The Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, has charged the 36 State Commissioners for Works in Nigeria to set up their own local engineering team and increase local content in road construction as a means of reducing the high cost of projects in the country.
Umahi gave the charge on Thursday during the official opening of the 29th Meeting of the National Council on Works.
He said at the meeting holding in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, that the Federal Ministry of Works under his watch has made and would continue to increase efforts towards eliminating all sharp practices by contractors, which have hitherto hindered quality and timeliness of roads construction and other projects across the country.
He stressed that the Renewed Hope legacy projects of President Bola Tinubu, including the the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, Calabar-Abuja Superhighway and Africa Trans-Sahara Highway, when completed, would open up so many rural communities along their corridors, enhance trade, commerce, agriculture and investment in the country while catalysing growth and development.
He maintained that he adopted the use of local engineers as governor in Ebonyi State, which he said yielded tremendous results in reducing cost of projects, enhanced supervision and resulted in training of many expert engineers in the state who are today discharging quality works of world standards better than most foreign expatriates.
Umahi admonished: “We have to do everything to build our own engineering team.
“We need to train supervisors.
“If you put money ahead of engineering, you will fail.
“Commitment, consistency and love for the people should be your watchword.”
The Minister, who blamed road failures and rampant building collapses in the country on insincerity and greed on the part of contractors, maintained that quality engineering works demand integrity.
Umahi said the Federal Ministry of Works under him has abolished surface dressing and contract variations.
He added: “Why is it that our roads are failing?
Also Read:
- Cross River: Endemic fraud, paucity of funds delay payment of gratuity -Otu
- NDDC urges Niger Delta girls to embrace digital education
- Police declare 23-year-old girl missing in Ogun
- Broadcast: Governor Adeleke tasks politicians on rule of law, urges peaceful LG poll
- IG decorates three newly promoted AIGs, 16 CPs
“In China, if you build a road and in your lifetime it fails, and you are found culpable, you as a contractor will receive a life jail.
“But here we have defined a liability period of one year.
“No badly executed road project can last one year.
“And when we told them to increase it to 15 years, they began to quarrel, meaning that the contractors know what they are doing.
“So, in this gathering, we have to think about enacting a law where the percentage of a contract sum will be kept aside for road maintenance so that contractors can take responsibility for the project they build for 15 years.
“If the contractor knows he will take responsibility for the road he built for 15 years, he will avoid doing a shoddy job on any contract.”
Declaring the meeting officially open, Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State urged the Federal Government of Nigeria to give attention to abandoned federal roads and other projects in the State to ensure their completion for the benefit of the people.
While commending his predecessor for driving the President’s infrastructural initiatives to enviable heights, Nwifuru appreciated him for laying a strong Infrastructural base for the state as Governor.
He maintained that his administration, anchored on the people’s charter of needs from inception, factored in massive infrastructural consolidation and expansion as a means of promoting the people’s welfare and catalysing growth and development in Ebonyi State.
He appreciated the President Tinubu-led Federal Government for all infrastructural interventions in the South East in general and Ebonyi State in particular, and appealed that attention be given to all abandoned federal projects in the zone.
Nwifuru said: “We must appreciate the Federal Government for their intervention on our roads, especially the ongoing dualisation of Abakaliki-Enugu federal highway, and the proposed coastal road, which will traverse through Ndibe beach to Abakaliki, to Benue, Nasarawa and Kogi States.
“We are confident that timely completion of the proposed road will lift the face of our great state.
“In the same vein, we want to draw the attention of the Federal Government to a number of abandoned federal projects, especially the Abakaliki-Afikpo Road, Obubara-Oferekpe Road, among others.
“These have subjected our people to untold hardship, and we urge the Federal Ministry of Works to take immediate action to complete the projects.
“Together we can build a nation with quality infrastructure to support growth and development.”
The 29th meeting of the National Council of Works has as its theme: “Unlocking Infrastructural Potentials and Opportunities as Catalyst for Sustainable Development Under the Renewed Hope Agenda.”
Follow The Eagle Online Channel on WhatsApp
