FG may stop funding road projects by 2019 –Maku

►Federal Government will divest its funding of road construction in the country.
►FG said at the briefing that it has spent N1.765 trillion on 184 on going projects.

Indications emerged penultimate weekend that the Federal Government will divest its funding of road construction in the country.
The government plans to cede the construction of road projects to the private sector in 2019. These facts were disclosed by the Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku at the Ministerial press briefing organised by his ministry for the Federal Ministry of Works in Abuja.

The Federal Government said at the briefing that it has spent N1.765 trillion on 184 on going projects across the six geo-political zones of the country.

Speaking at the briefing during which the Minister of Works, Arc  Mike Onolememen, presented his score-card, Maku explained that by 2019, the construction and maintenance of roads will principally be handled by the private sector.

He regretted that the insurgency in the North -East had negatively impacted on the development of the nation’s road infrastructure. According to him, most of our roads would have been fixed with the trillions of naira wasted on the war.

“Imagine what would have happened if all of the money (said to be trillions of naira) spent in prosecuting the war on Boko Haram had been spent in providing roads throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria,” he said.

Maku also suggested that the appropriate authorities should be more proactive in tackling the high rate of encroachment on the right of way by Nigerians.

“There is no money that you will get today from the Federal budget that will deliver on these infrastructure,” he explained in an apparent justification of why road construction must change hands.

“Everywhere in the world now, or major countries that are strong economic powers like Nigeria, people are not looking for Federal money or government money for road construction. People are returning to the private sector. India, Malaysia – several of those countries – attract billions of dollars for road construction from the private sector.

That is what Arc. Mike Onolememen and his team are saying now. Moving forward, after the reform that will create the Federal Highway Authority, the PPP, beginning with the (second Niger bridge) and Lagos- (Ibadan expressway), in the next three, four, five years, I believe that the money that will go into the provision of roads will not come from the government. It will be coming from the private sector,” Maku said.

He stated that nipping the encroachment on the right of way in the bud was necessary because once someone had built on the right of way and government wanted to clear the illegal structures and restore order, there would be an outcry from civil society groups, the media and other Nigerians who would drum up sentiments against the action.

For that reason, he urged those vested with the authority, to always be alert and stop structures from springing up on any given right of way.

Thanking the Works Minister, Mike Onolememen, and his team for the momentous accomplishments recorded by the Ministry, he recalled some of them as the flag-off of the second Niger bridge, the  ongoing reconstruction of Apapa-Oshodi expressway and the complete overhaul of the Third Mainland bridge in Lagos.

He said in terms of road maintenance, all the major roads in Lagos belonged to the Federal Government and were being maintained on a regular basis, adding that, in this regard, Lagos was enjoying the same treatment given to Abuja.       Works Minister in its scorecard, said  that based on the aggressive road construction and rehabilitation drive of the present administration, 25,000km of the 35,000km of federal roads are now in good and motorable condition.

According to the Minister, by the end of 2013, each geo-political zone in the country  witnessed enhanced construction activities, covering a total corridor of 6,500km.

Giving the breakdown of the N1.765trillion, the Works Minister stated that while the North central, North East and North West have a total of 65 ongoing projects of 3,461.68km with a an estimated cost of N796bn, South East, South South and South West have a total number of 109 projects of 3,063.60km, costing N767bn.

Apart from this, the Minister also noted that his ministry is currently engaged in emergency intervention in some critical highways infrastructure such as the Apapa-Oshodi expressway that provides access to Tin Can Island and Apapa Ports in Lagos State, as well as Access Road to Mosimi Depot in Ogun State.