The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has said that in a bid to reduce the workload on the Federal Government and allow it to focus on other things, state Governments should be more willing to take over the maintenance and repairs of Federal roads.
This was said in a meeting presided over by President Buhari and they stated that states that could afford it should help in the repairing of the roads so as not to have the roads fall into complete disrepair.
Aisha Alhassan, who is the Minister of Women Affairs stated that the FEC had approved a memo from the Kaduna state governor Nasir El-Rufai to have 2 federal roads redesignated to state roads so as to be able to repair it without any impediment.
El-Rufai reportedly sent a request to President Buhari to re-designate the Nnamdi Azikwe and Ahmadu Bello Expressways in Kaduna as state roads so as to be able to repair it.
Alhassan said that the FEC were quite happy with that development and they were expecting other Governors to do the same even if they asked for reimbursement later.
“But he (El -Rufai) asked for outright handing over to the Kaduna State government so that they can take care of it as their own, and asked the Federal Government to complete the eastern by-pass which is outside Kaduna linking the North-central to North-western Nigeria. That was also approved by the council because it is an excellent idea.
“The council also appealed to other state governments that can afford to take over federal roads to lessen the burden on the Federal Government, to enable them repair and maintain roads as quickly as possible so that they don’t go into total deterioration,” the Minister said.