Babatunde Fashola, the minister of power, works and housing, has officially unveiled his short-term agenda, The Nation reports.
Bbatunde Fashola (SAN)
Speaking during a press briefing in Abuja, Fashola said that he is planning to address housing deficits, provide good roads and increase power generation in Nigeria with extra 2, 000 megawatts.
Fashola assured Nigerians that work would soon commence on all roads that link the 36 states, adding that major roads are vital to boost social economic activities in the country would be quickly revisited.
Speaking about the power sector, the minister said that it would be fully privatized in order for the country to witness genuine development like the telecommunication. Part of his plans is also to partner with the private sector.
“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,” he said.
However, the minister noted that the government’s ability to achieve connectivity of inter-state roads would depend on capital spending in the 2016 budget.
“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,” he added.
Fashola stressed that part of his plans was to immediately restore the jobs of construction workers.
“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.
“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,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lai Mohammed, the minister of information and culture, has unveiled agenda for media and advised journalists on how to get information from government officials.
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