Compare and Contrast Road Development Under the River Basin

1. 0. INTRODUCTION.

DIRECTORATE FOR FOODS,ROADS AND RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE(DFRRI) Many programmes of the Nigerian government had varied impact on poverty alleviation. The DFRRI was established in 1986 by Gen. Babangida to enhance rural development. This was meant to provide feeder roads, electricity, and potable water and toilet facilities for the rural dwellers. the establishment of the Directorate of Food, roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI)was not only a radical departure from the previous programmes, but also recognized the complementariness associated with basic needs such as food, shelter, potable water, etc.

DFRRI had tremendous impact on the rural areas. For instance, between the time of inception in 1986 and 1993, DFRRI had completed over 278,526 km of roads. Over5,000 rural communities benefited from its rural electrification programme (See CBN Annual Reports). This integrated approach to rural development, no doubt, provided for the necessary basic infrastructures that can stimulate the growth of agro – allied small – scale enterprises in rural areas. Furthermore, DFRRI impacted positively on food production.

For instance, there was a steady and significant rise in agricultural output as shown by the index of agricultural production between 1986 and 1993 (CBN, Statistical Bulletin, December 1998). However, DFRRI could not achieve many of its objectives due to many factors which include lack of standards for project harmonization and effective mechanisms for co-ordination among the three tiers of government and between DFRRI and the levels of government (CBN Bauchi Zone; and Enugu Zone, 1998).Hence, with time DFRRI could not sustain the tempo with which it started, and it ended up not living up to expectation and became defunct (National Planning Commission, 1994). The projects gulped N1.

9b ( about N80 billion today's value ) without Nigerians benefiting from them. It is noteworthy that the post fourth plan period (1985 - 1990) witnessed some improvements in the provision of rural infrastructure. Within the few years of DFRRI’s existence, some notable achievements have been made. For instance between 1986 and 1988, about 30,000kms or rural roads were claimed to have been constructed.Although, it could be argued that the length of roads constructed were just 50% short of the government’s target of 60,000 kilometres for 1986,but then, between 1986 and 1992, DFRRI had constructed and rehabilitated about 61,000km of feeder roads in Nigeria (Filani, 1993). yet the directorate opened up the rural areas within a short period of time.

The Directorate made rural road development as their first priority because of the belief that unless there is access to the rural communities, all other infrastructures such as electricity, water and farm inputs cannot reach the rural people.The premium that the Federal Government placed on the provision of rural infrastructure particularly rural roads was one of the reasons for establishment of the Directorate for Food Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI). This programme is perhaps the most pragmatic road provision approach to date. The Directorate was charged among other things with the responsibility of enhancing rural accessibility. The basic strategy of the DFRRI, according to the Federal Government Policy paper, involves the construction, maintenance and rehabilitation of nation – wide rural feeder roads.This figure represents about 51% of the planned road project for the whole period.

In spite of the enormous contribution of DFRRI to feeder roads provision in Nigeria, many rural communities still remained unreached by the time it was merged with the Ministry of Water Resources and Rural Development. This led to the growth of rural roads from 75,000km in 1985 to 108,700km in 1992 and to about 140,000km in 2000 ( World Bank, 1997 and Schelling , 2000). 2. 0. RIVER BASIN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY(RBRDA)Nigeria has 11 River Basin Development Authorities, RBDAs, created in 1976 by the Federal Government to harness the country’s water resources and optimise Nigeria’s agricultural resources for food self-sufficiency.

The RBDAs include ; 1. Sokoto-Rima Basin, Sokoto; 2. Hadejia-Jemaare Basin, Kano; 3. the Lake Chad Basin, Maiduguri; 4. the Upper Benue Basin, Yola; 5. the Lower Benue Basin, Makurdi 6.

the Cross River Basin, Calabar. 7. the Anambra-Imo Basin, Owerri; 8. the Niger Basin, Ilorin; 9. the Niger Delta Basin, Port Harcourt; 0. the Benin-Owena Basin, Benin City.

11. the Oshun-Ogun Basin, Abeokuta 3. 0. BELOW IS A SUMMARY OF THE RURAL ROADS DEVELOPMENT BY AGRICULTURAL DVELOPMENT PROJECTS(ADP) IN COLLABORATION WITH THE RBRDA’S.

This statistics was sourced from the Central Bank Of Nigeria and covers the period up until 1985. S/NOPROJECT LOCATIONRURAL ROADS CONSTRUCTED(KM)RURAL ROADS MAINTAINED(KM) 1AYANGBA8911623 2LAFIA838110 3BIDA405165 4ILORIN165100 5EKITI AKOKO8561 6SOKOTO5301200 7BAUCHI-1427 8KANO-751 9BORNO-90 10IMO200238 11GONGOLA32- TOTAL5,4943,537 . 0. BELOW IS A SUMMARY OF FEEDER ROADS CONSTRUCTED BY DFFRI IN ITS FIRST PHASE( 1) which covers a period of from 1987-1988. S/NOPROJECT LOCATIONTARGET(KM)ACHIEVED(KM) 1ABUJA844485 2AKWA-IBOM937.

81434 3ANAMBRA4002. 43113 4BAUCHI12232225 5BENDEL9982267 6BENUE27772880 7BORNO12961434 8GONGOLA11661220 9IMO9451600. 5 10KADUNA(KATSINA)12451143. 2 11KANO1040.

51380 12KWARA11951845 13LAGOS961. 81653 14NIGER1270680 15OGUN9481405 16ONDO1874. 51405 17OYO1874. 51509 18PLATEAU1509.

51509 19RIVERS850220 20SOKOTO17391054 TOTAL29549. 7 5. 0.THE ANNUAL SUMMARY OF FEEDER ROADS CONSTRUCTED BY DFFRI,INSPECTED AND ACCEPTED IS SHOWN BELOW ACCORDING TO CBN ANNUAL REPORTS. S/NOYEARFEEDER ROADS CONSTRUCTED(KM) 1199030,728. 34 2199155,576.

24 3199285,592. 82 4199390,857. 40 By comparison,RBRDA made available 9031 km of road(be it new construction or simply maintenance) and DFRRI made available for usage 90,857. 40 km of road.

This translates to a ratio of about 1:10. For each kilometre of road RBRDA made available for use,DFRRI made available about 10kilometers of road. 5. 0.Summarilly,It is important to note that DFRRI was the first significantly coordinated government rural development programme in Nigeria in terms of comprehensiveness and devotion to achieving targeted results. For the first time on record, a reasonable budgetary provision was allocated to the rural areas as a matter of deliberate government policy.

This is the attributable reason why DFRRI was able to achieve much more than RBRDA in the matter of road construction. It is also pertinent to note that DFRRI roads were shortlived,largely due to uncontrolled erosion and poor management.It is on record that many of the roads became impassable shortly after construction or rehabilitation because DFRRI embarked on a construction/rehabilitation initiative without a maintenance initiative which led to the eventual collapse of most of the roads. References. 1.

CBN(1991),annual reports and statements of accounts, Central Bank Of Nigeria. 2. CBN(1992),annual reports and statements of accounts, Central Bank Of Nigeria. 3.

CBN(1993),annual reports and statements of accounts, Central Bank Of Nigeria. 4. Adelana O. O. 2003) "Budgeting for Roads Infrastructure. Maintenance" Conference Proceedings of the Nigerian Institution of Civil Engineer (A division of the NSE) Lagos, Nigeria.

5 . Ajani T. (2001): "Past, Present and Future of Highway Management in Nigeria". Journal of Civil Engineering. A publication of the Nigerian Institution of Civil Engineers (A division of NSE) Edition No.

1, Lagos, Nigeria. 6. Okafor F. C. 1985. “Basic Needs in Rural Nigeria.

” Social Indicators Research, 17: 115-125. Olatunbosun, D. 1975. Nigeria’s Neglected Rural Majority. Ibadan: Oxford University Press.