A member of the House of Representatives, Bamidele Salam has challenged the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola to to travel on Nigerian roads for a period of 90 days to see how bad the road are.
Salam, who represents Ede-North/Ede-South/Egbedore/Ejigbo Federal Constituency of Osun State, called relevant stakeholders to join the Minister on the travel to ascertain how deplorable the road network is across the country.
This came at the backdrop of a statement credited to the Minister that “the roads are not as bad as they are been portrayed in the media.”
Fashola had on Wednesday, shortly after the Federal Executive Council meeting, said, “The roads are not as bad as they are often portrayed. I know that this is going to be your headline, but the roads are not that bad.”
Salam, a member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, however, faulted the minister.
The lawmaker said, “I found this statement, which had been repeated by the Honourable Minister at least on two previous occasions as a clear indication that some of us in public offices are not, at all, in tune with the horrendous realities of our fellow citizens’ daily experience.”
According to Salam, appreciating what Nigerians go through on the bad roads daily requires that public office holders put themselves in the shoes of the average Nigerian and get first-hand experience of how the people survive on daily basis.
He said, “As a member of the House of Representatives Committee on Works, I will be throwing a road travel challenge to the Honourable Minister and all persons concerned to avoid air travel for all local trips in the next 90 days.
“If we will agree to this challenge, we may come back with a better appreciation of the true state of our road infrastructure and the desperate things we need to do to save our economy from further disruptions as a result of the burgeoning crisis in the road transportation sector.”
