The board member representing South East in the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Kenneth Ugbala, has said President Bola Tinubu was concerned about the situation of roads in the region.
Kenneth Ugbala said all federal roads in the region were been attended to by the federal government.
He stated this in his Okoffia hometown, Ezza South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State while interacting with journalists.
He admitted that every region of the country wants to be remembered and be attended to by the federal government.
Ugbala noted that while Ndigbo can allege neglect from the previous government, Tinubu’s government has not neglected the region.
“The nation is just like a basket and there is a food. Everybody is scrambling for more. But even if that had never been in practice before we came on board. I know that the Southeast roads are receiving good attention. We are benefiting from the coastal road too, the ring road.
“These are things that have never happened to us. From Enugu to Onitsha is under construction. From Gboko to Makurdi coming to 9th miles is under construction.
“So, I think Southeast, if ever we are neglected. I don’t think that the present administration is neglecting us. All we need is to exercise patience with our president and of course the Minister for Works. We are going to get the best of this administration. That is why we call on our people to continue to support President Tinubu,” he said.
While emphasizing the need for maintenance culture across the country, Ugbala, a former Secretary to Ebonyi State Government, said all roads in South East are receiving attention.
The South East representative in FERMA disclosed that the President ordered that all roads in the nation must be attended.
He assured that FERMA would remain transparent in carrying out road maintenance across the nation.
“We are aware that as a nation we need to work very seriously on our maintenance culture. Because the best is not only to build roads, the best is to maintain the roads. When you build roads and they are not maintained, you find out that we are losing everything we have.
“The president has given us a marching order to make sure that all the roads in the nation are being attended to. Our idea is that there should be an aggressiveness in attending to that responsibility. If you watch from Abakaliki to Enugu you see that there is maintenance going on by FEMA.
“You can see maintenance going on from Abakaliki to Afikpo. We are still attending it. There are eight places that need urgent attention. If you go across Abia to Enugu State and parts of Anambra, in fact all the Southeast states are receiving attention.
“This year we want to improve what we have been doing. A lot of roads have been accommodated in the budget. Our resources may not be enough in line with our demands, but we are concerned in making sure that there is transparency. We place value for money for what we do. It is not easy battling with the contractors,” the Nation quoted him.