2nd Niger Bridge, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway & More | “Super Minister” Fashola reveals Immediate Plans for Nigeria

He is being called “Super Minister” due to his portfolio which covers Power, Works and Housing. Former Governor of Lagos State Babatunde Raji Fashola has revealed short-term plans to enable him live up to the title.

At a press conference today, Fashola confirmed that his immediate focus is to “to address housing deficits, provide good roads and urgently increase power generation in the country with extra 2, 000 megawatts.”

The Nation Newspaper reports;

Fashola on Historical Spending on Roads
“The records that have been made available from previous budgets show that the last time Nigeria budgeted over N200 Billion in a year’s budget for roads was in 2002. It seems that as our income from oil prices increased over the last decade, our spending on roads decreased.

“As far as status reports go, the federal government budgeted N18.132Billion in 2015 and the Ministry of Works got N13Billion for all roads and highways in 2015, although it has contracts for 206 roads, covering over 6,000km with contract price of over N2 Trillion.”

Roads Connecting States, a Top Priority
“Our short term strategy will be to start with roads that have made some progress and can be quickly completed to facilitate connectivity. We will prioritize within this strategy by choosing first the roads that connect states together and from that grouping start with those that bear the heaviest traffic.

On Contractors & Payments
“As at May 2015, many contractors have stopped work because of payment, and many fathers and wives employed by them have been laid off as a result.

On Road Safety
“In order to make the roads safer, we intend to re-claim the full width and set back of all Federal roads, representing 16% and about 36,000km of Nigeria’s road network by immediately now asking all those who are infringing on our highways, whether by parking, trading, or erection of any inappropriate structure to immediately remove, relocate or dismantle such things voluntarily. This will be the biggest contribution that citizens can offer our country as proof that we all want things to change for the better,” Fashola added.