Centre calls for Infrastructure Development Fund for repair of roads in South East

The African Centre for Leadership Strategy and Development has called for an Infrastructure Development Fund to address the deplorable condition of roads in the South East.
The Programme Director of the centre, Monday Osasah, told newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday that the establishment of the fund had become necessary considering the need to empower “the poor and the marginalised”.
According to him, Nigeria cannot make development inclusive if the larger part of the country suffers untold hardship.
Osasah said: “The South East zone, with its defining characteristics and indices of development, is popular with its high population density and skill for commerce and manufacturing.
“Despite this, the South East is wallowing in deep infrastructural deficit ranging from roads, sanitation, water and power supply.
“The Enugu-Onitsha Road is right now in a mess, though the road has featured consistently in Federal Government budgets even in recent times, and (the contract for its repair) has been awarded several times, the situation of the road remains appalling.
“The Enugu-Port Harcourt and Enugu-Nsukka-Otukpo roads are also not left out. Reports have it that travelling through the Enugu-Port Harcourt road is a nightmare.
“The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency is presently overwhelmed by the deluge of potholes on the Enugu-Nsukka-Otukpo road as they have given up on patching of the road.
“The Owerri-Port Harcourt and Aba-Ikot Ekpene (roads) are also flashpoints.
“The Federal roads in the South-East are all deplorable.
“The few of them that are asphalted and made usable were done by the host state governors, with their unpaid reimbursement sums running into tens of billions of naira.”
Osasah called on all stakeholders to join hands to close infrastructural gaps in parts of the country, saying it was a yardstick for governance to be felt by all strata of the society.
He attributed the poor state of infrastructure in the country to lack of political will, calling for a change in policies and programmes.
The director also said that the centre has trained 600 Nigerians in addition to carrying out advocacy on the importance of agriculture, health and education.
The centre is currently working on its Voices to the People project in three focal states of Anambra, Enugu and Kaduna.