Buhari’s Commitment To Infrastructure Is Monumental, Unprecedented –Fashola

Oru Leonard

The Honourable Minister of Works and Housing Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN has described the commitment of the Buhari led Administration to Infrastructure development as monumental and unprecedented. The Minister made this description while responding to questions on Radio Nigeria phone-in programme “Have your say”.

Fashola hinged his commendation on the Infrastructural transformation work being implemented in the various sectors of the economy such as works and

Housing, Transportation, Digital communication and economy.

While responding to the question on why many Federal roads were still in bad

condition and why it was taking time to be completed, Fashola attributed it to

procurement process, limited resources and the process of road construction.

Citing an example of the Abuja – Lokoja road, he said the road which is about 300kilometre long was being expanded from 2 lanes to 4 lanes, which means that the entire work on that road is about 1200 kilometres.

He added that a section of the road had been completed remaining only the

section from Koton  Karfe to Lokoja, “some section have been completed, what is remaining is from Koton Karfe to Lokoja, which we are trying to finish”, he said.

Fashola mentioned Lagos -Ibadan, Enugu –Port Harcout, Kano –Maiduguri,

Ekpoma –Lokoja roads among those that have been partially completed.

The Minister said most of the roads were being reconstructed as some of them were impassable before now, citing Benin- Ore – Shagamu, Enugu –Port Harcourt roads. He urged Nigerians to be patient with the government and  reiterated that the fact that these bad roads which were left undone by the previous administration when oil was selling at $140 per barrel are now being reconstructed and rehabilitated by the Buhari Administration at a time that oil price per barrel is less than 50 dollars.

The Minister who disclosed the plan to finish 22 roads between 2020 and 2022

explained that the Federal Government was currently concentrating on Federal

roads which are interconnecting states. “Our roads are those that connect state to state. We are focusing on them, it is when we have done these key roads that

we will concentrate on others”, he said.

On the housing sector, The Minister who was asked why some houses that had

been completed by the Federal Government were yet to be allocated, said,

“Some of the houses have been completed but there is still a lot to be done. In

some cases we have not finished electrical connection to public power, we have

not finished internal road work, there have been cases of theft and pilfering and

we are doing replacement”.

Fashola revealed that a digital framework was been worked out to ensure that

application is done online to avoid undue influence from anyone. He also said that Federal Government was considering giving some allocations to State

Governments for onward allocation to their indigenes since the States donated

the land.

He called on State Government and the Private sector to complement the effort

of the Federal Government in the provision of houses to the people in overcoming the housing deficit.