The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Navy and Senator representing Ogun East district, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, has called on state governments to assist the ongoing road infrastructure development of the Tinubu’s administration by intervening on numerous bad roads in their state, even if they are federal roads.
The Daily Crucible reports that the call is coming just as the Southern Governors during their meeting on Monday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital called on the Federal Government to rehabilitate, repair and reconstruct Trunk A roads and transfer some of such roads to States that had expressed interest in taking them over.
However, making the call at an interactive session with the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Abeokuta, Daniel charged governor Dapo Abiodun and other governors to do more for the people as the power to develop each state is more concentrated on the state government than the federal government.
“I read the avalanche of comments on social media after the Ojude Oba festival and the criticism on the state of our roads not just in Ijebu but the entire state.
“To be fair to state governors, most of these roads are federal roads while some, like the inner town roads, are state roads. I want to speak on the federal roads for now.
“When I was governor, we created OGROMA to fix roads. Be it federal or state. The goal was to engage the professional but idle hands at the Ministry of Works. That is why we didn’t award any road contracts to foreign companies. The Sagamu-Abeokuta road is a federal road, but when we were to host the national sports festival, we decided to tar the road and not wait for the central government. That is how it should be.
“Governors are the custodians of their states, and we cannot continue to wait for the federal government alone while the people are suffering.”
Senator Daniel acknowledged that some states are not as financially buoyant as others, but the state government can make sacrifices for the love of the people they serve.
“I know our state governor is not a poor man. In fact, he is reported to be one of the richest Nigerians before he became governor. So with a 50 million naira donation from his pocket, most of these roads can be patched in the meantime using the equipment at the Ministry of Works.”
