Poor Road Maintenance Draining Public Resources, Says Tinubu

President Bola Tinubu has directed the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to develop a comprehensive, geo-referenced national database of failed and failing federal roads.

The database, the president said, should clearly identify the causes of road failures, whether arising from design limitations, poor construction quality, axle overloading, drainage challenges, climate impacts, or lapses in maintenance.

He called for a shift from reactive road repairs to a sustainable, preventive, and evidence-based maintenance framework, stressing that long-term infrastructure resilience depended on accurate data and institutional coordination.

Tinubu gave the directive in Abuja on Tuesday at the 2026 Roads Summit with the theme, “Sustainable Road Infrastructure for National Growth”.

Represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, Tinubu said: ” In this regard, I wish to emphasise the strategic importance of systematic road audits and robust data management. Sustainable infrastructure management begins with knowing the true condition of our assets.

“Another important factor is that FERMA must continue to strengthen routine road condition audits, safety audits, and post-failure assessments across the federal road network. More importantly, the development of a comprehensive, geo-referenced national database of failed and failing federal roads is imperative.

“With accurate and up-to-date data, Nigeria can move decisively from emergency repairs to predictive and preventive maintenance planning”.

The president added that a credible road asset database would enhance budgeting accuracy, prioritisation of interventions, contractor accountability, and research collaboration with institutions such as the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI).

He added that it would also align Nigeria with global best practices in road asset management, where lifecycle costing, performance indicators, and resilience standards guide infrastructure decisions.

The president stated that building new roads was only half the responsibility of governance, noting that the other half, equally critical, was maintaining and preserving what had been built.

Tinubu also called on FERMA to strengthen collaboration with the Ministry of Works and to strengthen routine road condition audits, safety audits, and post-failure assessments across the federal road network.

In his remarks, the Minister of State for Works, Bello Goronyo, said road transport remained Nigeria’s dominant mode of mobility, handling over 90 per cent of both passenger and goods movement.

Goronyo said: “When our roads work, Nigeria moves forward; road abuse, however, remains a critical challenge. Practices such as overloading, reckless driving, and unauthorised road use, shorten the lifespan of our investments.

“The consequence is a heavy drain on lean government resources, forcing repeated repairs instead of allowing us to expand and modernise our network.

“Tackling road abuse is therefore essential to protecting public funds and ensuring lasting value for the Nigerian people”.

Earlier, the Managing Director of FERMA, Dr Emeka Agbasi, had said that a sustainable road infrastructure must extend beyond building roads to building better roads and managing them better.

According to him, sustainable road infrastructure requires a shift from short-term, reactive interventions to long-term, lifecycle-based planning.

“It calls for data-driven asset management, resilient design standards, predictable maintenance funding, and strong institutional coordination across all tiers of government,” he said.