by Peter Dada
The Minister for Works, Senator David Umahi has expressed the commitment of the current administration of President Bola Tinubu to ensure roads across the 36 states of the federation are in good shape.
Umahi, a former Governor of Ebonyi State also claimed personal responsibility for failure to have good federal roads in any part of the country.
The minister stated this at the Federal Ministry of Works town hall meeting/stakeholders’ engagement on the alignment of the Ondo State 63km segment of the Lagos Calabar coastal highway, held in Akure, the state capital on Thursday.
According to him, the coastal highway was significant in the economic development of the affected states and the country in general.
He said, “One of the things we saw when we came on board was that Tinubu inherited 20,604 projects total as of May 29, 2023. N13 trillion. And contractors were being owed N1.6 trillion for jobs done. So, the President, a man of courage, still has to manifest all the projects inherited to fix them. Some of these projects are 20 years, 5 years, 13 years, and 17 years. He believes that this project should be fixed in 14 months and it has to be fixed and if it is not fixed, I will take responsibility.
“You are giving a contract, you are waiting for mobilisation. The Procurement Act says you can’t maintain a mobilisation fee. It did not say shall pay but must pay. It is within the convenience of the client, and when they are paid, the contractor is expected to show evidence of financial capability.
“We are committed to turning our stone to bread. There is no complaint. We are not distracted. I take responsibility for every failure, any road that is bad, any road that is ongoing and not being constructed. But be assured that we are not sleeping. The Ondo state is an oil-producing state, which is a key state to the economy of our nation. The commitment of Mr President in this legacy project is not just constructing a road it is an investment.”
Umahi declared that there would be no room for abandoning projects any longer and that any contractor who does not take the Federal Government’s projects seriously would have their contract terminated.
“We have terminated over ten contracts of big companies, and we have the mind to terminate more, and you can’t dictate for us; we will tell you what we want. Our books are very much open. We will conclude the design (for Ondo State) within the month of November and we will inaugurate it.
“We have directed that all federal road controllers should give us details of roads within their domain, whether awarded or not so that by this Christmas, all federal high roads will be motorable. We are coming back after your election to start the Aiyetoro project which will get started after this one. Nigerians should be grateful that we have a listening president. He is committed to all sectors. This country still has a lot of potential,” he said.
In his remarks, the state governor, Mr Lucky Aiyedatiwa, commended Tinubu for the initiative of the coastal highway, saying the project was not a political one and had already started in other sections.
“He (Tinubu) is supporting us economically. I want to thank you for all the other projects in the country. These projects will be of huge benefit to us, that is why we are going to cooperate with the Federal Government and the contractors,” the governor lauded.
The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Works, Mr Akin Alabi, in his own remarks, commended Tinubu for the initiative and the minister for working hard to get the desired results for Nigerian roads.
“We at the House of Representatives are fully behind the President and works minister. Our aim is that, at the end of the day, we want Nigeria to work. We have to say bye-bye to the practice of contractors collecting money and not working. If contractors are not on site, don’t pay them, that’s one of the biggest scams in the ministry,” the lawmaker stressed