By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
Delegates at the ongoing national conference have called for the immediate scrapping of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) for inefficiency over the years in carrying out its responsibilities of maintaining roads which they described as death traps.
Some of the delegates who took turn to contribute to the report and recommendations of the conference Committee on Transportation yesterday bemoaned FERMA, saying the agency has not been useful in the repair of inter-state roads.
On his own, Idongesit Nkanga said, “The problem with FERMA is that the Act establishing it has not been adhered to. There is no country that operates roads without road tax. What is today a pothole becomes a gully by the time money is released three years after.”
Another delegate representing Nigerian Union of Engineers, Senator Olufemi Kila, who was not also comfortable with the operation of FERMA, suggested that there should be a Federal Road Authority (FRA) to do the job of road maintenance independently.
He added that such agency should be structured to generate its own revenue independently. He also commented on the bad habit of numerous abandoned contracts in the country, calling for a change of operations.
But when contacted for reaction, Director General of FERMA, Eng. Ezekiel Olajide Adeniji, said his agency remains one of the agencies of transformation under the present government.
