Political Pressures Cause Of Abandoned, Inferior Road Projects – Senate
The Senate has blamed the pressures mounted on the Federal Ministry of works by Politicians and other top Government officials to continuously award road projects in their favour as being majorly responsible for the avalanche of multiple uncompleted and substandard road projects scattered all over the country.
The Lawmakers also chided the Federal Ministry of works especially the Buhari administration for awarding multiple road projects and completing none.
Deliberating on the feasibility of the 2024 N892.4 billion works budget approved for the construction of roads and other critical infrastructure in the country, the Senate committee on works chaired by Senator Barinada Mpigi arrived at conclusion that the sum was grossly inadequate to address the road deficits in the country.
At its last meeting held on Tuesday members of the committee admitted some Senators and Rep members usually besiege the Ministry of works office to lobby for their constituency road projects including State Governors , Ministers and other top Government officials.
Holes were also picked in the Tax Credit Scheme on road construction introduced by the immediate past administration of former President Muhammad Buhari through an Executive Order 7 in 2021 and continued by the Bola Tinubu administration, with some Lawmakers calling for a public hearing to ascertain the transparency of the scheme.
In his contribution Senator Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central) said that it will only take a strong political will for politicians to stop pressuring the Ministry of works to award multiple road contracts in their favour.
He explained; “When we came into office in 2019 , we had only 500 roads under construction but because of the Political pressure particularly from Ministers, Senators and other Political leaders by the year 2020 the number of roads increased to about 700 by the time the budget of 2024 was submitted we had close to 1400 roads under construction amounts awarded are so small that they cannot make any significant impact.
Aliero blamed his colleagues;
“Some of us are to be blamed because we insert those projects in the budget. The Governors will approach the Ministers to insist that some particular roads must be taken.
“Senators are also going there to lobby for including a particular road in their constituency for construction and the House of Representatives are doing the same thing. So we now have about close to 2000 roads.
The Lawmaker however backed the Tax Credit scheme while advising that subjecting it to public hearing may ward off other companies from participating in the programme.
He argued; “The best way to get this funding is to get companies that are supposed to pay Tax to take over the construction or reconstruction of these roads and the Government deducts the Tax they are supposed to pay to the FIRS until the road(s) is completed.
“If we subject that to public hearing it will subject other companies from participating in road construction now we have BUA, Dangote, MTN that are currently engaged in Tax Credit no company will want its name to be mentioned in bad light, “
Senator Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central) blamed the Ministry of works for succumbing to political pressure and refusing to prioritize road construction in the country on Zonal basis
Rather than piling up road contracts, Goje revealed that he had advised the Ministry to identify and concentrate on critical road projects that can be completed within a specific period of time but they refused.
“We have been advising the ministry of works for years and the problem we have with the Ministry of works for a very long time is that they kept on awarding new road contracts and this has landed us where we are now.
“We have so many roads sponsored by important people in the country and during the budget, people will lobby to ensure that something is put in their roads. That is why you see the give 30 million to 50 million to a road that requires 3- 5 Billion naira to construct.
The former Gombe State Governor faulted the Tax Credit scheme and suggested a public hearing;
“Despite the positive reasons they give , this process shortchanges the three tiers of Government and by the constitution of this country all monies should be remitted to the Federation account and get appropriated. Now, the Tax Credit scheme passes Appropriation , so I support the idea of public hearing, I see this process as illegal.
The need to put a stop to the award of new contracts considering the fluctuating exchange rates was made by Senator Ipinsagba Emmanuel (Ondo North).
Ipinsagba also opposed the Tax Credit scheme.
He said; “I disagree with the Tax credit scheme, money is supposed to go to the Federation account for it to be appropriated to work.
“You cannot build on a zero foundation when all these projects were projected at 750 naira to a dollar. Today we are looking at 1500 and we are saying we want to award these contacts out , automatically we are already seeing the results of abandonment in the future.
“In my own opinion I’ll rather say that let us put a stop to any contract award until the exchange rate stabilises, because if we continue to award contracts, we will be giving contractors to call for variation and before we know the impact of variation it is very inimical to any project because the contractors will be coming with what you don’t expect.
Chairman of the committee Senator Mpigi pleaded with the Senators to submit a harmonised budget proposal that will take into consideration only important roads in the 774 local governments or 109 Senatorial Districts of the country.
“There’s even where I saw 500k approved for road construction, so I think the first thing we need to do is to invite the Minister of works and minister of Budget and planning and represent the 2024 budget, ” Mpigi said.
Source:- Sunnewsonline
