Minister expresses frustration over paucity of fund to fix road

• Says yearly budgetary provision is not the solution

By Musa Baba Adamu

The Minister of Works , Senator David Umahi openly declared in Abuja yesterday, that he is frustrated on fixing Nigerian roads due to paucity of funds arising from meagre yearly budgetary provisions .

The Minister who expressed his frustration to members of the Senate Committee on Works during 2025 budget defence session , said enormous additional funds are required to complement the budgetary provisions in form of loans .

“ I’ve not failed in many of my life engagements but I’m feeling frustrated with fixing of roads in Nigeria with funds that are not in any way, tangible for what are required .

“ This is the reason why special funds in form of loans , are needed to be taken for road infrastructure in the country .

“ Remember the President inherited 2,064 projects, totaling N13 trillions. And if you review that project in line with the market realities now, it should be close to N18 trillions now . And so, when the President, who is an economist, who has gone through all the segments of what we’re passing through, by reason of his experiences, and is making efforts to borrow money to do these projects, then the public will be doubting our knowledge.

“The roads, when fixed, are catalysts to economic growth. And they also eliminates hunger. Because road infrastructure activities create a lot of economic activities.

“Also, those who are selling sand, chippings, mamaput, rocks, and so on and so forth. And there will be a lot of activities. So we need to give attention and encourage Mr. President to borrow money. He cannot manufacture money. He has to be encouraged. Because a man is trying to put money in your pocket.

“You say he’s trying to steal your money. That’s very discouraging. So road infrastructure cannot be fixed by mere yearly budgetary provisions .

“ It has to be given plenty of attention. Thank you very much”, he said .

Apparently sympathizing with the Minister , members of the committee chaired by Senator Mpigi Barinaga, one after the other, commended him for making the best use of the meagre budgetary allocations and concurred to his suggestion for alternative funding of road infrastructure across the country .

They specifically declared that N827billion proposed allocation for the Ministry for road fixing in 2025 is isignificant to enormous works on ground .