The federal government awarded 121 road contracts and had 1, 262 kilometres (km) of road constructed from 2016 through 2018, LEADERSHIP has learnt.
This was contained in the statistics given by the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing when the immediate past Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola was presenting the score card of his stewardship as Minister under the Buhari administration regarding road construction, rehabilitation, and maintenance recently.
According to statistics, in November 2015, the ministry inherited about 206 road projects across the country, most of which were abandoned by the contractors mainly for lack of fund, and in a few cases, insecurity, with the attendant loss of jobs by thousands who were engaged and earning their living from those contracts.
In the course of the briefing, the ministry gave statistics of road projects for the three years. It said in 2016, 277 kilometres of road was constructed, 345km was rehabilitated and 17,749 people were employed in the process.
For 2017, the federal government constructed 488km of roads, rehabilitated 256km and engaged 31,227 persons. For 2018 till November, 497km of road had been constructed, while 284km was rehabilitated and 30,402 persons employed.
The Permanent Secretary (Works and Housing), Mr Mohammed Bukar said there had been award of 365 roads for construction since 2001 of which the Buhari government awarded 121 in three years while previous governments awarded 144 others in the whole of 17 years of the current democratic experience in Nigeria.
“You will see that out of the 365 roads, 144 were awarded in the period of 17 years while in just three years, we awarded 121 roads, and are still counting because the 2018 procurement is still on-going,” Bukar noted.
It therefore means that the work sector, awarded 121 road contracts, constructed 1,262km, rehabilitated 885km, and employed 79, 378 persons within the 3 years of 2016, 2017, and 2018.
