Kwara State governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, has said that ownership of roads by the federal government has contributed to continued deterioration of such infrastructure across the country.

Speaking at the maiden international conference of the Nigerian Institution of Civil Engineers (NICE) in Ilorin on Thursday, the governor, therefore advocated that Federal Government should divest itself from ownership of roads to improve infrastructural development in Nigeria.

The governor, who said that roads played an important role in the economy by enhancing smooth movement of goods and people from one place to another, added that the current deplorable state of Nigerian roads had made the task difficult.

He said that states where roads are located should be made to take ownership, after the legal and fiscal adjustments necessary for control, recommending that the respective governments should concession key roads nationwide to the private sector on build and operate arrangement.

To address the prevalent cases of building collapse in several parts of the country, the national chairman of the institution, Engineer Robbie Owivry, said that federal government should enact a law that would prevent non-qualified engineering personnel from carrying out engineering activities.