By Mercy Aikoye
The Joint Committees of House of Representatives on Works, Environment, Finance, Justice, and Science & Technology yesterday held a one-day Public Hearing on the Adoption of Concrete Technology for Road Construction in Nigeria.
The Speaker who was represented at the occasion by the chief whip of the House, Hon Bello Kumo further revealed that road construction is very critical to the federal government ‘Renewed Hope Agenda”
Hon Abbas equally used the opportunity to commend the committees for organising the public hearing ,informed that the subject matter is of major concern to the 10th House of Representative otherwise called the” peoples House.
The Speaker charged all stakeholders presence at the public hearing to be open and speak out in order for the parliament to make an inform decision.
Shortly after the Speaker’s address, Chairman of the Joint Commitees, Hon Akin Alabi used the occasion to lament deplorable state of some roads across the country even as he observed that most work carried out by some contractors are not commiserate with the amount of fund paid.
He also spoke on the core objectives of the public hearing emphasizing that it not meant to witch hunt any person or group of person rather to get general views of Nigerians of what should constitute major materials for our road construction.
In his contributions, the Chairman of Nigerian Institution of Highway and Transportation Engineers, Engr Saidu Hassan expressed delight that his agency was invited for the public hearing by the Commitees informing that though his agency is not against the policy, it however advised the parliament to subject the policy to scrutiny of highway stakeholders to ensure that the appropriate engineering procedures and process are strictly followed to allow for proper implementation strategies adopted.
The agency also urged lawmakers to adopt the proposed concrete roads, ample time required in order for the importation of new equipments and training of relevant manpower.
They abovated for flexible contracts to be converted to rigid pavement adding that such will require the BPP to fix new taste of concrete pavement, revise the contract sum and subsequently seek Federal Executive Council, FEC approval.
In his contributions, the Chairman Board of Trustees, Nigeria Society of Engineers, Engr Emeka Ezeh argued that since several factors come to play during road construction, such as amount of money involved, the contractors, the equipments etc, the role of the parliament should be to legislate but not to decide for those involved.
Engr Kuti representing the Ministry of works said the use of concrete must be reconsider in view of harsh economic environment arosingn from fluctuating exchange rate in the country.
The Chairman Board of Trustees NSE Engr Emeka Eze said under the issue at stake, house should not have subjected the issue to investigation and legislation.
Earlier, Engr Ezeh who is also the former president NSE urged for careful consideration of factors such as quality control, adherence to standard, competency and experience of contractors among others while engaging in road constructions.
A representatives of the Ministry of works, and Director Highway Construction and Rehabilitation, Federal Ministry of Works, Engr Adedomola kuti explained that the position of his submission is not for people to go full scale concrete while engaging in road construction.
Some of the invited stakeholders at the hearing include the Federal Ministry of Works, Federal Ministry of Environment, Federal Ministry of Finance, Nigeria Society of Engineers NSE,Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria COREN and the National Union of Road Transport Workers NURTW among others.
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