The Minister of Power, Works and Housing,
Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has officially unveiled
his short term plans to address housing deficits,
provide good roads and urgently increase power
generation in the country with extra 2, 000
megawatts.
Fashola said, during his maiden press briefing in
Abuja that the Lagos-Ibadan expressway which
has been under construction and the second
Niger Bridge are of great importance to the
current administration, thus would get urgent
attention.
He said year 2002 was the last time the sum of
N200 billion was budgeted for road constructions
in the country.
The Minister further disclosed 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 paucity of
funds and are vital to boost social economic
activities in the country would be quickly
revisited.
It was Fashola’s maiden briefing since his
resumption to office.
He spoke on plans to 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.”
However, Fashola stated that government’s ability
to achieve connectivity of Inter-state roads would
largely depend on capital spending in the 2016
budget.
He said it became imperative to pay contractors
and get them back to work as soon as possible.
“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,” he said.
Analysing the unfortunate situation, Fashola
explained that, “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 added.



http://thenationonlineng.net/fashola-unveils-agenda-for-roads-power-and-housing/

Walk the Talk Mr BF..

Good talk...more action.....wailers over to you

May God help you achieve this and much more. Hopefully Nigerians will fully appreciate the era of CHANGE as from next year.

We are tired of una talk talk o...make una hit d ground running jare