The Cost of Neglect: FERMA and Nigeria’s Failing Highways

By Ugo Inyama

Nigeria’s highways often behave like an old office printer. They appear functional until the moment everyone needs them, then slow down, jam repeatedly, and demand urgent attention. On ordinary days, traffic moves tolerably. During peak periods, especially festive seasons, movement breaks down completely. Vehicles idle, fuel burns, and journeys stretch far beyond reason. What looks like routine inconvenience is, in fact, a deeper structural problem with real economic consequences.

Responsibility for routine maintenance of federal highways rests with the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, FERMA. The agency was established to prevent roads from deteriorating into major failures and to ensure that defects are addressed early, before they disrupt movement and economic activity. In principle, this preventive approach should keep highways serviceable and reliable.

In practice, however, many national road corridors experience repeated deterioration. The same sections fail again and again. Congestion returns at known pressure points, and gridlock follows predictable patterns. These outcomes are not driven by unexpected traffic volumes. Traffic flows, seasonal travel surges, and peak demand periods are well documented and foreseeable. The persistence of failure therefore points to execution challenges rather than surprise.

Across key highways, accumulated neglect steadily reduces usable road space. Collapsed shoulders, blocked drainage systems, incomplete repairs, unmarked diversions, and weakened carriageways all contribute to declining performance. Defects that could be addressed early are often left unattended until they become more serious structural problems. By the time repairs are undertaken, damage has spread, costs have increased, and disruption has intensified.

Preventive maintenance, which should form the backbone of highway management, is frequently replaced by reactive intervention. Temporary repairs are applied where longer lasting solutions are required. As a result, many roads cycle between partial repair and renewed failure rather than being maintained at a stable and predictable standard.

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Funding Without a Clear Line to Results

Funding is often cited as the primary explanation for these outcomes. Funding does matter, but it is not the only issue. What matters just as much is whether there is a clear and visible pathway between the resources allocated to maintenance and the conditions experienced by road users.

For the 2026 fiscal year, FERMA has put forward a substantial budget proposal as part of the national budget cycle. The agency is seeking approximately ₦229 billion in total funding. Of this amount, about ₦191 billion is earmarked for capital expenditure related to road and bridge maintenance, repairs, and rehabilitation. The remaining ₦38 billion is allocated for recurrent expenditure, including personnel costs and operational overheads.

These figures reflect an acknowledgement that Nigeria’s highway maintenance challenge is extensive and costly. They also shift the focus of debate. With funding of this scale proposed, the central question becomes less about allocation and more about outcomes.

Yet for many road users, the connection between such allocations and sustained improvements in road quality remains difficult to see. In several cases, highway sections identified as under maintenance deteriorate again within relatively short periods. Repairs appear temporary, poorly coordinated, or insufficient to stabilise conditions. This raises questions not only about how much is spent, but about how priorities are set, how work is executed, and what standards of serviceability are being targeted.

Without a visible connection between funding and results, accountability weakens. Maintenance risks becoming activity rather than achievement. Roads are worked on, but not restored to a condition that supports reliable movement. Public confidence suffers when expenditure does not translate into lasting improvement.

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Christmas Travel and the Reality on the Road

The consequences of these weaknesses were felt sharply during the most recent Christmas travel period. Many Nigerians travelling across the country experienced severe and prolonged delays. Journeys that should have taken hours stretched into entire days. Families slept in vehicles, buses ran out of fuel while stationary, and travellers arrived exhausted rather than festive.

What made these experiences particularly frustrating was their predictability. Christmas travel surges occur every year. The busiest routes are well known. Yet preparation appeared limited, and familiar bottlenecks once again became points of failure. For many travellers, the journey itself overshadowed the purpose of the trip.

These experiences illustrate how highways perform under pressure. When roads fail during known peak periods, the cost is measured not only in time and fuel, but also in stress, fatigue, and lost productivity.

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When Delay Becomes Economic Cost

The economic consequences of failing highways extend beyond individual travel. When congestion occurs, vehicles remain stationary for long periods, fuel consumption rises, and travel times become unreliable. These delays disrupt logistics, affect delivery schedules, and reduce efficiency across multiple sectors. Costs accumulate quietly and are eventually reflected in prices paid by consumers.

Road condition challenges are often compounded by the operation of police checkpoints along some federal highways. On certain routes, checkpoints appear at short intervals, requiring vehicles to slow or stop repeatedly. While checkpoints serve legitimate security objectives, their placement and operation can further restrict traffic flow on already constrained roads.

Time lost at these stops adds to fuel consumption, delivery delays, and vehicle maintenance costs. These burdens are absorbed by transport operators, traders, and commuters, and are often passed on indirectly through higher prices.

Access plays a central role in economic performance. When transport routes function efficiently, trade flows more smoothly, labour mobility improves, and services are delivered more reliably. When access is constrained, activity slows. Highway access across Nigeria is therefore not only a transport concern, but a broader productivity and cost issue with national implications.

Nigeria remains commercially active and enterprise driven. Reliable highways should support this strength by enabling the movement of goods, people, and services. Instead, inconsistent maintenance outcomes and fragmented traffic control impose steady costs that affect businesses, workers, and households nationwide.

Addressing these challenges does not require new ideas. It requires consistent execution. Preventive maintenance must be prioritised before roads fail. Traffic control should be coordinated with road capacity and conditions. Agencies should be assessed by road condition and serviceability rather than expenditure alone.

Without such adjustments, congestion will persist, peak travel periods will continue to expose systemic weakness, and Nigerians will keep paying the price for neglected highway maintenance.

*Inyama writes from African Digital Governance Centre, Manchester, UK.e: Ugo@africadgc.orgw: www.africandgc.org