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Tag: Fashola

  • Lagos-Ibadan Road to be completed soon, says Fashola

    Lagos-Ibadan Road to be completed soon, says Fashola

    Expansion and rehabilitation work on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway will be completed soon, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said.

    Fashola, who reviewed his first year in office in Lagos at the weekend, said the long bridge at the Lagos-Ogun boundary on the road had to be shut because construction work was ongoing underneath it.

    “Roads are depreciating assets that need constant maintenance and regulated usage,” he said, adding that the issue of overloaded trucks was being addressed.

    According to him, the government is looking into the issue of double-axle articulated vehicles that transport more tonnage than most roads were built to accommodate.

    Fashola also said weighbridges will be reintroduced on the roads to arrest overloading.

    He said, however, that warehouses have to be built by the weighbridges to take in offloaded extra goods from arrested haulage vehicles.

    The minister added that the issue of reintroducing tollgates on roads would be decided by Nigerians, noting that he had not forgotten his experience as Lagos State governor.

    The minister said electricity generation had improved considerably in the last 12 months, peaking at above 5074MW for the first time in the nation’s 63-year-old electricity history earlier this year.

    He said this had created jobs for hitherto idle artisans, small and medium scale entrepreneurs and empowered other businesses.

    He said more than 800 containers of imported power generation and distribution components stranded at the ports had been released as a result of his ministry’s efforts and the intervention of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

    He regretted that about 3000MW of electricity was lost to vandalism, adding, however, that the Federal Government was discussing with agitators to end the destruction.

    Fashola said electricity generation would continue to appreciate as more stations come on stream and contribute to the National Grid.

    The minister appealed to electricity consumers to be patient with distribution companies over insufficient prepaid meters, noting that the privatisation of the sector was only three years old.

    He said the meters would soon be readily available as more companies embark on their production in Nigeria.

    The contractor handling the road rehabilitation, Julius Berger Nigeria Ltd, will divert traffic on additional sections of the road.

    The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), in a statement at the weekend, said Ibadan bound traffic will be diverted to the Lagos bound carriageway CH38+400 and CH 43+700 to allow the laying of the wearing course.

    The diversions will lead to the closure of the Ibadan bound exit road leading to Sagamu as well as the Sagamu bound exit road leading to Ibadan.

    The temporary closure would be from Wednesday till November 23.

  • Oke urges Buhari to warn Fashola, Fayemi, Amosun

    Oke urges Buhari to warn Fashola, Fayemi, Amosun

    Ondo AD candidate alleges plot by APC chiefs to stop him from running

    Another pre-election crisis has hit Ondo State.

    Alliance for Democracy (AD) candidate Olusola Oke yesterday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to caution some ministers who he said were bent on stopping him from contesting the November 26 election.

    Addressing a news conference in Akure, the Ondo State capital, yesterday, the Director-General of the Olusola Oke Campaign Organisation (OOCO), Mr. Bola Ilori, specifically, fingered Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, his Jigwa State counterpart who chaired the All Progressives Congress (APC) Primary Election Committee, Abubakar Badaru, Minister of Works Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Solid Minerals Kayode Fayemi and  Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosu as  arrowheads of the plot to stop him. This, said Ilori, is to pave the way for their “protégé”, APC’s Rotimi Akeredolu.

    His words: “This plot to stop Chief Oke from contesting the election is simply to clear the way for their protégé, Rotimi Akeredolu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who is also vying for the Ondo State governorship position.

    “The plan of these people is to prevent Olusola Oke from contesting the election because their candidate, Akeredolu, is not in contention, having lost relevance with the people. Thus, they have resorted to lots of underhand tactics to stop him.

    “We are aware of the pedigree of President Buhari, his uprightness and his zero tolerance to dirty tricks to get advantage of people, even against his avowed antagonists, but this cabal is using the paraphernalia of the Federal Government with impunity to get unsavoury advantage, thus tainting his good work.

    “When they noted that Olusola Oke was becoming popular by the day while their protégé lag behind in the build-up to the election, they have resorted to series of underhand tactics to get him out of the race, thus leaving the APC candidate as the major candidate in the election, owing to the festering crisis in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).”

    Ilori alleged that there was an attempt to award a N10 billion contract without due process to a community and plough back N7 billion out of it into APC’s plan for the election, which he claimed the APC plots to rig.

    “Also, they have tried several times to compromise the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Ondo State without success, given the media altercations between the APC and INEC of recent,” he said.

    Ilori added: “Next, they have surreptitiously instigated the Legal Adviser of the Alliance for Democracy, a man who is not a candidate in the Ondo State election, to institute a suit in the court. While we are not against this action since it is the fundamental right of anybody to resort to the court as an arbiter, but we have credible information from a meeting held by this  cabal last week in Abuja, where they boasted that they would ensure that the Judge who will sit on the matter would be compromised to give ex-exparte injunction against Chief Olusola Oke.

    This in itself, he noted, “amounts to double speak” from top officials of a government noted for its uprightness.

    “When you accuse judges as being corrupt and you did indeed  move against some of them, isn’t it an irony that members of the same government are the ones boasting of compromising a Judge that would sit on the matter in Court? Such, Your Excellency, is the desperation of this cabal who are hell-bent on tainting your administration’s reputation.

    “But their best joker, which has been lent credence to by the popular boasts in town in the past few days by Akeredolu and his minders is the ploy to instigate the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to invite and possibly detain Chief Oke days before the election over phantom allegations. Chief Olusola Oke has been severally investigated and cleared by the anti-graft agency of any financial impropriety, but of recent, they have been putting a lot of pressure on the Commission to harass him of late with a view to making him look as if he is guilty, a development which is far from the truth.”

    He wondered why this renewed onslaught against Oke now that the election is two weeks away, adding : “But we are abreast of their tricks, which will continue to fail. We want to express our absolute confidence that he has nothing to fear from any anti-graft agencies, having left office on a clean slate 12 years ago and having been cleared

    severally too.

    “We also want to quickly tell his traducers that Olusola Oke was a part-time member of the Niger Delta Development Commission and he was never involved in any untoward activities while in office. The allegations against him are mere tissues of lies that had been found to be so by the proper authorities

    “We are aware of their evil plots to perpetrate perfidy in Ondo State during the election and the people of the state are watching them keenly. We want to appeal to Mr. President to please be aware of this grand plot to harass Chief Olusola Oke, distract him from meeting the people in his campaign tours and possibly to get him disqualified through unsavory means.

    “The details of all the nocturnal meeting they have been holding, we are aware. It is not a new ploy and we are abreast of it. It happened few days to the APC primaries when this same Rotimi Akeredolu wrote a petition against him in which his tissues of lies were later exposed, all to get him disqualified, because he knows that he is but a mere babe in politics and cannot win the election.

    “Now, they have started again, putting pressure on INEC, the security agents, resorting to compromising the Judiciary and lately to use the EFCC to restrain restrain and frustrate him, but by the grace of God, they will fail.

    “But Chief Oke is not deterred. If they like, let them dare the will of God, the consequences await them. Our people in Ondo State are watching them keenly and in the fullness of time, they will get their rewards in full if they don’t desist

    “We want to commend Mr. President for his zero tolerance to perfidy and we urge him to please save our souls in Ondo State from those who say the masses shall not be allowed to live and do their things in peace.

    Fayemi, Fashola: it’s not true

    Fayemi’s media aide Mr. Olayinka Oyebode described his boss as a decent politician who would not be dragged into an unnecessary controversy. He said: “The Minister of Solid Minerals is a busy man. He is a focused person doing the work given to him by the President diligently. It is during election period like this that people concoct lies to malign others. We have no reply for frivolities.”

    Fashola’s Media Adviser Hakeem Bello said the allegation is laughable, saying that it did not make any sense. He said: “A reporter called me last week to ask for a similar reaction. Let’s look it this way. What is the allegation about? Does it make meaning to any reasonable person? The Minister has much work to do than to be involved in what these people are saying. His priority is to stay focused on the job.”

     

  • Fashola raises panel to restructure FHA

    Fashola raises panel to restructure FHA

    Power, Works and Housing Minister Mr. Babatunde Fashola has set up an ad-hoc committee to review the re-structuring and commercialisation of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA).

    Fashola urged the committee to review the FHA Restructuring and Commercialisation/Housing Sector implementation Framework presented to him at a meeting with the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

    BPE’s Director of National Facilities and Agricultural Resources Mr. Yunana Jackdell Malo, in the letter convening the committee meeting, said the panel would entertain concerns, issues and recommendations which might form the basis of a revised implementation framework for FHA’s restructuring and commercialisation.

    A document obtained by The Nation listed the committee’s terms of reference to include: distilling the new reform vision for the housing sector as articulated by the Minister; review the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) approved implementation framework to better align it with the minister’s policy direction and objectives for the housing sector; review aspects of the various work streams in the implementation framework to ensure that they are fit for purpose and revisit key elements of the restructuring and commercialisation strategy,  and to make recommendations on how they could be better implemented, particularly with regards to new housing policy and skills mix, property audit and the privatisation of FHA Mortgage Bank.

    Others include reviewing the possibility of implementing the NCP approved strategy without necessarily repealing the FHA Act and be guided by legal advice in that regard; review the relevant aspects of the on-going housing sector reforms and make necessary recommendations, particularly with respect to the setting up of a regulatory regime and how FHA can play an effective role in a regulated and liberalised housing sector.

    The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Abu Gusau Magaji, has urged FHA workers not to entertain fears of losing their jobs.

    Speaking at a meeting with the Authority’s management, he explained that rather than job losses, the planned process would throw up more vacancies through the expected expansion of the Authority’s capacity to become an efficient, modern and profitable venture.

    Magaji said the need for a review of the previous reform document generated by the BPE arose because it had become necessary to align it with the vision and policies of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for the sector.

    He said the exercise would be conducted on the basis of existing presidential approval, adding that both the Ministry and the Authority were being accommodated in the development of work streams that would lead to the emergence of a new FHA.

    Members of the committee are Yunana J. Malo – Sector Director/Co-ordinator (BPE); M. L. Halilu; A. Koko, and P. O Egbodo, all representing the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing. The FHA is represented by Ayuba Aliyu, Hajara Kadiri, and Umar S. Gonto.  Sanusi Abdu-Ali, Nurain Hassan Ibrahim, Pene Samaki, and Guful John Mankilik, are representatives of the BPE. Abba Sani Dauda, also from the BPE, will serve as Secretary.

  • Fashola: Why is no one talking?

    I have in the last few months been travelling to my hometown of Achina in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State at a high frequency for reasons which need not be stated here. I have been going by road because the road is today much better and safer than, say, this time last year. Another reason I travel by road is to have a first-hand experience with a view to reporting to the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, BabatundeFashola, who always solicits for such frank reports with a view to taking appropriate action.

    Whereas the Onitsha-Asaba-Benin-Ore sections of the Lagos to Onitsha Highway have in the last few years been generally good, the Lagos-Sagamu-Ore sections are in a mess. One is glad to report that tremendous reconstruction work is currently taking place in the worst of all the failed sections. Reynold Construction Company (RCC) has divided the Lagos-Sagamu-Ore sections into four parts and is working on them simultaneously in a rather frenetic manner, even in the rains. In a fashion reminiscent of the mass attack principle, RCC is reconstructing what remains of the Ondo State section of the highway, the Ijebu Ode part, the Sagamu end as well as the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. When I was driving from Anambra State to Lagos few days ago, I had to stop briefly at the Ijebu Ode site because what is going on there looks more like new construction rather than rehabilitation. Rev Sister Christy Okonkwo, an impressed Catholic nun who is from Nnewi in Anambra State and works with the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus Congregation at Epe in Lagos State, remarked after watching the massive deployment of equipment, machines and human resources: “There is still hope for Nigeria”.

    In the past, such massive reconstruction which always resulted in the closure of at least one side of the highway had invariably led to traffic gridlock. Reverend Sister Christy narrated how she and her colleagues spent three hours on one spot while going for the funeral of a colleague’s relative. Like the rest of her colleagues, she consequently developed a phobia for travelling by road to the South-east and South-south from Lagos. But this time traffic is directed professionally not just by the RCC workers and Federal Road Safety Corps officials but also by teams of police and army personnel whose presence injects discipline and order in the heads of commercial motorists, especially those of minibuses whose irresponsible driving exacerbates traffic gridlock. What is more, the conspicuous presence of soldiers in particular has driven away armed robbers and kidnappers from the highway. Capitalizing on the failed portions which naturally forced motorists to stop, kidnappers on one occasion shot an Igbo priest with the Warri Catholic Diocese in the hand and took away a young boy with him and on another occasion took away nuns of the St Louis Congregation in Ondo State who were travelling on a bus and hid them in a thick forest for a whole 10 days. Today all this criminal nonsense on the Lagos-Onitsha highway is history.

    Lest I forget, while driving through Benin, we noticed there were two awfully failed sections of this extraordinarily busy highway. One is directly opposite the NIPCO filling station on the Benin-Agbor section of the road while the other on the Benin By-pass. Fashola was contacted on his personal phone, and he quickly began to ask questions about the exact locations and extent of the failed portions. It was evident that the officials of the Federal Ministry of Works and the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) had yet to report the state of the road to him. When he was satisfied with details of the failed portions, he promised to immediately get in touch with the contractor to assess the rehabilitation and revert to him. Talk of responsive leadership. Talk of working with passion and commitment.

    A few weeks ago when it was brought to his knowledge that the Asaba end of the Lagos-Onitsha Expressway had collapsed, he immediately directed Julius Berger which was working on another project in the neighbourhood to move to the site of the failed part. Work is going on there right now. The rainy season has always been cited by various state governments and the Federal Ministry of Works as the main justification for suspending road construction or rehabilitation by this time of the year, but this explanation cuts no ice with Fashola who, as we have seen right from his days as the Lagos State governor, works all year round.

    One has not in the last few months been travelling to other parts of the country, but one understands that road reconstruction is taking place all over the federation everywhere there is a provision in the budget for it. Even the most awfully failed part of the Okija-Ihiala-Uli-Egbu-Oguta-Ahoada linking Anambra, Imo and Rivers states which is not in the captured in this year’s budget is being rehabilitated because it is considered a national emergency.

    It has to be noted that RCC, Julius Berger and Integrated Services Ltd are among several companies which moved to sites before the release of the first quarter of this year’s budget. They went to work without the payment of mobilization fees in these economically hard times because of their trust in the integrity of the minister. As management experts have long noted, integrity or character is a most invaluable asset in business transactions whether in the private or public sector. In other words, as more releases are made, both the scope and intensity of road work by the Federal Government will escalate.

    Fashola assumed duties as the Minister of Power, Works and Housing only last November, that is, less than a year now. Before he could settle in office, take stock of things, make his own projections and then mobilise funds, critics had gone to town, with some wondering if he could run this enlarged ministry successfully. If Fashola could excel as the Lagos State governor in a way which earned him great praise and awards from the greatest global media and think-tanks, he should be expected to continue on the trajectory of high service delivery. Now that work is going on even in the rainy season on federal roads, why have even the media been shy to report it?  Well, if the media fail to report these developments, frequent road users like us who feel and experience the massive work daily cannot deny the evidence of our eyes.

     

    • Umenzekwe is immediate past President of Odunade Building Materials Dealers Association, Lagos.

  • Fashola: ‘Power belongs to God’

    Babatunde Raji Fashola, the amiable former governor of Lagos state and the man whom President Muhammad Buhari has saddled with the enormous responsibility of overseeing three critical ministries of Works, Housing and Power, was in Ilorin, Kwara State this penultimate week.

    For me, it was an opportunity to meet once again, a man with whom I had worked closely with while in Lagos and serving as the chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in that unique state of aquatic splendour. And from the interactions, it was evident that BRF, as he was to be eventually branded by the people of Lagos, has not changed much; particularly in terms of his commitment to working things out, literally drawing out water from the rocks. He has grown older, of course he has advanced in age but this type of ‘growing older’ is the one facilitated by exposure to the pressure of work, work and work. And when you notice that the man has been much traduced by political naysayers; when you consider the weight of opposition that accompanied his emergence as a federal minister and the burden that has been placed on his shoulder; you can only commend him for how far he has gone.

    Let me share this: there is this cartoon that went viral some months back. It was a drawing of President Buhari and BRF. Buhari, ever to the point, faced his Minister of Power and asked, ‘Fashola, what happened to Power?” Well, if you expect the Minister to answer the way a former IGP answered an almost similar question when the then Military President, Ibrahim Babangida asked, “my friend, where is Anini?”, then you got it wrong. Trust the Nigerian sense for the comical, BRF, in that cartoon, simply replied his boss: Power Belongs to God!

    Yes, power belongs to God. He gives and takes it from whom He wills. It is a message that celebrates the essential BRF.

    But beyond the theological, that cartoon encounter also exposes the kind of pressure that has come to bear on the minister. His boss, the President, wants results and he needs results because that is the gauge people would use to measure his performance in office. And if there is one area where Nigeria looks for urgent results, it is in the area of power.

    And to be candid, Fashola has been up and doing since he assumed office only that as the Yoruba would aptly put it, the hen’s feather would not allow anyone to notice that bird also sweats.  During his visit to Kwara, BRF visited my boss, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed. And from the report he gave to the governor; he submitted a DVD report, uncommon in this clime;   we only need to extend our hands of support to the man in order to achieve what he has set out before him.

    According to Fashola, if you live in Kwara or have had reason to pass through the federal road called Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa, going to the north, you will know that travellers spend weeks, at times, before getting to their destinations, yet that road is a very important strategic road for agriculture. Statistically, Fashola said on daily basis, not less than 5,000 trucks pass through that road and about 18,000 small vehicles. Imagine having even only 500 trucks and 2,000 smaller vehicles stranded on a road on a single day. Yet that has been the experience which the Federal Government is committed to change, according to the report from BRF.

    That section of the national road was his first port of call upon landing in Kwara. Now with contractors back to site for repair and rehabilitation, the time spent on the road has drastically reduced. And that is the beauty of democracy, as the minister himself said it:”This is what democracy really means to those people. That is why they voted so that one day a journey of an hour will no longer take them one week.

    He also talked about efforts in the power sector. Let me quote him: “The only matter that I’m sure interests and concern the people of Kwara State as it does other parts of Nigeria is power. We have set out a very simple roadmap where we have identified the problem. We don’t have enough power as a country, so we must get more. So, the first leg is incremental power. The second leg is to stabilize power and the third leg is uninterrupted power. The first leg is largely everybody’s responsibilities. It’s the responsibility of the government and the responsibility of the citizens. So we are expanding opportunities for power; we are signing solar agreement; we are starting solar project; we are looking for power from coal; we are trying to resolve the gas issues; we are developing more hydro capacity. Right now, most power we are using is coming from the hydro power plants and we are going against the odds from about 2,000 to about 3,500 megawatts.

    “Yes it is true that the rains have helped, that’s what hydro energy is about; more water means more power and off peak when there is no water there is less power, because that is the energy that drives the electrical parts of the generating plant. But what is unsaid is the fact about maintenance, repairs that we started which has improved the amount of energy that we can get from those hydro plants. Before now, even though the rains were there, we couldn’t get more energy. Now we are getting more energy because we are fixing turbines, we are maintaining parts; we are getting close to 400 extra megawatts from those hydro plants, which was not there to be taken last year.  We are also talking to the gas people; the communities that are angry, and when all of that come together and we merge that with the gas outage which is about 3,000 megawatts, the prospect for more reliable and increase power clearly lies ahead. And I know those communities will not be angry forever.”

    Power belongs to God. But he has allowed BRF to be in charge of generating and supplying electricity to Nigerians under the current government. And from his accounts, he is walking the talk, as the ruling party promised during electioneering campaign. Right now what the minister needs is our prayers and support to make his efforts in the works and power sectors successful.

    BRF needs to be commended for creating synergies between state governments and the federal seat. For instance, Governor Ahmed made the minister to realise that “in 16 years, the visit by BRF was the first time a federal minister would sit down to discuss issues of road and power with the state”. An excited Ahmed said while responding to the progress report from Fashola: “This is the first time any representative of the federal ministry of works will come and sit with us, review the status of our road and work out strategic ways to get them to the levels that will be beneficial to us and the economy. We’re very excited and are happy. We thank you so much for this”.

     

    • Oba writes from Ilorin, Kwara State.
  •  Prepare for festive traffic, Fashola tells contractors

     Prepare for festive traffic, Fashola tells contractors

    The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, at the weekend urged the contractors handling the reconstruction, rehabilitation and expansion of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to ensure smooth journey experience for travellers during the forthcoming festivities.

    Fashola, who undertook the inspection tour on the roads while returning from Ilorin where he attended the 5th National Council on Land, Housing and Urban Development, asked the contractors to making driving experience more tolerable for travellers.

    He said: “You must plan your work in such a way that you’re able to accommodate that traffic and also help to make the journey time of commuters better during that period.

    “They will be travelling home and coming back, and I also will like you to improve the safety signs on this highway.”

    Noting the Moslem festival, Eid-el-Kabir was around the corner and end of the year festivities like Christmas and the New Year were fast approaching, the Minister urged the contractors to consciously plan to accommodate the expected high volume of traffic from the events.

    ”Start calibrating your activities to prepare to take in that traffic. It will come but the big one will come I think sometime in the end of the year when everybody is moving back from home. The target is to make that experience better than last year’s,” Fashola said.

    He also disclosed the contractors were also changing all the expansion joints on the section of the bridge between Berger and Arepo in Ogun State, popularly called the Long Bridge, which, according to him, are about 40 years old.

     

    He added when works on the bridge were finished, motorists would experience something smoother and a better travel time as against the harrowing experience of the recent past.

     

     

     

     

  • FG plans N1.8tr capital spending – Fashola

    FG plans N1.8tr capital spending – Fashola

    The Federal Government will spend a whopping N1.8 trillion this year on capital spending, the Minister for Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said on Thursday.

    He said this is a clear departure from the past when about N400 billion was planned for capital spending.

    The former Lagos governor stated this at the 5th meeting of national council on land, housing and urban development held in Ilorin, Kwara State.

    The theme of the meeting is: “Building adequate capacity of professionals, artisans and tradesmen in the built environment.”

    Fashola said: “As you will be aware, one of the decisions taken by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is to increase the capital spending in 2016 budget to 30 percent of the total budget size of N6.06 trillion.  This is a change for those who still ask what has changed. It is a change because it is a welcome departure from almost a decade of spending only 10 per cent of our annual budget on capital expenditure.

    “But this is not the end of the purpose of spending. It is only the means to get to the end. The end really is to reflate the economy, to stimulate the economy back to growth and back to productivity. To provide the opportunity for people to feel included in the economy in a way that growth then translates to employment for them.

     

  • Fashola inaugurates I.2Mw solar plant

    Fashola inaugurates I.2Mw solar plant

    Power generation went up yesterday by 1.2megawatts (Mw) following the inauguration  of a solar electricity plant in the Lower Usman Dam, the Minster of Power, Works and Housing,  Babatunde Fashola, has said.

    He said the solar plant, built in partnership with the Japanese government, is the first solar plant tied to the national grid, adding that it has the potential to carry the load of the water works at Usman Dam and capable of producing electricity of about 400 Kilowatts when the sun is high.

    It also has the potential to provide excess power to the surrounding communities when the sun is high.

    Fashola said the power plant was in fulfilment of government’s plan to increase electricity through incremental power supply to steady and uninterrupted electricity in the county.

    “As we said in our power sector road map for electricity development that we are going to start from incremental power because there is not enough power. We will go from incremental power to steady power and we will go from steady power to uninterrupted power.

    “This is the first step to incremental power, again we have kept our words, we have added more power here,“ he said.

    He said by completing the solar project in partnership with the Japanese government, the Federal Government had fulfilled its earlier promise that it was going to complete any feasible and viable project.

  • Lawmakers can’t inflate budget estimate, say Fashola, Enang

    Lawmakers can’t inflate budget estimate, say Fashola, Enang

    •Malami:Buhari’s anti-corruption war not selective

    Lawmakers have not powers to inflate the budget estimates presented to them by the executive, Power, Housing and Works Minister Babatunde Fashola said yesterday.

    He said: “I will like to say that it is not appropriate for parliament to unilaterally seek to increase the budget because they do not collect taxes.”

    Fashola spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt in a paper he presented at a session of the ongoing 56th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

    Speaking on ‘the role of the legislature and the executive in the budgeting process,’ Fashola said: “I think collaboration between the executive and the legislature in the budgeting process. In this process, clear lines should be drawn because compromise is better achieved where all parties know their rights.”

    He said it was not proper or appropriate for the legislative arm of the government to unilaterally seek to increase the annual national budget.

    Though he did not call for an amendment to the constitution, he declared that the primary duty of a parliamentarian was representation, adding that the legislature should not be in any position to influence constituency projects.

    Fashola said the executive arm would be in a better stead to interpret all the process of budget development, adding that those who work within the executive arm were better placed to cost projects to be executed.

    “Let me also say that we must understand what the primary duty of the parliamentarian is. In my view, his duty is representation and not to make laws. His duty is to represent you and me.

    “I honestly cannot say that parliamentarians should not be able to influence what some call constituency projects. The point I wish to make is that the parliament cannot make appropriation over a matter for which it has no responsibility.

    “If we have constituency projects, we must make sure they are not the projects of lawmakers. Even if they (the projects) were nominated by the senator or the state lawmaker, they must be the project that the constituency owns.

    “In cases where the lawmaker who started the project is not re-elected, the new person who takes over should continue the project. But this is not the case; what we see are new legislators coming in and starting their own projects. In my ministry, we have over 200 projects that have no parentage.

    “The meaning of this is there is no senator to push for the completion of such projects, because there are new senators in place. I have said we must finish these existing projects, but people are nominating new ones”, he said.

    “Government never reaches everybody. So what government does is to reach the greatest possible number, doing the greatest projects that will bring satisfaction to the greatest number.  That is what a normal person will do.

    “These are the real life issues we need to deal with. If we treat budgets the way we budget in our homes, we will make these kinds of choices; Why build more hospitals when there are no drugs in existing hospitals. Why buying more tricycles when the roads have not been fixed.

    “I like to stress that our political leanings are no longer relevant to the people. What is relevant now is how we can work together for the good of the people.

    “The truth is that a government has been formed; there is a government in place and we are not campaigning anymore. The government has three arms, the parliament, the executive and the judiciary. Planning development of the country is not parliamentary work, it is an executive work”, he said.

     

  • Patronage of local meters: Fashola calls for persuasion

    Patronage of local meters: Fashola calls for persuasion

    The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has said persuasion should be applied to make electricity distribution companies patronise local meter manufacturing companies in view of the dynamics of the economy.

    The minister told The Nation during his visit to Mojec International, a local manufacturing firm in Lagos, that commercial dealings cannot be done by compulsion. “I think that commercial things should be done by persuasion, reason and the dynamics of the economy,” he said.

    The reason power sector players, such as distribution companies and meter manufacturers should embrace persuasion and dynamic of the economy, Fashola said it would make the sector more competitive in terms of pricing and quality products for the local market.

    When the market is competitive in terms of pricing and quality, it would make more business sense to produce and patronise meters locally, he added.

    However, he was pleased that there are indigeneous firms that can meet the metering requirements in the country, but wondered why there is still a huge meter gap in the sector.

    On the challenges of local meter manufacturing, Managing Director, Mojec International, Chantelle Abdul, noted lack of finance to operate factories and vendor financing to off-takers.

    “One of our critical issues at the moment is lack of access to foreign exchange. A lot of our manufacturing inputs rely on goods abroad. My goal as a manufacturer is to produce much of my manufacturing input locally here in Nigeria including our chips, which is the brain of the meter and all other component that is required.

    “There is nothing that stops us from producing the battery, and the capacitors that we need in-country. It is sad to say that we don’t have factories that produce those components here in Nigeria,” she said.

    She expressed the hope that meter manufacturers would get the support of the government both at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and financing institutions to be able to produce the components in Nigeria, noting that they need foreign exchange (forex) to  to do them.

    “We cannot afford to be borrowing at double digit rate, it will automatically increase the price of the meter,” she added.