By Olorundare Enimola
That the Nigerian governments at all levels are not overwhelmed with road infrastructure development is an understatement as the weariness of these governments can be seen from the massive neglect and underdevelopment associated with major road networks which are apparently pivotal to the Country’s developmental need and economic advancement, but left to suffer undue neglect from what the leaders attribute to paucity of funds.
Tinubu, is seeking to make Nigeria attractive to investors in a bid to revive an economy bedeviled by slow growth, rising inflation and huge debt, by visiting more than 10 countries, including, Dubai, Britain, France, United States, Germany, India, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Guinea-Bissau and Benin Republic
He has attended several international fora for the purpose of luring investors to a Country whose major means of transportation of goods and passengers is in a decrepit state.
Transportation of goods and services, includ¬ing humans, from one place to another is the engine for socio-economic growth and developments.
It is also a critical factor for achieving key national trans¬formational goals and objec¬tives.
The nerve of development is embedded in its effective transport system.
More importantly, without transportation, nations, re¬gions and the world at large would be restricted in devel¬opmental activities and this makes the transport system an indis-pensable factor for physical and economic growth.
In the ‘60s and ‘70s, road and rail transport systems were used alternatively to transport goods in Nigeria.
But, the use of the rail system was abandoned in the 80s re¬sulting to lots of pressure on the roads, leading to busy and depreciating road network, causing lots of negative exter¬nalities in the form of traffic, crashes, potholes, cracks and low productivity in the econ¬omy.
Nigerian rail lines as at the year 2011 were 4,332 km, while the country has 193,200 km of roads, made up of 34,123 km of federal roads, 30,500km state roads and 129,577 local govern-ment roads.
What the above data trans¬lates is that, the rail track in Nigeria is less than 5% of the total road network, and as it stands today, less than 50% of these rail tracks are in opera¬tion, indicating that the nois¬es made about improving the rails for effective transportation are mere rhetoric with just little to show for all the media hype.
So much has been talked about the Lagos to Calabar rail network; a rail network that will service the ever busy south west of the country to the southeast and the South-South, but nothing has been fiscally committed to it.
The roads in Nigeria today are rather used to freight over 95% of the total goods and services with¬in the country, with the terri¬ble state of the road networks spread across the country as testimonial to the pressures.
Even if the entire rail net¬works in Nigeria were to be in full operations, yet it will only be able to cater for a small chunk of the entire freight requirement of the country, while the time taken to use the rails to freight from point A to point B, is also a cause for con¬cern owing to the antiquated train model still in use.
The effect of dilapidated road networks on businesses cannot be over-emphasised. Many roads in Nigeria are in a deplorable state, serving as death traps, regardless of whether they are funded by federal or state governments.
In Ogun State alone, Agbara-Igbesa axis hosts, reputed to be the biggest industrial hub in Nigeria with hundreds of companies quoted in the Nigeria Stock Exchange has no constructed road network leading to it, especially from the Ogun State end, leaving company owners at the axis for many years to complain about governments’ abandonment of the road despite its economic importance.
A director in a food manufacturing outfit in Agbara, said his company’s trucks broke down from time to time, noting that it was raising the firm’s logistics costs through constant vehicle maintenance, which he estimated at over N300,000 monthly.
The Lagos – Abeokuta Expressway is an 81-kilometre-long expressway connecting Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State to Ikeja, the capital of Lagos, Nigeria’s business capital.
It is one of Nigeria’s busiest highways, linking people living in metropolitan Lagos, with people living at the suburbs of the state and adjoining towns in Ogun West.
The expressway is a very important trunk ‘A’ road used for conveying raw materials and finished products to and fro the massive Ota and Agbara industrial hubs, acclaimed to be Nigeria’s biggest industrial area.
Copied : THE ROADS JOURNAL
Daily Independent
No comments:
Post a Comment