The Minister of State for Transportation, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, has stated that the nation loses about N450 billion annually due to road accidents occasioned by bad roads across the nation.
The minister made this revelation while addressing participants at the just concluded one day workshop on ” safety in road transportation of petroleum products in Nigeria: short and long term imperatives”, organised by the Major Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and the National Association of Road Transport Owners(NARTO), recently in Lagos.
She, further stated that the nation needs to do something in line with the agreement reached with her ministry, the federal government and the ministry of works and housing to ensure that at least three major roads in each of the six geo-political zones of the country are rehabilitated or constructed for the ease of movement of refined products as well as curb the incessant crashes of special vehicles, such as tankers and by extention stop the loss of lives and property arising from such crashes.
Senator Saraki, also, observed that the country needs to speedly carryout these rehabilitations and construction to enable it fully participate in the nascent African Free Trade Area Agreement, since it will open a vista for it to move these products to other African countries.
The minister noted that aside from the dilapidated nature of the roads, that they have become havens for armed robbers, bandits, terrorists and social miscreants and behind all the crashes are lowly trained drivers, who operate under the influence depressants and psychotropic substances.
She enjoined the stakeholders of the industry to engage their drivers and other operators in training and retraining of their staff to further help in stemming the tide of constant road mishaps.