…President’s hard decisions beginning to bear desired fruits – Idris
…We’ve already secured $200m in investment commitments – Musawa
The Minister of Works, Engr. David Nweze Umahi, has said that the dream of the first democratically elected president of Nigeria, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, “is now being realised by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” with regards to the construction of the Sokoto-Badagry Super Highway.
Umahi stated this Friday at the eighth edition of the Ministerial Press Briefing Session, held at the National Press Centre in Abuja.
He said the dream of the Shagari administration was conceptualised 47 years ago, but was made to become a reality by President Tinubu, who re-named it from Badagry-Sokoto to Sokoto-Badagry, adding that section one of the two-carriageway had been awarded as section one.
He said the Ministry would minimise using foreign contractors for road projects across the country, with the new directive of the president on prioritising local products.
Umahi said, “The good news is the Sokoto-Badagry Super Highway. This was a dream of the Shagari administration about 47 years back. It was supposed to be Badagry-Sokoto, but a very detribalised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu directed us to change it to Sokoto-Badagry. When you look at the terrain, you look at the total of 1,068 kilometres by two; you know it’s only a man with great courage, power and dream that could engage in such a project.
“So, the dream of the Shagari administration 47 years ago is made flesh by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Today, we have awarded section one. You know, it’s a two-carriageway, but we started with one-carriageway.
“Before now, no contractor would move to site until you pay mobilisation, but that’s not what the procurement act says. Procurement act says that the client may and not must. So we’ve changed that narrative. In the contractor agreement, we put it down that if after 30 days, we sign a contract with you and you fail to mobilise and work, then that project is assumed to have been terminated. This is helping us because people have a lot of excuses and they seek for variation.
“That’s not what the law says. In fact, you are required to have a certain amount of money in your own liquidity before you get certain jobs. We are also classifying the contractors. We are classifying contractors according to their capacity and abilities so that we give life to our local contractors.
“Let me also announce that Mr. President directed that we must grow the local contractors. We must grow our local engineers. We have a programme we call the new tool programme, whereby in every state, we are getting five civil engineers that are not at work and we are posting them to these four legacy projects and other legacy projects of the country so that they can learn.
“We can’t continue to use foreign contractors to grow our economy. When you go to China, you find out who are working. We have to grow our people. And we’ve introduced the first concrete pavement, which is very easy to learn. But the trick in it, and that’s why they’re fighting me, is that you can do all the mess and cheating with asphalt, but you cannot do that with the concrete because the moment the quality of the concrete is not there, it will fail in your face.
“Road jobs done with asphalt will last for one year. And that’s when people talk, oh, FERMA is not doing anything. It is beyond construction. It is a root of structure upon which other, you know, root arteries of the filtration will link up to.
“I commend Mr. President very highly. GDP is growing. Inflation is coming down. Our foreign exchange is impacted positively. The World Bank says we don’t owe them again. Let’s appreciate Mr. President, the road-master and the man of uncommon courage.”
Information minister
Earlier, in his address, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said the bold reforms being undertaken by President Tinubu under the Renewed Hope Agenda were beginning to yield desired fruits.
Idris commended the performance of the economy, noting that a remarkable improvement was reflected in the gradual decline of the headline inflation rate as reported by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).