Umahi Seeks State Of Emergency On Roads

The Minister of Works, Engr David Umahi, has asked the National Assembly to declare a state of emergency on roads by 2025.

According to Umahi, the current administration has certified (paid) N726bn for road projects and executed 80 per cent of palliative roads approved by the federal government.

He disclosed this while reacting to claims by the House of Representatives Committee on Federal Road Maintenance Agency FERMA Hon Aderemi Oseni that his ministry has achieved nothing to fix deplorable roads.

He said the administration inherited 2604 projects, adding, “No amount can execute such projects in one year”.

He said that contrary to the claim, his ministry has certified 170 billion out of 300 billion approved for palliative works.

He said, “The total Certified projects in 2024 have come to over N600 billion, and when you add the tax credit of NNPCL jobs, we have executed 726 billion projects worldwide.

“And so if he wants to oversee the project, he should come and get the details of the ongoing projects.

He can move on to the projects one by one. Just like we will be doing with the two committees of the National Assembly from the middle of November. We will show that this project is what we have done.

“726 billion unless he says the contractors collected it and are not working. And then in 2023, out of the N300 billion, we have certified work done 170 billion. And so it remains just 130 billion because we insist these are emergency projects. You must get to a certain percentage before we certify you,” he said.

He demanded an unreserved apology from the committee chairman and called on the leadership of the National Assembly to carry out preliminary investigations before sending out invitations.

He said his ministry will no longer honour invitations again as they have become too many and frivolous.

“When he verifies, I request that he tender an all-reserved apology because all he did was to represent the contractors and incite the public against the government that brought him in. And it isn’t perfect because when you darken counsel without knowledge, you are inciting the public. So we’re going to publish the projects,” he said.

Umahi said the house committee chairman sounded more like a contractor than a representative of the people.

He expressed worry that some contractors, who are uncomfortable with the ban on price variation and foreign exchange disparity, are inducing people to oppose the government.

He said it was unfortunate that some contractors were inducing people against the government.

The Minister said, “He sounded like he was representing the contractors. What were the issues in the Ministry of Works? The issue of price variation (VOP) and the issue of foreign exchange differential. Some contractors were claiming them. Essentially, the two of them are the same. But that less priority that he talked about was that we stopped them. And we have no regrets about stopping them. There’s no reason why we should award projects in October and in November. You are asking us to pay a variation of price. So we refuse to do that,”

He said the ministry, under his supervision, has terminated about ten contracts, some awarded 17 or 18 years ago.

The Minister also called on the leadership of the National Assembly to declare a state of emergency on road construction in the 2025 budget to ease Nigerians’ pain.