The House of Representatives Committee on Works, Thursday, held its inaugural meeting at the main bowl of the National Assembly, Abuja; declaring its main agenda.

It also, assured of effective oversight of the Ministry of Works, to ensure, there is value for funds, appropriated for road construction and rehabilitation in Nigeria.

Chairman of the Committee Rep Akin Alabi gave the assurance during the inuagural meeting, saying: “With oversight of the Works Ministry and its agencies, there will be visible transformation on our road infrastructure.”

He further stated that the Committee, which has representatives from all the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) needs to be more productive and focused, due to challenges in the road sector.

He said the use of concrete may be considered and adopted by the committee for road construction against the use of asphalt which had led to deprorable state of road infrastructure in the country.

“It is my pleasure to welcome all Members to this inaugural meeting of the House Committee on Works.

“You have been carefully, selected by the leadership of the House, to represent each of the States in this committee.

“As you are all aware, Order Twenty (B), Rule 109 of the Standing Orders of the House, established the House Committee on Works with jurisdiction as oversight of construction and maintenance of Federal roads and bridges.

“Oversight of survey and mapping; Oversight of roads research; Oversight of Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation, (OSGOF); Oversight of Council for the Registration of Engineering in Nigeria, (COREN); Oversight of Surveyors Council of Nigeria, (SURCON); Oversight of Federal School of Survey, Oyo State; Oversight of Regional Centre for Training in Aerospace Survey, (RECTAS); Oversight of the Ministry responsible for works and its parastatals, save those assigned to other committees, and Annual budget estimates.

“This committee, in this 10th Assembly needs to be much more proactive considering the myriads of challenges on our road infrastructure.

“As most of you must have watched with keen interest, the revelations coming from the Minister of Works from his tour of various roads projects across the country, I have no doubt that our job is well cut out for us.

“As parliament of the people, our intervention is very crucial to ensure that we ameliorate the sufferings of our people on the roads. We, as a committee, must come up with legislation, policies and interventions that will improve the situation on our road infrastructure.

“On every sitting day in the House, the committee receives nothing less than 2 to 3 referrals on motions from members drawing attention to roads infrastructure in their constituency, calling for attention. There is no doubt that the situation of our road infrastructure is highly deplorable.

“That is why we need to swing into action immediately. Though, the last government carried out some initiatives, policies and interventions on road infrastructure, we need to review some of these ideas and determine their work-ability or effectiveness in addressing our general concerns,” he stated.

The Committee Chairman also said in the last administration, the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund, (PIDF) managed by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, (NSIA) and the Highway Management Development Initiative, (HDMI) under the guidance of Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, (ICRC) were among several initiatives employed to improve road infrastructure.

“In line with the Legislative Agenda of this 10th Assembly, this committee will collaborate effectively with the Ministry of Works and its agencies to promote interventions that will bring about, rapid transformation on our roads.”

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