Williams Anuku Abuja
Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has said failed roads and the attendant effect it has on the transportation system were not peculiar challenges to Nigeria alone.
Fashola who was reacting to criticism on the federal government regarding the deplorable state of roads in Nigeria and measures to make them motorable ahead of the yuletide, said many factors ranging from poor budgetary provisions to government bureaucracy affect the delivery of critical infrastructures, especially roads.
He gave this impression while briefing State House Correspondents on the outcome of the Federal Executive Council meeting, chaired by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo.
According to the Minister, there has never been adequate budgetary provisions for infrastructures in the past two decades, and in most cases, capital releases are never fully made to carry-out successful road projects.
He made efforts to exonorate the government, saying there was not much that can be done when natural factors such as the rainy season sets in.
“When I come here to announce that a particular amount was approved for a contract that doesn’t mean the amount has been paid contrary to what you suggest. You are mindful also that minister of finance, different arms of government are escalating the fiscal challenges we face as a nation in trying to fund the budget.
“You are also mindful that the last few budgets in Nigeria for almost twenty years have been deficit budgets and these are terminologies that are realities and I think we should acquaint ourselves with if we are or just report news but also educate the public.
“You must also be aware that between awarding a contract and also mobilizing to site there is a distance. First of all we have to have an agreement that is the relationship between the ministry of works or any other ministry and the ministry of justice, then there is a role that banks play, they have to give guarantee.
“These are things that I would like to know if o was a correspondent in order to be able to help me inform members of the public. Building materials – rocks, laterite, quarry, iron rode have to be ordered, construction companies don’t keep them. The process of producing blasting rocks requires approval from the office of ministers of Justice and even the office of the NSA to get approval to get dynamite. All of these are the things that go on.
“So the point that I am making to you is that there is a distance between approval, implementation, actual construction and the result.
The other point I wish to make to you also is that the problem of the other places you talk about – Warri, Benin – Sapele road and the South East, first of all you must understand that those places don’t stand in isolation, the Niger Delta is the longs of Nigeria that is a rain forest. It’s a high water table area
