Before the coming of the current administration being piloted by a universally acclaimed anti-corruption crusader, President Muhammadu Buhari, motorists plying federal roads across the 36 states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory, found it a herculean task to have a smooth ride. This was in view of the deplorable conditions of road network crisscrossing the nooks and crannies of the country. This undesirable situation, no doubt, caused a lot of damages, ranging from accidents that result to the loss of human lives, longer travel time, vehicle breakdown, traffic gridlock to infrastructure decay.
Owing to the depiladated infrastructure in the country including roads, the All Progressives Congress (APC) led government formulated a development agenda aimed at the accelerated revitalisation and transformation of all sectors of the nation’s economy. Thus, federal roads were given utmost priority under the Buhari government’s economic transformation agenda resulting in the upgrade of trunk-A roads across Nigeria.
It’s indeed worthy of note that this feat was achieved by the pragmatic and robust policies put in place by Engineer Nurudeen Rafindadi, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), which has the mandate of maintaining federal roads across Nigeria. To say his result-oriented policies have greatly given federal roads across Nigeria a major face-lift is more like demanding to know whether motorists in Nigeria are still experiencing fuel scarcity which was almost a weekly occurrence during the preceding governments in Nigeria.
At the moment, which we assume shall be a good developmentental omen, commuters across Nigeria and Nigerians who are in road transport business are on daily basis smiling to the banks due to high the high quality of road construction and maintenance executed by the current APC led government as engineered by the management of FERMA and steered by its workaholic technocrat, Engineer Rafindadi.
Many Nigerians are, indeed, having a good time and making huge gains because potholes and dangerous spots on the federal highways have been completely fixed with high tech materials. The facelift of federal roads, has, no doubt, made Nigerian commuters and even non-citizens of Nigeria plying the federal highways to have smooth, faster, comfortable, durable and stress-free journeys. This is a radical departure from the past where more than half of the profit made by road transporters in most cases is expended on repairs and maintenance of their vehicles due to unavoidable breakdown and accidents as a result of bad roads.
In the same vein, after the national road repairs were massively, judiciously and impressively carried out by FERMA, vehicular journeys which hitherto took several hours to make can now be undertaken within few hours. A very good example is the Abuja-Keffi Trunk-A road linking Lafia-Makurdi, Enugu-Onitsha as well as Abuja Trunk-A road linking Keffi-Jos in Plateau state and Bauchi-Gombe, through to Yola-Maiduguri. In all these Trunk-A roads mentioned, enormous bad spots and pothole repairs had been executed, all thanks to the quintessential leadership style of the distinguished technocrat and detribalised Engineer Rafindadi.
Furthermore, a spectacular and earthshaking achievement recorded by the management of FERMA, spearheaded by Engineer Rafindadi, which prompted this analysis, is the recent repairs carried out by FERMA at a popular death trap along Abuja-Keffi road. The spot, popularly known as Sharp-corner, is in Mararaba, Nasarawa state. Before now, the spot in question which necessitated this analysis was a nightmare, especially ,during the rainy season.
The bad shape of the road, according to reliable sources, is attributed to poor work done by the contractor. The contractor failed to construct well-built drainage to enable safe, speedy and smooth flow of water across the opposite side of the road. Consequently, whenever there is a downpour, most of the waters accumulated due to the heavy rains, instantly form unbelievable stream on both lanes of the roads, posing danger that usually result to the loss of lives and destruction of properties worth millions of naira. However, thanks for the recent repairs carried out by FERMA on that particular spot which has completely put an end to the outpouring of waters on the roads during downpours as well as severe road gridlock.
Again, the maintenance and total repairs of Katsina-Daura road, Katsina-Kano, Kaduna-Kano, Abuja-Minna, etc are as well a landmark achievement recorded by FERMA that should not be swept under the carpet. As far as Alhaji Ishiaku Abdul and Chief Ken Chukwudi, who are road transporters, are concerned, the best thing that has ever happened to FERMA since it was established decades ago, is to have Engineer Nurudeen Rafindadi at its helms of affairs as the managing director. They believe that Rafindadi’s achievements especially in the area of massive Trunk-A roads repairs and maintenance across Nigeria is a height that most of his predecessors never attained.
Space and time constraints will not allow me to highlight the positive views of many drivers and commuters who regularly ply Trunk-A roads for business and other activities. However, it will be a grave injustice to disregard the remarks of Mama Ngozi, a renowned food merchant who plies her trade between the North and Southern part of Nigeria. Mama Ngozi, who was beaming with indescribable smiles while interviewing her in the course of compiling this analysis, voiced out to me that due to the deplorable condition of roads, especially, federal roads in the past which made her unable to continue with her business, she became completely handicapped to the level that three of her children dropped out of higher institution due to lack of funds for her to pay their tuition fees.
She recounted that before the coming of this present APC led government, being steered by President Buhari, ‘On five good occasions, her three fully loaded lorries of food produce worth millions of naira that she was transporting from Jallingo in Taraba state to Port Harcourt in Rivers state, never arrived her desired destination; they got perished on the roads due to deplorable condition of roads as at then which made the lorries to have fatal accidents. As far as Mama Ngozi is concerned, the best thing that has ever happened to her since the coming of the Buhari government is the restoration of her food produce business.
She claimed with ecstasy and evidence that it has greatly and positively improved her standard of living, with special appreciation and all thanks for the massive federal roads maintenance and repairs carried out by FERMA led by the detribalized, sociable, intelligent, humane, God-fearing, national and international award winning Engineer Nurudeen Rafindadi. Mama Ngozi’s remarks on the high improvement of Trunk-A roads across Nigeria is just one out of many.
For Hajia Bilikisu Musawa and Alhaji Baba Adamu, who are well-known goat and beef inter-states dealers in Okigwe, Abia state, the improvement on federal roads is not only making their business easy and encouraging but also raising their profits tremendously. This was unlike in the past where almost more than half of their profit is spent on high cost of transporting their goods from the North to the South.
Indeed, FERMA, under the leadership of Engineer Rafindadi, is excellently working. We hope and pray that as he strives to do more to ensure better federal roads across every segment of Nigeria, the Almighty God will continue to strengthen, protect and guide him to accomplish his noble objective. We also pray for the improvement of Nigeria’s economy so that every citizen of Nigeria will benefit from the pragmatic policies of the Buhari administration, particularly in the road sector.
Ogbe writes from Abuja.Show quoted text
