- Minister replies lawmaker over verbal attack in absentia
Works Minister David Umahi has expressed disappointment in a viral statement attributed to the Chairman of the House Committee on FERMA, Aderemi Abasi Oseni, criticising him about the conditions of Nigerian roads.
Umahi described the comments as an “unprovoked attack” and “inconceivable embarrassment” to himself and the ministry.
The minister faulted the lawmaker’s comments, saying they were made to incite the public against the government.
He said the lawmaker did not show understanding about the efforts President Bola Tinubu’s administration was making to give Nigerians modern roads.
According to hum, the lawmaker failed to verify his facts before launching his public criticism.
Umahi said the comments were unjustified as neither he nor his permanent secretary was present in the purported meeting where Oseni allegedly attacked him.
The minister said out of the respect he had for the National Assembly, the Senate President, and the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, he would refrain from further public exchanges with the lawmaker who launched the vituperations against him.
He stressed that the facts of the matter must be made clear to the public.
Umahi said: “For the respect of Mr. Speaker and, of course, the Senate President and the National Assembly that I belong to, I will refrain myself from joining issues with him.
“He said I have failed. But if a blind man is to assess you, your guess is as good as mine. This is because if he has no knowledge of anything, then his knowledge becomes his god. So, I will not join issues with him.”
Addressing reporters on Monday, the minister condemned the criticism as “darkening counsel without knowledge”.
Umahi noted that Oseni’s comments overlooked the administration’s efforts to address the poor condition of over 2,604 federal roads inherited from previous administrations.
In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Uchenna Orji, the minister said the Renewed Hope administration had made significant progress in improving public transportation in Nigeria.
Highlighting the modest achievements of the ministry across the six geo-political zones, Umahi hailed President Tinubu for his administration’s unprecedented attention towards bridging the funding gap of inherited projects.
“What we did is that we used over 90 per cent of these funds to keep all the inherited projects alive, as directed by Mr. President. This is because a project has to be alive and in the budget before you can look for funds to assist it to be completed.
“That’s what we’ve done. So, for those who are bitter that we have no projects to award to them, this is the reality.
“Over 2,600 projects, plus 330 supplementary projects, plus the new projects in 2024, are not meant to be a tea party. They require commitment and dedication, which we are doing.
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“We work on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays, and somebody will say we are giving attention to less priority issues without mentioning those less priority issues that we are giving attention to,” he said.
Umahi described Oseni’s comments as deliberate, ill-motivated, misguided, self-serving and a vicious propaganda.
The minister described the comments also as typical of a proxy representing the interest of nonconforming contractors who have constituted themselves into adversaries against the ministry, which insisted on best practices in project pricing, variation on price and foreign exchange differentials.
“There is no doubt that the vituperations of the House Committee Chairman on FERMA were from the abundance of his heart, but to say that all the roads across the country have failed for the failure of the Minister of Works to address the existing road with the resources approved or for his failure to deploy the N300 billion supplementary fund approved for him or that he is concentrating his energy on the less priority issues shows that the House Committee Chairman on FERMA either has little knowledge of the volume of road infrastructure deficits inherited from successive administrations and cost requirements for road construction or that he deliberately refused, ignored and neglected to appreciate the Renewed Hope administration’s intervention milestones or he is playing to the gallery on the prompting of the nonconforming contractors.
“Let me say to him that Mr. President inherited 2,604 projects. As of May 29, 2023, the total cost was N13 trillion.
“That’s what the President inherited, and a debt of N1.6 trillion to contractors. And when you look at the variation by reason of the subsidy removal, by reason of the floating of the dollar, you will find out that if you review all these projects, you will see that you will get over N19 trillion for the total ongoing projects.
“Mr. President did what no other President has done. He manifested all the projects in the 2024 budget with the hope to give him time to look for resources, including loans, to do these projects.
“I wasn’t in that meeting where the Honourable House member was said to be addressing me, and there is no way I was going to complain of resources to fix our roads because Mr. President has given very special attention to the Federal Ministry of Works.
“He has paid so much attention to the sufferings of Nigerians, vis-a-vis the road situation, and the ministry is not the only one in Nigeria.
“Mr. President has a lot of other challenging situations and competing demands; yet, he has given priority attention to the Ministry of Works.”