By Bassey Inyang in Calabar:
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Roads Agency (FERMA), Senator Gershom Bassey has urged the Presidency to pay up the backlog of about N1 trillion it owes the road maintenance agency. Bassey, who is the representative of the Cross River South Senatorial district said the non-payment of the backlog to the agency had hampered its effective performance because it requires at least N300 billion yearly to maintain federal roads.
In a statement he made available to journalists at the weekend in Calabar, on his contributions to the debate on the state of federal roads, Bassey said he agreed with the position of Chairman Works committee, Senator Adamu Alero on the matter.
“I also add that at a time in this senate, we have proffered so many solutions to the executive on road maintenance in the short, medium and long terms. Some of those issues are on the President’s table for assent, issues like the Federal Road Authority, which are sustainable solutions to this road problem and I hope that he would sign and accent those bills that are on his table.
“At a time when we are having serious problems with our roads as attested to by many of my colleagues, it is curious and I want this senate to intervene in this…So while we had done an investigation in this senate, where we agreed that FERMA would require a minimum of N300 billion every year just to maintain our roads and there was a backlog of over N1 trillion that had not been paid based on the law that was passed in the senate in 2009 on FERMA,” Bassey said.
Bassey said the budget for FERMA was slashed to N18 billion from N45 billion last year, saying, “We need to maintain the road infrastructure that we have. My colleague has talked about rehabilitation, but that is very different from maintenance. We need to maintain the road infrastructure we have and the maintenance contracts are for six months typically and this goes straight to the heart of the matter.”
Bassey, who is also the Cross River Caucus Chairman in the National Assembly said, “there is need to do something about it and prioritise our roads, especially when it is probably the only means of moving goods, services and people from one point to another. Air fares are too high and we don’t have inland waterways, our only way of moving goods, people and services from one point to another is by road, therefore we must prioritise road maintenance and i want this senate to urge the President to take another look at the budget for FERMA because we need money to maintain our roads.”
Bassey, also spoke on his expectations from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) with regards to the supply of gas to Europe as disclosed by the company’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Mele Kyari said: ” I am happy NNPCL is proactive in trying to exploit those opportunities which will have serious consequences for foreign exchange earnings in Nigeria.”However, Bassey asked the GCEO to explain why was so difficult for the management of the company to identify those involved in crude oil theft.“If we know all the legal tankers and badges leaving our shores, and we have the control room that monitors all of these, how is it that we cannot name and shame every single illegal operator in our waters?
“I would have liked a situation where, as a result of all these monitoring capacity, trackers and so on, we could sit down and identify the legal and illegal tankers and name the ships, owners and operators,” he added.
On the claims by the NNPCL that there was no crude oil transaction that could be done without the banks, Bassey said it was apparent that the government have more information on the perpetrators of crude oil theft in the country.
