Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), a man for whom much is expected, has officially unveiled his short term agenda to fix housing deficits, provide good roads and urgently increase power generation in the country by an additional 2, 000 megawatts.
In his maiden press briefing in Abuja, Fashola said that the Lagos-Ibadan expressway which has been under construction and the second Niger Bridge would be top on the priority list, stressing that this government would focus on infrastructure.
He regretted that year 2002 was the last time the sum of N200 billion was budgeted for road constructions in the country.
He hinted that work would soon commence on all roads that link the 36 States of the federation, adding that major roads which had been suspended due to shortage of funds and are vital to boost social economic activities in the country would be quickly revisited.
He said government would partner with the private sector and fully privatise the power sector in order for the country to witness genuine development like the telecommunication.
Part of his plans is also to immediately restore the jobs of construction workers who were laid off by local and international construction companies in the country.
His words: “The records that have been made available from previous budgets show that the last time Nigeria budgeted over N200 Billion in a year’s budget for roads was in 2002. It seems that as our income from oil prices increased over the last decade, our spending on roads decreased.
“As far as status reports go, the federal government budgeted N18.132Billion in 2015 and the Ministry of Works got N13Billion for all roads and highways in 2015, although it has contracts for 206 roads, covering over 6,000km with contract price of over N2 Trillion.”
He said that government’s ability to achieve connectivity of Inter-state roads would largely depend on capital spending in the 2016 budget.
He said: “Our short term strategy will be to start with roads that have made some progress and can be quickly completed to facilitate connectivity. We will prioritize within this strategy by choosing first the roads that connect states together and from that grouping start with those that bear the heaviest traffic.
“As at May 2015, many contractors have stopped work because of payment, and many fathers and wives employed by them have been laid off as a result.
“Some of the numbers from only four companies that were sampled, suggest that at least 5,150 workers have been laid as at March 11, 2015; and if we realize that there are at least 200 contracts pending, on the basis of 1(one) company per contract.
“If each contractor has only 100 employees at each of the 200 contract sites, it means at least that 20,000 people who lost their jobs can return to work if the right budget is put in place and funded for contractors to get paid.
“The possibility to return those who have just lost their jobs back to work is the kind of change that we expect to see by this short term strategy.”
“In order to make the roads safer, we intend to re-claim the full width and set back of all Federal roads, representing 16% and about 36,000km of Nigeria’s road network by immediately now asking all those who are infringing on our highways, whether by parking, trading, or erection of any inappropriate structure to immediately remove, relocate or dismantle such things voluntarily. This will be the biggest contribution that citizens can offer our country as proof that we all want things to change for the better,” Fashola said.
The Minister who looked upbeat and ready to roll expressed hope that in the coming years, power generation and distribution would greatly improve.
