Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, has said that President Bola Tinubu’s administration inherited 2,064 projects, totalling about N13 trillion.
Today, those projects, he said, will be over N20 trillion, by reason of the floating of the naira and the removal of fuel subsidy.
Umahi said this during a courtesy call by a delegation from the Anambra and Enugu caucus of the 10th National Assembly who came to seek the federal government’s intervention on the completion of the construction of Enugu – Onitsha Expressway handled by RCC Limited and funded by MTN under the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme.
The minister who expressed sympathy over the lives that have been lost along the uncompleted sections of Enugu-Onitsha Expressway, especially the recent incident of tanker explosion on the Ugwu Onyema axis of the road, stated that the people of South East have every reason to have confidence in President Tinubu’s administration to address the road infrastructure deficits in South East and other geo-political zones of Nigeria.
Speaking, the leader of the delegation and Minority Whip of the Senate, representing Enugu West, Senator Osita Ngwu, commended the minister for the road construction nationwide. He, however, expressed worry that some of the projects were not receiving adequate funding required to complete the projects in a record time.
Ugwu made particular reference to the Enugu – Onitsha Expressway that was awarded to RCC and funded through the tax credit, and today, some sections of the road have become a deathtrap to road users. He stated that the delegation was compelled by the recent tanker mishap on the Ugwu Onyeama axis of the road in Enugu State to make the visit to the minister.
]“We appreciate the approval of a number of projects in the South East. but we are worried that it is not just about putting projects across our zone, but when these projects are not funded, it looks like it is just a game. We are worried that some of the projects that are in the South East are not receiving funds that can make it to progress so that we can have benefits for such projects. And when it is not funded, it becomes a worry to us” he lamented.
On his part, the senator representing Anambra Central in the Senate, Senator Victor Umeh thanked the president for giving South East a sense of belonging in his administration and for the wave of road infrastructure transformation going on across the nation but pleaded with the president to give accelerated intervention on funding to the roads in the South East so that the zone could fully benefit from the economic development agenda of the Renewed Hope administration. He said,
“While I join my brother and colleague, Senator Osita Ngwu, in thanking the president for a worthy choice of Engineer Senator Dave Umahi, to be the Minister of Works, he couldn’t have made a better choice based on his experience and what he was able to do as Governor of Ebonyi State through engineering infrastructure in that state.
“Through our oversight functions, we’ve been able to move around Nigeria in the various committees that we serve and we’re able to see the great works the president is doing in Nigeria to transform our transportation infrastructure through ambitious road projects and railway projects across Nigeria. We are from the South East Nigeria, and while we applaud the great strides the president is making to see that our roads are good and our railway infrastructure is actualised, we want to plead, on behalf of our people that South East should be given accelerated attention because of the infrastructure deficit we’ve had before he came on board” Umahi said.
Later, it was resolved among other things that the Federal Ministry of Works would write to MTN to demand that MTN should commit irrevocably to pay contractors on the project a minimum of ₦15 billion every month for the next 10 months to enable them fast-track the completion of the Enugu- Onitsha Expressway, failing which the ministry would initiate termination process of the project. It was further resolved that MTN would need three contractors to do the 79 kilometers within the original contract sum of ₦202 billion. Furthermore, the remaining 72km of the road shall be awarded to other contractors through due process. MTN and RCC would be invited to bid too. The Ministry lamented that what MTN is doing is not in line with Tax Credit Executive Order. It was noted in the meeting that the delay on the job which was due to poor funding and poor contract execution has resulted to over 100 per cent increase of the project cost, and to allow MTN more than 11 months on the job could further push the contract to increase by over 200 per cent and this is unacceptable to the Federal Government. Sun