Budget 2017: Buhari administration has made adequate provision for every part of the country – Buhari’s Aide

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu has revealed that with the assent to the 2017 budget, the Federal Government was now keen on constructing the second Niger Bridge.

This was in addition to the construction of Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja highway and the Lagos-Ibadan, Kano- Maiduguri and the Enugu – Port Harcourt highways.

The SSA to the President also revealed that N7.5billion had also been earmarked for the rehabilitation of the Obajana junction –Benin and Onitsha-Enugu dual carriageway.

While another N7billion was allocated for the Bodo-Bonny road in the Niger Delta area, including other roads in deplorable condition like Ilorin – Jebba, Odukpani- Itu, Kano-Katsina and Gombe-Numan-Yola all earmarked for rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Shehu, who featured in an interview programme on the Abubakar Rimi Television station in Kano on Monday,also stated that the Federal Government intends to rehabilitate all dilapidated highways including the Kaduna-Kano dual carriage way on which accidents have risen to dangerous levels.

He noted that provision for the reconstruction of the Kaduna-Kano highway had been made in the 2017 budget contrary to insinuations that the Buhari administration had abandoned Kano and other roads to cater to the roads in Kaduna because of the temporary closure of Nnamdi Azikiwe international airport, Abuja.

“President Buhari has not been deaf to the cries of the people of Kano as some have been insinuating.

“Other projects, such as the Kaduna-Abuja highway, had to be given priority because of the temporary closure of the Abuja Airport runway.

“It’s not as if the Buhari administration preferred to cater to the roads in Kaduna instead of those in Kano and other parts of the country,”he added.

He said: “I assure Nigerians in every part of the country that there is no need to feel left out of the government’s plans for development.

“The Buhari administration has made adequate provision for every part of the country in the budget”.

Relying on road accident data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its 2016 Road Transport Data in Abuja sometime in May, the Presidential spokesman said 11, 363 road accidents occurred in Nigeria in 2016.

He listed speed violation as the major cause of the accidents in 2016, which accounted for 33.86 per cent of the total road accidents reported.

According to the NBS report, loss of control and dangerous driving followed closely as they both accounted for 15.43 per cent and 8.53 per cent of the total road accidents recorded in the period under review.

Shehu said the report also indicated that a total of 30,105 Nigerians got injured in the accidents recorded in 2016.

“Twenty eight thousand two, hundred and fifty (28,250) of the 30,105 Nigerians that got injured, representing 94 per cent of the figure, are adults, while the remaining 1,855 Nigerians, representing six per cent of the figure are children.

“Twenty two thousand, seven hundred and five (22, 705) male Nigerians, representing 75 per cent were injured in the accidents in 2016, while 7,400 female Nigerians, representing 25 per cent got injured,”the report said.