POLITICS
Fashola Lists Major Roads Completed by FG
The Minister of Works and House, Mr Babatunde Fashola, on Wednesday listed major roads that have been completed by the Federal Government and are ready for commissioning nationwide.
The minister reeled out the names of the roads when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Works to defend the 2022 budget proposal in Abuja.
The roads, according to him, are the dualled Kano-Maiduguri Road linking Kano-Jigawa-Bauchi-Yobe and Borno States Section II, 177.
77 km executed for N65.32 billion and Section 101.84 km for N45.18 billion.Fashola also listed the rehabilitation of Vandeikya-Obudu-Obudu Cattle Ranch Road (Vandeikya-Obudu Section) in Benue for N6.
69 billion.Others, according to him, are the rehabilitation of Sokoto-TambuwaI-Jega-Kontagora-Makera Section in Sokoto and Kebbi States, length put at 155km, for N30.45 billion.
“Nenwe-Oduma-Mpu (Enugu State)-Uburu (Ebonyi State), which is 40.27km long, with a contract sum N12,598,151,083.54.
“Construction of Ikom Bridge in Cross River State, length of bridge is 323.20 metres and approach road of 1.2km at a contract sum of N8,916,062,392.83.
“The rehabilitation of Nguru-Gashua-Bayamari Road, Section II (Gashua-Bayamari), the is length 25.00km, executed for N6,581,999,666.55
`Construction of a two-lane Bridge over the Cross River at the Cameroon-Nigeria Border at Ekok/Mfum, including Approach Roads in Cross.
According to Fashola, the ministry has about 13,000km of roads and bridges under construction and rehabilitation in 856 contracts, comprising 795 projects and aggregate length of 816.29km of roads and 733.2m of bridges.
These, according to him, have been completed.
The minister stated that some of the bridges that were built had not received enough maintenance since they were constructed.
“I was just whispering to the permanent secretary to urgently look at bridges that the bearings have broken and very urgently we must intervene to prevent accidents.
He said to stop such incidents from becoming normal, the ministry would establish a Bridge Maintenance Unit.
Fashola, while harping on the need to employ more personnel, said the ministry would need to engage people and also provide equipment and materials for regular inspection to be undertaken.
“Let me use this opportunity, as you are taking decisions, just be mindful of one or two things that I have said: our work continues to increase but our manpower is not increasing.
“There is the risk then of personnel becoming overwhelmed, it is a real risk and we should avoid it so please bear that in mind.
“Also in terms of our recurrent expenditures, roads being built, bridges being maintained requires people to go and inspect to verify.
He said this would bring consequential recurrent expenditures, either in form of vehicle procurement, maintenance and repairs, cost of travel, fuelling and also stationery.
Rep. Abubakar Kabir, Committee Chairman, commended President Muhammad Buhari and Fashola for the good job they were doing in road construction.
“The successes achieved despite the financial constraint is highly commendable and is nothing short of a miracle,” he said. (NAN)
The Abia Chapter of the INEC Staff Welfare Association (ISWA) has warned its members to uphold the integrity of the commission and guard against the culture of manipulating election results.
The Abia Chairman of the association, Mr Collins Eze, gave the advice at the group’s general meeting and end-of-year party in Umuahia.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen on the sideline of the ceremony, Eze said that the staff members were adequately aware of their enormous responsibility and should ensure free, fair and credible elections.
He said: “We have also told our colleagues that anywhere they find themselves they should make sure that they do the needful by ensuring transparency in the conduct of elections.
“We have always told them not to allow anybody to induce them with money to manipulate election results.
“I’m happy that they have been building the capacity of our colleagues on election processes.
“So, in the coming years, we won’t have any problem in ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections.”
He said that the end-of-year party was special as it afforded them the opportunity “to wine and dine together as well as thank God for sustaining them in 2024”.
Eze said that his leadership had introduced various means of assisting members in dire financial needs by providing platforms to solicit suppory for them.
He expressed gratitude to members for their support and cooperation, describing them as the “secret behind the success of this administration”.
He said that 34 of at least 350 staff members of the commission in the state retired from service in 2024.
According to him, the development has placed a huge financial burden on the association, in terms of their welfare and entitlement as members.
Report says that each member received a carton of tomato paste as Christmas gift from the association. (NAN)
A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be thankful to God that its 16-year administration was not probed by the successive APC-led governments.Okechukwu stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, while reacting to a statement by PDP congratulating Ghanaians for the conduct of free, fair and transparent general elections.
Report says that PDP had, in a statement, said that the verdict of the people of Ghana in the presidential election was a signal to the APC that its days were numbered. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, had said in the statement that the power of the people in Nigeria, just like in Ghana, would ‘surely prevail and end the APC’s oppressive rule’.This, he said, would “return Nigeria to the path of good governance, security, political stability and economic prosperity on the platform of the PDP in 2027.”However, in his reactions to Ologunagba’s statement, Okechukwu said that the PDP clan should thank God that former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu, out of sheer statesmanship, had refused to probe ‘the 16 locus years of PDP administrations’.Okechukwu, a former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), described the 16 years of PDP administrations as ones full of squandering and lack of plan.He said that Nigeria had yet to recover from the humongous culture of impunity and trust deficit planted by PDP on the Nigerian soil.Okechukwu said corruption was among the culture of impunity, saying it governed the privatisation of Nigeria’s electricity value chain, a key element in the country’s industrialisation drive.“Another is the blatant rigging of the 2007 general elections which the foremost beneficiary, President Umaru Yar’Adua, out of good conscience and noble magnanimity, publicly acknowledged the malfeasance which characterised his victory,” he said.Okechukwu also mentioned what he called conscienceless sale of the legislative and ministerial quarters, the annual rentage of which, he said, was bleeding the country’s treasury.“Another one is the neglect of $23 billion Greenfield Refinery, which could have saved over $70 billion expended on importation of refined petroleum products and which simulated the economic hardship of today,” he said.On why, for nine years, the APC administration could not fix those challenges, he recalled the efforts made by the Buhari administration to reopen talks on the Greenfield Refinery which, according to him, the Chinese regrettably rebuffed.The former VON director-general said that Nigerians were not in a hurry to forget the deliberate breach of the rotational convention of president from the north to the south.He said that the country could not also forget the utter disregard for Section 7 of the PDP’s constitution which expressly mandated zoning.Okechukwu advised the PDP not to insult the sensibilities of Nigerians by assuming that citizens would easily forget how they were put in the harms way.He said that PDP should thank God that Buhari and Tinubu did not want to probe them, adding “that’s why Nigerians cannot decipher the difference between the two political parties.” (NAN)
Sen. Ned Nwoko (PDP-Delta) says that Local Government Administration is central to democracy in Nigeria as it ensures grassroots governance and service delivery at the local level.This is contained in a statement signed by Dr Michael Nwoko, the Chief of Staff to the lawmaker in Abuja on Monday.Nwoko said this on the occasion of the presentation of an award “Icon of Hope” to him by the Association of Local Government Vice Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGOVC).
He was represented by his Chief of Staff. He said that the importance of local government administration in the country could not be overemphasised, as it was the bedrock of democracy.According to him, local governments in Nigeria play key roles in the country’s democracy by promoting participatory democracy, providing services, and representing citizens.“Local Governments help determine local needs and how to meet them. They also act as a link between the centre, state, and local people.“They are created to decentralise power and bring the government closer to the people. They perform both mandatory and concurrent functions.“It is in view of this that I took it upon myself to enhance the viability of local governments through the Paris and London club loan refunds,”he said.Dr Folashade Olabanji-Oba, ALGOVC National Chairman, while presenting the award at its 7th Annual National Conference, said the award was in recognition of the lawmaker’s significant contributions to strengthening local government administration.She highlighted Nwoko’s critical role in ensuring the Paris and London Club loan refunds, a financial breakthrough she said enhanced the capacity of local governments nationwide.(NAN)
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