Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday, charged Nigerians to change their ways in the usage of the nation’s road infrastructure.

President Buhari made the call during a one-day public enlightenment  programme on the developments in the road sector organised by the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, in Abuja.

The President said the critical place of the road sector in the nation’s historical evolution and the national life, has never been more apparent than now.

He said at present, the haulage of industrial goods, agricultural produce, industrial raw materials, petroleum products, power plant components and many other industrial equipment required  in the manufacturing sector, are carried out, using the nation’s road network.

President Buhari said it was in this realisation that underscored his administration’s promise of change in May, 2015, with infrastructure as a priority.

“This we have fulfilled by policy and action. It is on record that this administration has raised our annual budgetary commitment for capital project from 15 percent to a minimum of 30 percent and committed to a physical stimulus targeted at infrastructure.

“The result is a revival of construction activity of highway projects nationwide. From 2015 to date, my administration has constructed and rehabilitated several hundred kilometres of inter-state federal roads and bridges, to ease the movement of persons, goods and services.

“However, in order to take the full benefits of these projects when finally completed and get value for our investment, we must change our ways. As the head of this government, I have signed up for that change,” Buhari said.

The president recalled his August 2017 ratification of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Supplementary Act on Heavy Goods Vehicles, Weight and Dimensions, permitted to traverse federal roads.

He also recalled his approval of the enforcement of the Act to Commence from the Loading Points at the Ports, Depots and Factories respectively.

“This enlightenment forum, is therefore organised to create awareness and seek the cooperation of major players in the haulage industry, manufacturers, policy makers, Labour unions and all those involved in the movement of goods and services, including the press and academia, of the new rules and regulations guiding the maximum axle load allowed on heavy goods vehicles within ECOWAS sub-region that is also applicable in our country,” President Buhari added.

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The president further said the social contract of Nigerians, is to ensure that the huge investment being made by his administration in the development of the road sector, will have the desired impact by preventing the overloading of heavy goods vehicles.

The president also said the eradication of overloading on the highways, will promote competitiveness in business and reduce high maintenance cost of heavy goods vehicles.

He implored all fleet operators and tanker drivers to stop parking their vehicles on federal highways, noting that it always result in contentions and gridlocks.

Buhari added that the highways should be free at all times for safe and comfortable movement of vehicles.

He said fleet owners should endeavour to create private parking lots for their fleets at designated locations.

Speaking earlier, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, said the meeting was crucial and critical to the achievements of the nation’s common goals of shared prosperity.

“It is a meeting where we will reflect and hopefully agree on the need to change our ways about how we use our road infrastructure,” Fashola said.

Fashola added that the nation’s economic growth and productivity, and indeed, the nation’s capacity to create jobs, will be impacted by the conclusions and resolutions reached at the meeting.

“For example, this meeting will invite us to ask how we can optimise opportunities that lie in road networks like the trans-Saharan highway which connect Nigeria to Chad, Niger Republic, Tunisia, Republic of Mali and Algeria.

“Indeed, how we can optimise opportunities that lie along the Lagos to Abidjan highway that runs through the Republics of Benin, Togo and Ghana,” Fashola said.

On his part, the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Alhaji Najimdeen Yasin, while commending the Federal Government for the development of the road sector, emphasised that a lot of federal roads needed the attention if the government.

Yasin who was represented by Suleiman Musa, urged the government to put in place, all mechanisms and institutionalized means, and imbibe the culture of construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of federal roads, as well as putting necessary instruments such as weigh bridges, transit park and provision of road furniture that would guide against the abuse of the nation’s roads by users.