By Editor
Chairman Senate Committee on Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Senator Gershom Bassey has said Nigerian Roads are consistently in a poor state because the roads cannot carry the weight of goods, services and human traffic.
Specifically, he observed that over 80 percent of goods and services are transported by roads, saying the panacea to the perennial bad roads was to connect Nigeria with rail network.
Senator Bassey, who represents Cross River south senatorial zone at the 9th senate spoke to select journalists shortly after the presentation of the 2021 budget proposal by President Muhammadu Buhari to the joint session of the National Assembly.
Indeed, Bassey was reacting to the priority attached to the Port Harcourt- Maiduguri and Calabar -Lagos railway in the 2021 budget proposal by President Buhari.
Acccording to the lawmaker, movement of goods and services is not encouraged in most countries, stressing that Nigeria should also develop it’s rail infrastructure.
“Yes, I think you need to connect this country, it is very important, today am the chairman of FERMA and I know that over 80 percent of our goods and services are transported by our roads and our roads are consistently in a poor state, because the roads cannot carry this weight of goods, services and human traffic.
“Particularly the movement of goods by roads is not what is encouraged in most countries. Movement of goods and cargo is usually done by rail, so any rail infrastructure that we build that will ease the movement of goods is welcome”.
On the N65billion for presidential amnesty in Niger Delta “I think is good at least, we find that amnesty program, which has been very useful in the Niger Delta is being maintained and I think that is a good sign”.
Commenting on the concern over revenue to finance the 2021 budget and high level of borrowing “for me borrowing is never the issue, it is what you do with the money you borrow that is the most important thing. Yes we have a threshold for borrowing in our laws and so we need to comply with our law, but beyond that for me we really can’t say what the implications are going to be.
“I know that the President said something very important which was the issue of drifting into a recession, that we are drifting into a recession, he used that phrase that we are drifting into a recession and we all know, any student of economics will tell you that to come out of recession is to spend. It is not the time to start to save. You don’t save during recession.
“So in terms of spending, increasing spending, I think that is the right thing to do, but the question is what are you going to spend on and the idea most Nigerians are worried about is spending on recurrent issues and not spending on capital projects, I think that is where the issue is, do you borrow to pay salaries, that is not the right way to borrow.
“But if you are borrowing to fix infrastructure, power etc, then that is the right way to borrow, so these are things we are going to look at in-depth as we consider the 2021 budget and am sure by the time the National Assembly go through the budget we will know exactly where we stand”.
Senator Bassey in a general overview said “my view on the budget is that President Muhammadu Buhari has complied with his constitutional responsibility, which is to bring the budget proposal to the National Assembly.
“And just as the leadership said in the chamber, we are definitely going to go through the budget in extremely thorough manner, but while we are going to be thorough, we also try to be speedy to ensure that we finish the budget before the end of this year.
“So my impression is that I want to thank the President for trying to comply with the time lines we set for ourselves and also complying totally and fully with his constitutional responsibility” he concluded.
