President Bola Tinubu yesterday ordered the regional development commissions to be involved in the fight to tackle the rising security threats in the country. According to him, apart from security issues, they are to work with state governments to improve critical infrastructure, including roads.

The Minister of Regional Development, Abubakar Momoh, said this after meeting with Tinubu alongside the heads of the seven development commissions at the Presidential Villa.

He said: “The commissions will work side by side with state governments to address insecurity in their regions. “It is part of their core mandate.

They are not the chief executives of the states, but they will complement the work of other levels of government.” Momoh said the commissions were already involved in regional road development, with similar interventions expected from newly established commissions once they become fully operational.

He cited recent proactive interventions by state governments on federal highways—including repairs on a 10-kilometre stretch of the Benin–Warri Road in Delta State and work along the Sapele– Ogorode corridor in Edo State—as examples of the type of collaboration the Federal Government aims to strengthen.

The minister blamed the poor condition of many roads on a longstanding neglect of maintenance, noting that the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) “for more than eight to ten years was not fully alive to its responsibilities”.

According to him, the development commissions have already adopted a four-phase master plan for rebuilding and linking economic clusters across the regions.