully, we have loss uncountable numbers of people along, Kano- Maiduguri highway, especially, through Wudil- Gaya local government axis. Even though, the road is under construction, but the section shouldn’t be left at its present state.
The story is not different along Kano- Abuja highway, Abuja- Jos- Bauchi too need urgent attention. most of the pavement where there’s vehicular movement are death traps, FERMA attention is much needed to at least to ease the suffering of travellers.
Proper supervision by relevant authorities can also be of helpful to checkmate the activities of the agency.
The National Assembly, which is responsible for oversight functions, should as a matter of priority checkmate the activities of FERMA, if the agency budgetary allocation is poor, federal government should make necessary arrangements for the sake of saving lives of commuters.
When FERMA function effectively roads that are properly maintained are much more likely to suffer less damage over time and can withstand more bad weather occurrences. Major roadways, such as interstates or larger, more heavily traveled state highways are expected to be given more attention by FERMA at least to reduce accident to minimum level thereby saving lives of the citizenry.
Tijjani writes from Azare, Bauchi State.
