- State govts’ bid to fix federal roads at inflated costs too much for the FG not to notice
Henceforth, state governments that fix federal roads should not expect any compensation from the Federal Government. Works and housing minister, Mr Babatunde Fashola, who made this known on Tuesday in Abuja when he appeared before the House of Representatives’ Ad Hoc Committee on Abandoned Federal Government Projects (Works) from 1999 till date, said this was the directive from President Muhammadu Buhari. The Francis Uduyok-led panel had accused the Federal Ministry of Works of overstretching itself by handling 472 road projects at the same time. The president’s decision was apparently informed by the inflated bills that some state governments submitted for rehabilitation of federal roads.
According to the minister, “The states submitted a bill of almost a trillion naira when President Buhari was elected. He asked us to work out what was their entitlement and all of that. Ultimately, the BPP (the Bureau of Public Procurement) certified about N44bn – I don’t remember the exact amount now – except for two states; I think Cross River and…there’s another state. They didn’t have the documents at the time, which we have sent back to the President. But the decision to pay those inherited debts, including the ones I contracted as Governor of Lagos, was with the caveat that I should tell the governors to leave his (Buhari’s) roads alone. Those were the directives; I was not the one that took the decision.”
Roads have to be maintained if they must be passable all year round. The Federal Government realised this, hence, its creation of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to ensure fast response to road maintenance, by bypassing the bureaucratic bottlenecks in the ministry because of the urgency of FERMA’s task. However, poor funding has led to poor maintenance of roads by the agency, with the result that many Federal Trunk Roads are now more of death traps, as a result of their dilapidated state. State governments would have had no business rehabilitating federal roads if the agency had been as effective as it should be.
But, then, this cannot be excuse for the state governments to inflate the amounts spent on fixing the roads so hugely. It is like stealing too much for the owner not to notice. Indeed, on this score, it is difficult to fault President Buhari’s decision to stop compensating the states for performing the Federal Government’s responsibility. About N44billion verified by the BPE is a far cry from the N1trillion the state governments presented to the Federal Government for reimbursement when President Buhari was elected. No responsible chief executive would close his eyes to such disparity, especially because tax payers’ money is at stake. Moreover, accountability and transparency demand that a thorough audit of such jobs be done before approvals are given for refunds.
We deplore state governments that inflated the contract sums. However, we urge the federal and state governments to find a more sustainable framework to maintain these roads because they are joint stakeholders. It is true the roads are categorised as federal roads, but they are in areas under state governments’ jurisdiction. The truth is; many Nigerians do not remember that the roads belong to the Federal Government when they are bad. They cry to the state governments to fix the roads and the state governments cannot ignore such calls, especially in a democratic era.
If we ask the state governments to bring in Federal Government officials at the onset of the contract award for the rehabilitation, it still does not solve the problem. It does not make the process fool-proof. Perhaps the way out is for the governments to consider tolling some of these roads to get funds for their rehabilitation. As things are, it is not just that FERMA is cash-strapped; it also does not seem to have the capacity to maintain the so-called federal roads nationwide.
Ultimately though, the idea of the central government claiming ownership of roads in states is a misnomer. It is a reflection of the faulty federalism we are practicing. In a true federalism, state governments should be in control of roads in their areas of jurisdiction.
