Fashola Kicks against Destruction of Public Assets

Fashola Kicks against Destruction of Public Assets

Says N2.6bn required to fix bridges wrecked by vandals

By Emmanuel Addeh

Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, (SAN) yesterday bemoaned the incessant destruction of public property in the country, noting that the federal government would require about N2.608 billion to fix a handful of bridges recently damaged by vandals.

Fashola explained that the infrastructure damaged under the purview of his ministry include bridges across the nation such as Otedola and Kara bridges in Lagos as well as Tamburawa bridge in Kano which he said would cost N203 million, N605 million and N1.8 billion, respectively to repair.

A statement by the spokesperson of the ministry, Boade Akinola, noted that Fashola spoke in Abuja during his presentation at the “Town Hall Meeting on Protecting Public Infrastructure” , organised by the ministry of information.

Fashola argued that no nation grows beyond the capacity of its infrastructure, lamenting the level of damage and vandalism of public property in the nation.

“Our ability to grow, to develop and to prosper, to get education and essentially to live a good life is tied to quality and quantity of Infrastructure that we have,” he said.

He stressed that funds expended repairing the bridges could have been deployed to the health and education sectors, disclosing that a number of the bridges were abused by the conversion of spaces under the facility to shops and the use of parking spaces for businesses.

He added that the ministry had started the process of recovering all the spaces with the aim of ensuring that they are utilised for their legitimate purposes.

Fashola further condemned the vandalism of signage on the federal highways across the country, noting that they had become targets of some people who turn them to billboards for campaigns, while some of them were carted away.

He lamented the abuse of the right of way by certain Nigerians who raise structure on them, explaining that 45.72 metres from the centre line of both sides of the road lie within the RoW.

In addition, he kicked against the building of bumps on federal highways which he noted are dangerous to unsuspecting road users, saying that the public buildings are also not left out by vandals.

The minister noted that though there are existing laws to punish the criminal acts but they are no longer realistic in view of the economic changes that have taken place since the time they were enacted and called for amendment of the laws so that offenders could be adequately punished.

He called on citizens to take responsibility over government properties and stand up against vandalism and willful destruction of the commonwealth of the country.

In his welcome address, Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed, said the aim of the meeting was to bridge the gap between the government and the people, emphasising that infrastructure deficit is one of the challenges facing the country.

“Despite a drastic drop in revenues and competing priorities especially that of tackling insecurity, the Federal Government had invested heavily in providing new infrastructure in addition to reconstruction and rehabilitating of existing ones,” he said.

However, he lamented that in recent times such efforts of the government were being thwarted by some unpatriotic citizens through wanton destruction of critical infrastructure, thereby depriving the greater citizenry for whose benefits these projects and services are provided.

Related Articles