Minister for Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola has disclosed that the Federal government is owing contractors who executed road projects in the pas three years.
The former Lagos state Governor disclosed this at the inaugural “Buharimeter” town
hall meeting held o Thursday in Abuja.
While speaking during the meeting, Fashola noted that the contractors despite not getting paid have continued to work with the Buhari-led administration.
The Power, Works and Housing minister also noted that the Federal Government has continued to work with the unpaid contractors due to their credibility and integrity. He also mentioned that work will begin soon on construction of the Jebba-Ilorin road as well as the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
“The Jebba-Ilorin road is a very significant road,
“If you haven’t passed through it, perhaps you will not understand how significant it is for the prosperity of Nigeria, because that is where farmers mainly move their trucks and their goods, their vegetables, their cattle through. And that is where fuel comes through from the tank farms in Lagos to many parts of the north of Nigeria.
“That road used to take four days simply because a section of barely about 100 kilometres was unmotorable. The trucks used to turn.
“Now on the basis of just our credibility, that I stuck my neck out and I told the contractor ‘please go back to this site. Go and work.’ We have stabilized that road. We haven’t finished repairing it but we have stabilized it, that section is now motorable and provision is now made for some parts of it in this year’s budget.
“Now compare this with a government that was in power, budgeted for that road, and did not
even release the money.
“This is what has happened in our meetings with our contractors, just on the basis of our
credibility, our collective integrity, saying to them ‘go back to site.’
He added: “Our contractors will go back to site on Monday next week, they told me, for the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. They haven’t been paid. But that is what ‘change’ is, that this government is credible and believable. If we say we will pay, we will pay.”