Honourable Minister of Works, Sen. Dave Umahi said that President Bola Tinubu as at May 29,2024 inherited 2,604 projects with contractors being owed N1.6 trillion.
Umahi stated this during on Thursday in Akure at the town hall meeting/stakeholders’ engagement on the alignment of Ondo State 63-kilometer segment of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.
“One of the things we saw when we came on board is that Mr. President inherited 2,604 projects, as of May 29, 2023 and contractors were being owed N1.6 trillion for jobs done and undone anyway.
“Mr President intends to attend to all the projects he inherited with the hope to find money to fix them and that's what he's doing.
“ And some of them are 5 years old; some 20 years, 18 years, 17 years and you believe that these projects should be fixed in 14 months.
“if they are not fixed, I take responsibility for it but there are things we are doing to ensure that it's no longer business as usual,”’he said.
He explained that the road when completed would give room for rapid development in the seven states.
The minister described the Lagos/ Calabar Coastal Highway as not a mere road construction but an investment that will transform the seven states affected
“we are going to acquire in partnership with the states, we will have tourism; we're going to have factories, we're going to have housing estate; we're going to have industries and on this corridor, we are going to have wind energy.
“The wind energy is going to provide energy to the corridor's communities and it's very important. So, it's not just a road construction, it's an investment,” he said.
He warned contractors working on federal roads in the state to start work by Monday, saying that if work was not ongoing, the government would terminate the contract agreement.
According to him, the government is thinking to ensure that federal roads across the nation are motorable before Christmas.
He asked controllers in all states of the nation in the Federal Ministry of Works to feed the ministry with status of the federally roads in their respective states.
“Controllers should give us the status of roads in their respective states so that we will do everything possible to ensure that by this coming Christmas all federal highways within the limits of our thinking outside the box are made motorable,” he said.
Umahi said that President Tinubu was a listening president that was committed not just to one sector but all sectors of the economy.
The minister who asked contractors handling all federal roads to be committed to their respective projects, stating that the ministry had terminated over 10 contracts, vowing that the ministry had the courage to terminate more.
In his remarks, the state governor, Hon. Lucky Aiyedatiwa, appreciated President Tinubu for the special highway, saying it’s not a political project.
Aiyedatiwa said that the road when completed would bring huge economic benefits to all seven states.
He added that communities along the corridor of the highway were protected, saying that the road would connect entire Niger Delta together and ensure ease of doing business.
