The Minister of State II for Power, Works and Housing, Surveyor Sulieman Hassan, has cautioned the public against destruction and theft of critical public infrastructures.
The minister issued the warning at a-day Stakeholders Conference on Preservation, Protection and Community Ownership of Public Assets and Critical Infrastructure. The event was organised by the National Orientation Agency (NOA) yesterday in Abuja.
He said the country is still grappling to meet up with huge infrastructural deficit, thus need for community participation in the ownership of public assets and critical infrastructures.
”It is sad to note that there are lots of damages and inadequate maintenance of these public assets which are yet to meet the needs of the citizenry,” the minister stated.
Hassan emphasized on the importance of community reorientation to encourage the public in this regard.
Describing the attitude as personal responsibility, he added that at a time like this, the federal government was still considering infrastructure provision national priority, thereby spending the nation’s limi2ted resources to provide necessary and critical infrastructure.
He commended NOA for choosing the topic for discussion, adding that the forum would help inform, educate and enlighten the people on “the efforts the government is making towards the provision of adequate infrastructure and the need to encourage stakeholders to cherish and preserve them for posterity.”
The minister said the three sectors would meet up with the mandate of delivering critical infrastructure to the masses in areas of improved power generation, adequate funding and resuscitation of abandoned and new road projects and provision of mass housing across the country.
Earlier, in his remarks, the NOA Director-General, Dr. Garba Abari, stated that infrastructure development, preservation and protection are critical elements in measuring the level of development of a nation.
He said: “If we accept this as a fact, it then stands to reason that no nation can be said to be truly developed, unless it continues to invest not only in the development of new infrastructure, but also in the protection and preservation of existing ones”.
The NOA boss called for collaboration and synergy between stakeholders in the country’s infrastructure development and the NOA for protection of national infrastructure in the country.