The Minister of State for Transportation, Sen. Gbemisola Saraki, has tasked stakeholders in the transport sector with ideas that would culminate into fixing Nigerian roads.
Saraki stated this on Friday when she received a delegation of Nigerian Transportation Commissioners’ Forum (NTCF), paid her a working visit and charged them to call a meeting of the Governor’s Forum, the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Transport Unions and the Federal Ministry of Transportation to brainstorm and come up with solutions on how to fix the bad roads across the country.
She similarly suggested that the NTCF should institute a biannual meeting of the Forum with the Ministry as an avenue to discuss the challenges of the sector with a view to formulating a National Policy that will provide succor for road workers and operators.
She also informed the NTCF delegation that the ministry is working on the National Transport Policy that will among other things address the issue of unregulated movement of articulated vehicles.
Regarding the issue of considering tricycle operators in the intervention fund provided by the federal government, the Minister promised to see how the tricycle operators can be captures as they form a major nucleus in the provision of transportation in the city centers.
The leader of the delegation Ramatu Yar’Adua said the visit to the Minister of State was an extension of an early one paid on the Minister of Works and Housing, Babtunde Fashola, with a view to call attention of the ministers to the imminent collapse of roads across the country.
Yar’ Adua disclosed that Niger State has the largest network of roads but the road network has not brought about development as the journey from Minna to Bida which is supposed to be 45 minutes, now takes 3 hours.
Yar’ Adua was accompanied by Transport Commissioners from Borno, Dr. Abubakar Tyjani, and Adamawa, Jika Mustapha, said the
