Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, says Nigerian roads are not as bad as many people claim. He made this statement on Tuesday in his keynote address at the United Nations capacity building programme for the Federal Road Safety Corps in Abuja.
He said what the roads needed was routine maintenance to be in good shape. The minister, however, said that some of the roads had outlived their design.
The minister said, “They were built in the 1970s, and not only have they outlived their design life, they have had to deal with tonnage and capacities well beyond what their design intended.
"Can such a road be truly expected to stay intact and deliver a pleasant motoring experience? "Thankfully, these type of roads are now receiving attention.”
He further said, “Members of the public must know that roads are depreciating assets. They do not last forever and require regular maintenance and, with time, replacement, if they are to serve their intended purpose.
"These factors of abuse and lack of maintenance combine to reduce the quality of our motoring experience on the roads. "With this background, I will now pose the question: How bad are our roads? Some have repeatedly said, ‘All the roads are bad" That is not true. We have good parts and bad parts caused by abuse and lack of maintenance.”
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