![Nigerian govt gives contractors ultimatum to fix failed highways or face sanction [FULL LIST]](/_nuxt/oca-placeholder.CTME4uEf.png)
The Federal Government has declared a three-week emergency operation to fix failed portions of major federal highways across the country.
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, issued the order on Friday in Abuja during a meeting with zonal directors at the ministry headquarters in Mabushi.
He told officials and contractors to go back to site at once and make the roads passable before the Christmas rush and the January 2027 polls.
Umahi said he was angry that some contractors were busy doing permanent work on one part of a road while another part of the same road remained completely bad and unusable.
According to him, that style of work will no longer be allowed, stating that emergency repair must now come first wherever a road has collapsed, even if permanent construction is already going on there.
He said that the emergency work will involve cutting out the damaged spots, removing bad soil, filling the spots with laterite and sharp sand, adding stone base mixed with 3.5 percent or five percent cement where needed, and finishing with binder and wearing course.
The minister added that road shoulders and drains will also be fixed, noting that any portion that has already been completed and left for at least 21 days should be opened for motorists to use if it is safe.
Umahi said the Tinubu government met a road network that was badly damaged, with many highways failing at the same time.
He said because money is limited, the government will use strong palliative work to keep the roads working while full construction continues.
He said when President Bola Tinubu took over, drivers could not travel for 30 minutes without hitting potholes or failed sections.
He also spoke about the Abuja Kaduna Zaria Road, which he said is about 95 percent done. He said no kidnapping has been reported on that road in the last two years.
Full list of roads for emergency repair
North West and North East
Sokoto Zamfara Road
Funtua Zaria Road
Kano Katsina Road
Kano Jigawa Road
Jigawa Bauchi Road
Maiduguri Sections 4 and 5, Bauchi Gombe Road
Numan Jalingo Road plus other bad sections in Adamawa and Taraba
North Central
Abuja Lokoja Road
Mararaba Keffi Road
Keffi Makurdi Road
Makurdi Nyieme Road
Lokoja Benin Road
South-South and South West
Benin Ore Road
Benin Asaba Road
Benin Bypass, Benin-Warri Road
Warri Ughelli Road
East-West Road
Okpanu Calabar Road.
South East
Enugu Port Harcourt Road, especially the Enugu Aba stretch
Enugu Abakaliki Ogoja Road
Aba Port Harcourt Road
Owerri Onitsha Road
Umahi also told the contractors to go back to jobs they had already finished and fix any part that has become bad again.
Nigerian govt gives contractors ultimatum to fix failed highways or face sanction [FULL LIST]