By Awyetu Asabe Hope
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed a comprehensive nationwide audit of federal highways and the creation of a geo-referenced national road database to improve planning, maintenance and value for money in infrastructure delivery.
This presidential directive comes as the Federal Roads Safety Corp said road crashes claimed 5,289 lives nationwide in 2025.
He said sustainable road management must be driven by accurate and reliable data, stressing that the government can no longer rely on a reactive approach to maintenance.
The president spoke through the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, at the opening of the 2026 Roads Summit organised by the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) in Abuja.
President Tinubu instructed FERMA to intensify routine road condition audits, safety audits and post-failure assessments across the federal road network, noting that a comprehensive inventory of failed and failing roads is now imperative.
Tinubu said the proposed geo-referenced database should clearly document the causes of road failures, including design limitations, construction quality, axle overloading, drainage challenges, climate impacts and maintenance lapses.
“With accurate and up-to-date data, Nigeria can move decisively from emergency repairs to predictive and preventive maintenance planning,” he said.
Minister of State for Works, Bello Muhammad Goronyo, lamented the abuse of Nigerian roads through overloading, reckless driving and unauthorised use.
FERMA’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Engr Dr. Emeka Agbasi, said roads remain vital to economic growth, facilitating the movement of agricultural produce to markets, industrial goods to ports and access to education and healthcare.
He, however, noted that deteriorating assets, maintenance backlogs, climate-induced damage, funding constraints and road safety concerns continue to impose high economic costs, including higher vehicle operating expenses, longer travel times, reduced competitiveness and increased risks to human lives.
In a related development, the FRSC Corp Marshal, Malam Shehu Mohammed, said the agency recorded 10, 446 Road Traffic Crashes (RTCs) and 5,289 deaths nationwide in 2025.
Briefing the press on Wednesday in Abuja, the corp marshal said the data showed a decrease in the numbers of deaths recorded in the same period in 2024.
Mohammed said that while the reduction confirmed that post-crash response interventions were working, it fell short of the Corps’ strategic target of a 10 per cent fatality reduction.
He said that it also confirmed that the challenge before the Corps was no longer response alone, but prevention, compliance and deterrence.
“Conversely, the number of persons killed declined from 5,421 to 5,289, representing a 2.4 per cent reduction in the same period under review.
“Although, beyond the festive operation, on an annual basis, comparative analysis of 2024 and 2025 crash data shows that total crashes increased by 9.2 percent from 9,570 to 10,446.
“Fatal crashes rose 2,532 in 2024 to 2,608 in 2025, representing 3.0 per cent, serious crashes by 10.5 per cent, that is from 6,131 in 2024 to 6,772 in 2025, and minor crashes from 907 to 1,066, signifying a 17.5 per cent increase.
“The number of persons injured increased from 31,154 to 33,400, which is a 7.2 per cent rise, and the number of people involved increased by 8.0 per cent,” he said.
Mohammed said that the comparison of 2024 and 2025 passenger and vehicular movement revealed steady growth with passenger traffic rising from 45.16 million in 2024 to 47.47 million, representing a 2.54 per cent increase.
The FRSC boss said that the number of vehicles traveled also increased from 3.65 million to 3.74 million, signifying a 1.25 percent difference.
