Fashola also attributed delay in the completion of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to lack of funds and increasing price of construction materials
By Mosope Michaels
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has said he will be quitting public service soon, saying he wants to take a break after 21 years in politics.
Fashola also blamed the increasing price of construction materials and scarcity of funds for the delay in the completion of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The minister made the revelation on Thursday, January 3, when he appeared on TV Continental programme, Your View, where he pleaded for patience and cooperation with the contractors from Nigerians as crash barriers that were removed during yuletide returned to the project site.
The former Lagos State governor also assured commuters that the last mile of the road project would be completed in the first quarter of 2023, while also blaming the previous administration for neglecting critical infrastructure.
He said, “Let me first appreciate commuters who use that road, a major transport artery in Nigeria for their understanding. This road could have been built between 1999 and 2015 but it wasn’t. This road is in better shape than we inherited and it is now at the last mile of completion.
“The major source of delay first is funding.
“You remember at a point this road was removed from the budget completely and I was engaging the National Assembly until the president unveiled the presidential infrastructure development fund which was essentially from investments from the Nigerian LNG and funds recovered from outside Nigeria.
“So, when people talk about corruption and anti-corruption, a president who goes to recover funds stolen and put it in investment for his people is the real anti-corruption as far as I am concerned.
“On the crash barriers, they are there because we are building through a major transport artery. Our last traffic count indicates that at least N40,000 vehicles use that road from the Lagos end to the Sagamu end.
“After Sagamu it drops to 22 thousand so that has to be managed to ensure the safety of the construction workers.
“We closed site work in December because traditionally construction companies shut down mid-December and resume mid-January.
“We are still expecting to finish the project in the first quarter.”
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Speaking on the gridlock on the Lagos-Ogun axis of the Expressway, he said, “You can’t expect to drive fast in a construction zone, there will be a bit of slowdown and it is in that slowdown that ‘how we behave’ becomes very important.”
Speaking further on measures designed to alleviate the suffering on the road, Fashola disclosed that the construction of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway had received funding of N7 billion from the new Sukuk bonds assuring that the pains of Ogun residents would be alleviated soon.
“I hear the concern about Lagos-Abeokuta (Road) and there are people we should ask why Lagos -Abeokuta (Road) was not built.
“I can categorically say that all roads that lead into and out of Lagos as a strategic commercial capital of Nigeria are receiving one form of attention or the other.
“Again, contractors had abandoned the site when we came and we revived and we are putting the Sukuk into it and the last Sukuk has about N7 billion in it. So, we don’t have all the money to build it. I understand there is more pain on the Ogun side but the Lagos side work is going because the contractor is constructing from Lagos to Ogun.
“In a matter of weeks, I am hopeful we would have a more enjoying financial solution not only to Lagos-Abeokuta but also to Akure and Ado Ekiti and once that is done, whether we are in government or not, those roads will be constructed,” he said.
Fashola further justified the need to toll some of the roads being constructed by the Federal government, saying it was a necessary business venture, as it would raise revenue without sacrificing the quality of service delivered to commuters.