1.1INTRODUCTION
Since the Nigerian road sector accounts for about 90 per cent of the movement of goods and services within the country, thereby accounting for about 60 per cent of development initiative in all sectors of the economy, the need to accord road sector priority attention in order to overcome developmental challenges cannot be overemphasized. Appraise the economic implications of the neglect and efforts being made to arrest the decay in road infrastructure in the country. Although some semblance of global economic recovery is reported in some countries, particularly America, problems of lack of infrastructures or its decay is impeding economic development in Nigeria. The problem has continued unabated because when transportation decision-makers at the federal, state, and local levels discuss possible investments in highway infrastructure and the impacts, they sometimes overlook one very important potential impact – the economic benefits to national productivity and employment.
The policy makers seemed to be oblivious of the fact that good, dependable transportation infrastructure, be it roads, rail, airports, seaports allow businesses to receive inputs to production facilities and to transport finished goods to market in an efficient manner. An efficient transportation system enable companies to lower transportation costs, which lowers production costs and enhances productivity and profit simply because they are the arteries for the free flow of people, goods and information. These are three indices necessary in a manufacturing and export economy. Thus, the lack of good roads in Nigeria, a country undoubtedly rich in human and mineral resources has impaired its economic growth. To say that most roads in the country are in a horrendous state is an understatement. The countless potholes and irritating detours that dots the roads are the causes of road accidents often recorded on the roads. Statistics based on recent studies reveal that Nigeria is currently losing about N80billion annually due to the deplorable condition of roads across the country. This revelation, contained in a document titled, “Situation Analysis of Land Transport in Nigeria also noted that the country was incurring additional N35billion annually as operating costs, owing to the worsening condition of its network of roads.
The Homework on Challenges Faced by a Country for Economic Development
An economy is flourishing and is shown to be beneficial and fruitful for the people living in it only when the growth of the economy goes up continuously. It is essential for a country to not only develop politically or socially but it also needs to demonstrate economic development in order to sustain in the international market and in order to come ahead of other countries. But it is not very ...
1.2OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
this work is built bon arresting the road problems being faced in Nigeria and it’s impact to the economy of the nation. Nigeria has in the year past encountered a lot of depreciation in the economy sector due to bad bard roads. This work has try to put forth the possible ways of handling this road network problem which has chased many foreign investors away. 1.3DEFINITION OF TERMS
ECONOMY: this is the state of a country in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services and the supply of money. (FMW): Federal Ministry of Works
(ERF): European Redistribution Facility.
(PDCMR): planning, design, construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation. This is an international procedure for the sustenance of any road network. HORRENDOUS STATE: this is the state at which an issue is very unpleasant or horrifying.
Chapter two
2.1literature review
This write-up aroused that only purposeful and realistic planning can lay the solid foundation for sustained economic greatness of the Nigerian roads which will form the base for the coming generation to build upon. Any thing out side will FAIL. There is urgent need to preach breakage from past wastefulness, negligence, deceit and bad policy as regard the road network in the country. The performance of the Nigerian roads sector has not been satisfactory despite its enormous potentials for growth and development. Perhaps the most serious issue is that the poor transport facilities and infrastructure have severely delayed economic development and has contributed negatively to all attempts to alleviate poverty in the country. Nigeria is still considered poor with a low per capita income with a high proportion of the population poor vulnerable despite modest economic growth in the last political dispensation. The provision of roads and transportation facilities are fundamentally important to the development of Nigeria as well as the economy of the nation. Nigerian roads need urgent attentions, considering that an average of 30% goods damage everyday by road accidents. However, insensitivity has marred rural roads, perpetuated by roads engineers, professionals, users, and politician at state and national level.
The Research paper on The Nigerian Economy
The Federal Republic of Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country with a population of 148-million based on the United Nations estimate in 2007. Taken as human resources as one of the assets for economic development, overpopulation in Nigeria, however, has become one of its main concerns. Despite the fact that it is Africa’s leading oil producer (mostly found in Niger Delta), more than half of ...
They have never considered the important roles rural life and rural economy played in ensuring a more tranquil country and economy. With all the foregoing highway reforms, propaganda and campaign, we have to ensure that the future we build is the one we want, not the one we could have avoided by unnecessarily adopting collated reforms of other developing country. Over 80% of urban roads evolved from rural road that were taken over and turned into federal highways. The Federal Ministry of Works is charged with the responsibility for the planning, design, construction and maintenance of the Federal Highways. The 36 State Ministries of Works and Transport have similar responsibility for the State roads while the 774 Local Government Works Departments have the responsibilities for Local Government roads. Simply put, they might have failed. The works and the workings of the Works ministry are no longer workable. No, this is not a Film Review! It is though, a comment upon the manner in which our roads are gravely deteriorating and the fruitless efforts been implemented to address the problems.
From 1999 to 2003, the government committed over N360 billion, have only a very scanty result in road maintenance and construction to show for it. This has greatly contradicted the fake-vision of the president based on the above inaugural address for road maintenance. Maintenance of roads, instead of building new roads should get priority. In addition, a large number of roads are made without proper construction method and suffer from sub-standard construction work. It is only in Nigeria that a road contractor finishes 10 km of roads in 3 days. Within a short period, the quality of such roads rapidly deteriorates. The above is justified considering the fact that of the over 33,000km of Federal Highways in Nigeria, only less that 9000km of roads and bridge projects covering the six geo-political zone is been completed or on-going from may 1999 to 2006. The negative approach to acceptable standards in road maintenance policies is Nigeria’s major problem. Maintenance is the provision of means to preserve the value of existing assets against depreciation, while rehabilitation is the refurbishment of an asset after near or total collapse.
The Essay on Importance of good roads in a country
Good roads are essential for the development of a country. The Romans realized this centuries ago. Wherever they established themselves, they tried to improve the roads there. Today, the governments of all countries in the world are building more and more roads to gain access to the remotest regions of their countries. Roads link towns and villages and enable the people of one place to communicate ...
In Nigeria, from time immemorial, roads that are supposed to be maintained are merely redecorated, while roads that are supposed to be rehabilitated were just overlaid with some asphaltic material. It is difficult differentiating between rehabilitation and maintenance of roads in the Nigerian context. For example, the budget of 2002 provides only N5.1 billion Naira for maintenance works compared to the 38.6 billion Naira provided for rehabilitation. This only shows the extent of our understanding in differentiating between rehabilitation and maintenance. The professional consultants and consulting firms employed by the Ministry are not helping matter. It is only in Nigeria that the consultant is viewed as a mechanism for creating drawings. It does not matter what is on the drawings, whether they are right or wrong, or if design can be constructed. As long as there are computer drawings, the paperwork to say that there are drawings, together with the paperwork saying that the paperwork relating to the drawings, together with the drawings has been issued to the contractor, then everything is fine; and a road is given birth to.
Chapter three
3.1Rescuing Nigeria’s Economy From The Yoke Of Bad Roads
The Homework on Countries Women Men Work Government
In the last year alone fifty five percent of women around the world were suffering from depression, nausea and stroke. Even worse five women out of ten are committing suicide. All of these cases and many more happening around the world and are raising a lot questions. These problems can not just be coincidences, they most have a case that is present all over the world. The most probable reason is ...
In other developed economies like the United States of America, such neglect as witnessed in the Nigerian road construction sector is not tolerated. The potentials of the roads sector are well harnessed. The asphalt industry for instance has remained a significant, positive driver for the American economy. The industry is made up of companies ranging from small driveway-paving operations to multimillion-dollar construction companies that produce and place asphalt. Road construction provides a wide variety of work for transportation planners, civil engineers, construction management executives, equipment operators, labourers and many others. In fact, more than 300,000 Americans work in the asphalt industry. In Europe road transport fulfils a major role in the European economy and society, involving a wide range of industries and services, which together, contribute up to 11.5 per cent of GDP and a substantial proportion of fiscal income. It is an established fact that with EUR 2,290 billion turnover generated and five per cent of the total employment in EU 25, the road sector is an efficient and growing part of Europe’s economy.
This is because the European Redistribution Facility (ERF), firmly believes that roads are an undeniable source of socio-economic welfare and will continue to play a dominant role in the transport of goods and people deeply into the 21st century. The situation has not been the same in Nigeria, problem of bad roads in the country has become an embarrassing stigma. In many parts of this country, normal interaction has been frustrated by bad roads. It got to point that it’s rampant for thieves, rapists and other miscreants to ensconce themselves in bad portions of the roads where all vehicles virtually come to a halt and inflict indelible pains on the vulnerable commuters. But the man whose domain the responsibility of reversing the situation resides Architect Mike Onolememen, the Minister of Works said on assumption of office the ministry identified a number of challenges facing road development in the country. These, he said, include, inadequate planning; poor design; ineffective supervision; bureaucratic project management structure; lack of strong quality assurance; and inadequate funding.
3.2AN INTERVIEW FROM THE MINISTER OF WORKS
The Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolomemen, said in Abuja on Monday that about N500 billion was required annually over the next four years to fix the country’s deplorable roads. Onolomemen said this at a public hearing on measures to address the near collapse of roads across the country, and a bill to provide for the maintenance of public infrastructure, the News Agency of Nigeria reports. The hearing was organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Works. The bill seeks to impose a penalty on the heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies in case of failure to ensure regular maintenance of public infrastructure. The minister said that the annual budgetary allocations to road projects was inadequate. According to him, the delay in the release of fund for road projects had also led to delays, and in some cases complete abandonment of road projects across the country. He noted that out of the N130 billion budgeted for highway projects in 2011, only N88.7 billion was released, while only N110 billion was released from the N143 billion budgeted in 2012. Onolomemen said that the average budget of N100 billion for road development was grossly inadequate for the nations’s 35, 000 kilometre of federal road network. The minister, therefore, suggested for alternative funding for the maintenance of the country’s highways.
The Essay on Networks Work Network Physical Lan
When referring to a 'logical' network we are talking about the logical addressing used to describe the network itself or the networks it connects to. A logical network layout clearly shows the IP Addresses associated with each part of the network. One of the most important steps when designing a logical network is the future growth and expansion, a point that most people tend to overlook and face ...
The minister said that a bill for the establishment of Road Fund and Federal Roads Authority would soon be presented to the National Assembly. “There has to be a special fund to take care of the deplorable roads in Nigeria,” he said, adding that with appropriate funding, all roads listed by the Federal Government would be completed in 2015. Onolomemen said that there was need to charge vehicles conveying petroleum products and steel for using the roads. In a remark, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, also stressed the need for a legal framework to stop the abuse of roads in the country. Tambuwal, who was represented by Rep. Samson Osagie ( ACN-Edo), the Minority Whip, urged traffic officials to discharge their responsibilities properly to minimise road accidents. According to him, a study has shown that the country loses N80 billion annually to road accidents. Rep. Ogbuefi Ozomgabchi ( PDP-Enugu), the Chairman of the committee called for appropriate legal and institutional framework for road infrastructure. Ozomgabchi noted that fixing the country’s ailing road network would require new funding options through the private sector.
The Essay on Big Business Government Federal Parenti
The rise of the corporate state has been happening since the founding of this nation. The federal government has been involved in helping out big business since the times of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson and it continues through today. From using federal troops to break labor strikes in the mid-1800 s to bailing out failing Savings & Loan programs in the 1980's, the federal government ...
CHAPTER FOUR
4.1 EFFECTS OF BAD ROAD TO THE NATION AND INDIVIDUALS
1)Dalliance on the delivery of goods and services: due to bard roads and lack of efficient roads for motorist, the delivery of goods and services has been seriously affected in the sense that services that can be delivered in just an hour with the presence of good road network will now be lengthened as a result of hold ups and lack of appropriate road usage. 2) Increase in maintenance and repair costs for commercial drivers: This is a financial burden for drivers who are forced to replace tires and pay for other repairs. As car parts easily get bard due to lump hole on the motor able roads. 3) Loss of life and properties: Drivers trying to avoid potholes and dilapidated portions of the roads end up putting other people’s lives at risk. Last month, 80 people were killed when an oil tanker exploded and caught fire in the southeast when it crashed while trying to avoid potholes. Five passenger buses were involved in the accident. 4) Lack of parking space: The big lorries they park by the road side. They are causing ‘go slow’-they are slowing the work of the transport service. All these trailers they park on the sides of the roads, they are disturbing.
5)Insecurity: Another challenge posed by the poor condition of Nigerian roads, is insecurity as motorists are usually attacked by bandits. Worst hit by the deplorable road conditions are travellers moving farm produce from northern to the southern part of the country as recent flooding in Nigeria compounded their woes when they got stranded during their journeys for days with goods worth millions of naira lost to the disaster. 4.2SOLUTION TO ECONOMIC PROBLEM FACING THE ROADS IN NIGERIA 1) firstly, with a 23,000km of Federal roads network, a workable and common sense scenario is the tasking of about 60 small-size specialized company to maintain about 400km of Federal Roads each. This will only involve just two contractors per states. The major investment needs for establishing such a maintenance company and for the total cost per year for the company is less than 160,000,000.000 naira. This includes all necessary equipments, machineries, depreciation, materials and personnel cost. This can be sourced locally while the primary responsibility of the government in this regards will be ensuring an easy loan agreement for maintenance companies with a reduced interest rate. What is the best transportation system adaptable to the Nigeria’s context?
Professionally and with all sense of sincerity, 2) Federal Government should immediately develop an extensive and realistic Road Sector Policy with a view to achieving improved efficiency in the sector. Key aspects of this Policy must deliberately relate to the funding of the sector and, in particular, to the need to move towards full recovery of costs from road users for the continuous rehabilitation and maintenance of the road network. 3) The maintenance of roads should be a continuous activity, carried out routinely and in quick response to the inevitable tear-and-wear situations without frequent recourse to long bureaucratic tendering procedures in the Federal Ministry of Works. 4)Public and private officials have critical decisions to make regarding the management of our highway resources at their disposal. Hence, the implementation of any economic management and maintenance strategy needs consideration for proper decision making.
CHAPTER FIVE
5.1CONCLUSION
Decaying infrastructure is one of the deficiencies that Nigeria’s National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS) seeks to address. The government has begun to repair the country’s poorly maintained road network. Because Nigeria’s railways are in a parlous condition, the government is trying to rectify the situation by privatizing the Nigerian Railway Corporation. Similarly, the government is pursuing a strategy of partial port privatization by granting concessions to private port operators so that they can improve the quality of port facilities and operations. in conclusion, Nigerian road network sector calls for serious attention and rehabilitation in the sense that it holds one of main sources of the nation economy. 5.2RECOMMENDATION
I recommend that the ministry of work should increase the value of annual budget being set aside for the road network. Secondly there should be an inspecting theme that will be in charge of monitoring the activities of the road network.
Reference
Punch news paper: December 11, 2012 by Agency Reporter
a b c d e Library of Congress Country Studies, Nigeria.
Highway Gazette International October 2008, p217 (Map)
HighwaysAfrica.com
CCECC Container Depots: July 2011,
www.railwaysafrica.com
PHILIP NWOSU (December 21, 2007).
“Fake Commodore arrested over military outfit”. Online Nigeria. Retrieved 2011-06-23. Andrew Airahuobhor (5 August 2010).
“Police Can’t Ban Merchant Navy – Kemewerigha”. The Daily Independent (Lagos).
Retrieved 2011-06-23. “About NIMASA”. NIMASA. Retrieved 2011-06-20
