Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) yesterday explained his opposition to official inauguration of federal highways before such roads were put to use.
Fashola, a former governor of Lagos State, added that unlike roads belonging to states, it was impossible to inaugurate long stretches of federal roads, running into hundreds of kilometres.
He made this clarification in a statement the Director of Press and Publicity at the ministry, Mr. Boade Akinola issued yesterday after the minister received members of the Senate Committee on Works.
Fashola said the concern of the ministry was principally to ensure completion of roads to give Nigerians quality travel time and experience, noting that federal roads differ from intra-city roads.
He said: “I have continuously explained to people that the roads that belong to the federal government are very long roads. They are roads that connect cities and states together, unlike intra-city roads that connect local governments together.
“Sometimes somebody will ask me when are you going to commission the roads? I ask them, how, for instance, do you commission the Kano-Maiduguri road? Where do you start the commissioning from? The day you start driving on the roads, it means the roads have been commissioned.”
Fashola, however, promised that the ministry would consider officially inaugurating some of the completed roads, saying inauguration was better suited for municipal roads of five to 10 kilometres,
In response to questions on the delay in the completion of some major roads, Fashola listed some reasons for apparent delays in project completion as paucity of funds and topography of the project location and problems of climate change.
The minister pointed out that the rainy season in Nigeria “comes with a lot of challenges, especially transport logistics.”
Fashola said much progress had been made on the major projects funded under the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) initiative, namely: Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the Second Niger Bridge,
He promised that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari was committed to delivering them before 2023.
In their comments, however, the committee members who were on an oversight visit to the ministry, argued that official ceremonies to flag off roads, would enable Nigerians know and appreciate what the Muhammadu Buhari administration had been doing with the nation’s resources since inception.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Adamu Aliero, who lauded the strides achieved by the ministry in road construction and rehabilitation, maintained that it was necessary to commission the finished projects for the Nigerian public to know that things are happening in government.
He said that the committee recently concluded a nationwide tour of the roads and bridges and appealed to Fashola to take the initiative of inauguration completed parts or sections of the roads.
Also speaking, Senator Ike Ekweremadu noted that a lot had been achieved in the last six years in the road construction, but noted that because the completed roads were not being commissioned, most Nigerians found it difficult to appreciate the achievements.
He recommended that in the face of paucity of funds, contractors that are doing good jobs should be paid while those not doing well should be sanctioned, arguing that it was better to use available funds to pay performing contractors instead of waiting for those who are slow.
Also, Senator Ajayi Borrofice said that although the minister would always receive flaks from members of the public, the government wasn’t doing badly and re-echoed the importance of commissioning the completed projects. “We have to blow our own trumpet to make Nigerians know what we are doing,” he said.
