The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has promised to urgently increase the nation’s power generation to 7,000 mega watts (MW) in the short-run from the current 5,000MW generation level capacity at the disposal of the country.
Fashola disclosed this yesterday while he officially unveiled his short-term plans to address the crisis facing the industry. He stated that as plans to improve electricity generation in the country the ministry will urgently increase power generation in the country with additional 2, 000 megawatts.
Speaking during his maiden press briefing in Abuja, the Minister stated that he plans to partner with the private sector and fully privatise the power sector in order for the country to witness genuine development like in the telecommunication sector.
Speaking on his plans to provide good roads, Fashola said, the Lagos-Ibadan expressway which has been under construction and the second Niger Bridge were of great importance to the current administration. He, therefore, promised to give them the urgent attention they deserve.
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.
He disclosed that part of his plans was to immediately restore the jobs of construction workers who were laid off by local and international construction companies in the country.
According to him, year 2002 was the last time the sum of N200 billion was budgeted for road constructions in the country.
“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,” he stated.
“As far as status reports go, the Federal Government budgeted N18.132 billion in 2015 and the Ministry of Works got N13 billion 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.”
Fashola noted, however, 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 prioritise within this strategy by choosing first the roads that connect states together and from that grouping start with those that bear the heaviest traffic.
To sanitize road management in the country, the Minister said, “In order to make the roads safer, we intend to re-claim the full width and set back of all Federal roads, representing 16 per cent 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.”
By mynewswatchtimes
