Nse Anthony-Uko,
ABUJA, (Sundiata Post) – The sum of N277 has been earmarked for the actualisation of federal government’s three-year plan for roads that are critical to transportation of agricultural products to where they are needed throughout the country.
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, stated this in Lagos while rendering his one year stewardship, disclosing that works were ongoing on various roads and bridges across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
Fashola, in a statement by his SA on Communications, Hakeem Bello, said that as a result of insufficient funds, priority was being given to roads that allow farmers, businessman, industries and travellers move their goods, roads that support energy sufficiency and those that lead to and from the nation’s major sea and airports.
According to him, the said amount has been earmarked, subject to authorisation by National Assembly over the period, to intervene in critical roads and 42 bridges that lead to and from major food producing states in the
Briefing the Press on the milestones already achieved and projections going forward in the sectors under his Ministry, Fashola said although the administration inherited 206 federal roads already awarded, with outstanding completion costs in the region of N1.5 trillion, its share of the 2016 budget for Works was N260billion, describing that however as “a drop in the ocean against the liabilities outstanding to contractors but a lot better than the provision of only N18 billion in the 2015 budget”.
The Minister said as a result of the paucity of funds, the roads had to be categorised according to priorities, listing the roads where contractors have been mobilised to include the Port Harcourt- Aba Road, where mobilisation was delayed until Monday 31st October because of rains and the difficulty of establishing a works yard; Sokoto – Tambuwal – Makera-Kontagara Road where work is going on; Ilorin-Jebba Road; Loko-Oweto Bridge; Shagamu-Ibadan and Shagamu – Lagos ends of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway among others.
Fashola also listed other roads and the state they would pass through to include Ogbomosho-Oko-Ilogbo-Osogbo (Oyo-Osun States), Funtua-Katsina (Katsina State), Wukari-Akwana (Taraba State), Abriba–Arochukwu–Ohafia (Abia State), Abuja – Lokoja – Airport (FCT/Kogi State), Oji-Achi-Obeagu-Mmaku-Awgu-Ndeaboh-Mpu-Okpanku (Enugu State), Ajase Ipo – Offa – Erinle – Osun State Boundary (Kwara State) and Ikot Ekpene Border- Aba – Owerri Dualisation (Akwa Ibom/Abia and Imo States).
The Minister gave the basis for the categorization to include roads that carried the heaviest cargo, “to allow farmers, businessman, industries and travellers move their goods and themselves across the country in order to drive productive activity”, roads that support energy sufficiency such as those leading to and from petroleum tank farms “in order to move petrol, diesel and kerosene across Nigeria”, and roads that lead to and from the nation’s major sea and airports “so that maritime business could go on, to drive the economy”.
Pointing out that the hard choice was also dictated by liabilities accruing from debts already owed from unpaid contracts that had already been executed, Fashola said many of the contractors were not paid for an average of two to three years leading to stoppage of work by the contractors before the new administration came in.
He said government also paid consultants who were now supervising the roads and who, he noted, were denied payment for two to three years adding that this has helped to recover lost jobs, and put some money back in circulation, as part of a government strategy to build out of the current recession.
