Protocol;
It
gives me great pleasure to be with you today for the Public Hearing on:
(i) A
Bill For An Act to Repeal The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (Establishment. Etc.) Act
2002 (As Amended) And To Establish The Federal Roads Authority To
Promote A Safe And Efficient Management Of The Federal Roads Network And
For Other Matters Connected Therewith;
(ii) A
Bill For An Act Provide For The Facilitation And Co-Ordination Of
Public Infrastructure Development To Ensure That Infrastructure
Development In The Country Is Given Priority In Planning, Approval And
Implementation; To Ensure That The Development Goals Of
The Country Are Promoted Through Infrastructure Development To Broaden
The Scope Of Funding For Infrastructural Development And To Improve The Management
Of Such Infrastructure During All Life-Cycle Phases, Including
Planning, Approval, Implementation And Operations; And To Provide For Matters Incidental Thereto; and
(iii) A Motion
on the Need For The
Establishment Of Toll Gates On Our Federal Highways.
For
us in the Legislature, Public Hearings are very necessary to enable us incorporate the views and inputs of critical stakeholders
and the general public into the legislative process as
a demonstration that the National Assembly not only belongs to the
people but will also seek the most updated knowledge and information on
matters before us especially Bills and Motions.
Public
Hearings like this also gives us opportunity to receive inputs of
the Executive agencies charged with the responsibility of ensuring the implementation of
the Laws we passed here. This will ensure that any objections
are frontloaded here and resolved rather than after its passage which usually results in gridlock and disruptions to our democracy and national
development.
Nigeria
has a total road network of nearly 200,0000km. Out of this, the Federal
roads constitute about 34,120km representing 17.6% while the rest belong to the states and local governments.
However, the federal roads are our interstate highways that ensure
that we can move goods and services to different parts of the country. Unfortunately, our federal roads are largely dilapidated
and have been unable to serve effectively as economic artery on
which the development of the country and general wellbeing of Nigerians must depend on for the most part. Apart
from paucity of funds and poor implementation of the approved budget these past years, there
are many other challenges that have bedevilled its effective development.
Without
a doubt, finance is very important. But since independence, the
management of our federal roads has relied on a weak governance
structure. It is an aberration that we have continued
to rely
on the Ministry, whose main responsibility ought to be policy design,
formulation, monitoring and evaluation, to be the client, landlord and
managers of our federal roads network. It is this anomaly that the
Federal Roads Authority Bill is designed to address.
Countries all over the world are rethinking their framework and creating more dynamic governance framework for managing their
roads and the time has come for Nigeria to do the same.
The
bills we have set out here for consideration are some of our most
important bills. In terms of the economic impact, the importance of a
good road network as the arterial architecture on which
a modern economy must
rely cannot be overemphasised. Today we have an opportunity to lay for
ourselves and for the generation to come a new foundation on which we
can build a more enduring,
resilient and effective road infrastructure base for the new Nigerian
economy. The Federal Roads Authority Bill is one of
those identified by the National Assembly Business Environment
Roundtable (NASSBER) report
as one of the bills that can have significant impact in reducing the
cost of doing business in Nigeria and give our people the opportunity to
make their enterprises
prosper and create jobs.
The
objectives of the National Integrated Infrastructure Coordinating
Commission Bill 2016 are also reflective of global best practices. There
is a need to have a high-level coordination of Nigeria’s infrastructure
stock because of its great importance to our
development as a nation. Our infrastructure deficit is wide and growing
and there is a National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan. Yet,
just as I said earlier on the roads sector, we do not have an
institutional framework to bridge our infrastructure deficit
in a holistic manner and implement the Master Plan. It is
expected that National Integrated Infrastructure Coordinating Commission
will assume that responsibility just as a similar Commission was
established in South Africa and has been successful in
closing their infrastructure gap.
There
is also an important Motion on the Need for the Establishment of Toll
Gates on our Federal Highways. The objective of the Motion is to study
the Toll Gates policy on effective and efficient ways to implement the
policy aimed at producing a holistic package
to generate adequate funds for roads maintenance and its judicious
utilization to restore confidence in Nigerians.
Today
is really a momentous day in Nigeria’s infrastructure sector and I
commend the Senate Committee on Works for organizing this Public
Hearing. I urge all stakeholders present to make submissions
that will add value to the Bills and Motion under consideration. I assure you that the 8thSenate
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is the people’s Senate and will
continue to do our best to engage the Nigerian people on matters that
have a direct impact on their welfare and progress.
I
wish you very successful deliberations as I formally declare
this Public Hearing open.
May
God bless you and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
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