Delta Calls For Devolution Of Power In Response To States’ Inability To Repair Federal Roads

The Delta Government has called for the devolution of power to enable component units to address state issues, particularly fixing federal roads, and has criticised the terrible state of some federal roads in the state.

The Commissioner for Information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, said on Wednesday during a news conference in Asaba that calls for the devolution of political power were justified given the appalling condition of federal roads throughout the nation.

“This is important because when you devolve power and allow the component units to tackle these issues, it means that you will also have an adjustment in the revenue sharing formula such that states will have more resources to deal with some of these issues that affect our people.”

Aniagwu who was with the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Olisa Ifeajika, said that the state government had spent enormous resources on interventions on federal roads but pointed out that some others had become dilapidated, without attention from the Federal Government.

He emphasised that giving more authority to component units would give them more funding to take on the task of developing the infrastructure of the states, including roads, that appeared to have overwhelmed the Federal Government.

“We have continued to intervene on federal roads in the state since 2015, and some of you have had cause to accompany us on inspection of these federal roads.

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“You also know that we have intervened three times on the Eku-Agbor-Uromi road which is also a federal road.

“Not long ago, we wanted to start another intervention on the road, but the Federal Government said the road has been awarded to a contractor, and that made it very difficult for us to do what we needed to do,” he said.

The commissioner disclosed that the attention of the state government had been drawn to a viral video on a failed part of the Uromi(Edo)-Agbor(Delta) road and said that it was a federal road.

He explained that the state government had intervened on two different occasions on the road.

“We were intervening on that road and other federal roads in the state until we were told by the federal government that the job of building the road had already been awarded to a contractor.”

“The road has gone very bad to the extent that commuters are going through a lot of troubles on it, and we have pleaded with the Federal Government to take another look at that road because it is in very bad shape.”

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“You will recall that when we revamped the Agbor Technical College, we intervened on that road, and we never asked for any refunds in these interventions.

“What has become a challenge is that the federal government has taken on far more than it can deal with in a number of these projects, and that’s why people have been calling for the devolution of powers to the component units.”

“This is important because when you devolve power and allow the component units to tackle these issues, it means that you will also have an adjustment in the revenue sharing formula such that states will have more resources to deal with some of these issues that affect our people.”

“We are very very pained as a government that these federal roads are in a very terrible situation, and commuters from across the country are actually going through hellish situations to travel through these routes,” Aniagwu stated.

“All the federal roads where we have intervened have cost several billions of naira, and we are not even going to ask the federal government to refund us because what we did was to remedy the situation along those roads.”

“We wish the federal government had given us approval for us to possibly intervene fully, and that would have given us hope that we would be able to get back the funds, but even when we knew we wouldn’t get back the funds, we have tried continuously to intervene on these roads.

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“We are therefore asking the federal government to mobilise the contractors to come and work on these roads because Nigerians are going through hell along these roads,” he added.