David Umahi, minister of works, has charged the newly inaugurated members of Governing Board of Federal Roads Maintenance Agency ( FERMA) to brace up to the challenges of road infrastructure maintenance facing the country and show unwavering commitment to the road maintenance programmes of the Renewed Hope administration of the President.
Umahi gave this charge during the inauguration of the FERMA Governing Board in Abuja on Thursday.
Minister thanked the President for appointing men of proven integrity and ability into the FERMA board and for approving the 2023 supplementary budget which provides landmark interventions on the federal roads.
He said road infrastructure was critical to the socio-economic development of our nation noting that the critical sectors that drive economic growth rely greatly on road infrastructure development.
“Let me first congratulate the nominees of Mr. President to the FERMA board and to express my gratitude deeply to Mr. President who has found you worthy to do this job. We have a very critical situation with our roads all over the country. and for me, the number one thing Nigerians needed like yesterday is road. Road is everything. If we fix our roads today, we will bring down inflation in this country, because bad road is affecting every aspect of our economic activities.
He maintained that the enhanced budgetary provision for road infrastructure under our dear President shows his commitment in changing the narrative of our road infrastructure.
“This underscores the fact that Mr. President understands the plight of our people as far as our road infrastructure is concerned, he’s doing everything within the budget and outside the budget to fix our roads. And I want to assure Nigerians on behalf of Mr. President that our hopes are renewed in tackling our road infrastructure decays.”, the minister said.
It would be recalled that by section 3 of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency, (FERMA) Amendment Act 2007, the President had on 13th October, 2023 approved the appointment of the following members of the Governing Board of FERMA and they had been confirmed by the Senate:
Chukwuemeka Chijioke Agbasi – managing director with lbi Terna Manasseh
Kenneth Ugbala , Timothy Aduda, Babatunde Daramola , Preye Oseke, Aminu Adamu Papa, Abubakar Bappa,
ACM Shehu Mohammed
and Yusuf Lawal Othman as members.
Earlier Mahmuda Mamman Mamman, permanent secretary of the ministry described the newly appointed members of FERMA board as people of proven competence and experience and expressed hope that they would perform in their new assignment.
In his acceptance speech on behalf of the newly constituted board,
Agbasi thanked the president for finding them worthy to be appointed as board members of FERMA and pledged to discharge their responsibilities with the fear of God and align to the policy of the Federal Minister of Works and also to the mandate of FERMA.
He expressed the commitment of FERMA towards making a visible difference on the road condition and the travel experience of commuters in the country, a statement signed by Orji Uchenna Orji,
special assistant to the minister said.
