The Public Hearing on a Bill to repeal the laws establishing Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, FERMA, and the reenactment of the Federal Roads Authority, and establish infrastructure development commission has begun in Abuja on Monday.
The move, which is at the instance of Senate Committee on Works, would repeal the infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission and the Reenactment of the Public Private Partnership Regulatory Commission as well as establishment of Toll Gates on the nation’s highways.
Chairman of the Committee, Senator Kabiru Gaya, while decrying the dilapidation of road infrastructures across the country due to ineptitude of road maintenance agency, stressed that there was need for institutional framework to chart the way forward.
He said the repeal will come up with an agency that will facilitate transportation services in Nigeria, noting that Nigerians have been at the receiving end.
“Infrastructure provides the backbone for national prosperity, growth and development. They facilitate transport and ultimately boost the health and education of the people that enables the economy to flourish.”
He added that lack of road maintenance has increased the cost of transportation in the country.
“For long the Nigerian people have been at the receiving end of our dilapidated infrastructure. It has also increased the cost of doing business and continues to slow down economic growth,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, in his submission, explained that scrapping FERMA will be counter productive.
He added that the agency has dome its best in the past to ensure that roads were maintained, saying challenges facing FERMA were caused by under funding.
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