By Mashe Umaru Gwamna
Minister of Works, David Umahi,has dismissed the trending statement against him by the Chairman of the House Committee on the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Hon. Remi Oseni over misplace priority of projects as demeaning, misleading to him and his ministry.
Umahi made the disclosure yesterday during a press briefing on road infrastructural development, while challenging the committee chairman to an open debate on the true state of projects in the country.
Peoples Daily gathered that Oseni had blamed Umahi for excessively focusing on the N15 trillion Lagos-Calabar Super Highway project without any concrete plan to fix other Federal roads across the country despite the funds allocated to the ministry.
Responding the minister said he was absent during the interactive session and was briefed by his team, threw back the tantrums, describing the lawmaker as contractors representatives.
He said: “The lawmaker seems to harbor resentment. His comments don’t reflect the professional work of the 10th National Assembly. No one has ever accused me of failure; my record speaks for itself. His remarks sound like those of a contractor’s representative.
“We make no apologies for our stance on stopping frequent requests for Variation of Price (VOP) and Foreign Exchange Differentials on contracts. It makes no sense to award a contract in October and then have requests for VOP by November.”
He demanded an apology from the lawmaker for misleading Nigerians and peddling lies capable of destroying President Bola Tinubu-led administration’s progress in road infrastructure development.
While highlighting the president’s unprecedented move to include all ongoing projects in the 2024 budget, said that he inherited 2,604 projects with a total cost of 13 trillion and a debt of 1.6 trillion to contractors as of May 29, 2023.
He said considering variations due to subsidy removal and dollar fluctuations, the total project cost now exceeded 19 trillion.
Mr Umahi, who boasted of achieving over 85 per cent completion of road projects, added the President approved 300 billion for palliatives, resulting in the procurement and execution of more than 330 road projects, palliatives, and bridge repairs.
He said there were notable improvements in the Northwest, such as the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Road, and completion of roads in states like Zamfara, Lagos, and regions like South-South and South-West.
Mr Umahi emphasised that some projects, ongoing for 17-20 years, cannot be completed overnight.
He acknowledged that preparation time for pavement, asphalt, and other materials was often overlooked in assessing road construction success.
