By Martin Odiete, Abuja
The Minister of Works and Housing, Raji Fashola has reacted angrily to the question thrown at him by members of the Senate Committee on Local Content when he appeared before them to defend the Ministry proposal for a loan cautioning that he should not be blamed for the current state of the Nigeria road.
Fashola noted that his appeal to get more funds approved by the Senate for the repairs and constructions of the roads has fell on deaf ear arguing that there is very little he can do if he is continually been denied of increased funds.
Fashola said, “I am not going to go into debates about which road is good and which road is not good but the point to make is that most of these roads were inherited by this administration and there is a clearer and more debatable commitment to sole them even in the face of dwindling resources.
“And let me now go to the Suleja Minna road. On that road we have a contractor working, he is working from Dikko section al through into Minna town, the governor is also intervening in this project. Now as at last week when we went there that contractor had N32 billion Naira to secure in his contract. The provision in the contract is N2.5billion. So the answer to your question is if you give me the resources to do my work I will do it. But, I am not going to complain. Every year the budget is passed we make presentation, we make recommendations, whatever comes out is what we work with.
“As for the road linking Anyamgba to Ajeokuta,I believe that road recently just came out from the procurement process, so its one of the roads listed in the Federal Executive council for consideration. So, again, we don’t leave anything behind. I have come here repeatedly to ask that the procurement time in the public procurement law be shortened. If it is not shortened this is what will happen. So, that is my answer again, and I hope that when it is finally approved there will be sufficient budget and there will also be approval for borrowing plans to find the money.
“ If we don’t have money we can talk about roads from here to anywhere nothing will happen. Now in terms of the full picture and as at the close of last year, we are owing contractors in excess of N300billion for works that have been done. The headline figure that I have seen in 2020 budget is a budget of N255billion for the ministry of works and housing. Of that number N179 billions is for works, and we are already owing N300 billion. That is my explanation,” Fashola explained
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