WHY WE ARE SHOWCASING FG’S PROJECTS NATIONWIDE – MINISTER

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that the
present administration decided to showcase its various projects
across the country in response to critics who said the administration
has not done anything to impact positively on the citizenry since
assuming office

The Minister stated this in Oyo Town on Tuesday when he inspected the
construction of the Oyo-Ogbomoso Expressway, in continuation of his
tour of ongoing Federal Government projects across the country.

“The response of this administration to criticism is simply to
continue to do more and more work and also to continue to showcase
what we are doing. There is only one way you can get the electorate to
vote for you – by delivering on your promises; by embarking on
projects which touch their lives and that’s what we are doing and
that’s why we are so confident that our re-election will be very easy.

”On Monday we commissioned three projects in Osogbo, aimed at
controlling the decades-long flooding that has claimed lives and
property in the town. Today (Tuesday), we are inspecting the ongoing
construction of the Oyo-Ogbomoso Road, which is one of the roads being
constructed with a part of the 100 billion Naira Sukuk Loan. As we
are here, other Ministers are also inspecting and commissioning key
infrastructural projects across the country,” he said.

Alhaji Mohammed said the Oyo-Ogbomoso Expressway remains very
significant because it is the link between the South-western part of
the country and the North and the main carriageway for heavy-duty
vehicles since the collapse of the railways.

He assured that there will no longer be a funding challenge for the
execution of the Oyo-Ogbomoso road project, in view of the creative
approach to funding adopted by the present administration.

“I think you must have listened to the Minister of Power, Works and
Housing late last week during the inspection of some roads in the
South-East when he said funding will no longer be a challenge to many
of our critical roads. This is because the N199 billion Presidential
Infrastructure Fund has been put in place and the critical roads like
this (Oyo-Ogbomoso road) will benefit from the Fund,” the Minister
said.

While briefing the Minister on the project, the Federal Controller of
Works in Oyo State, Mr. Omotayo Awosanya, said the project, which was
awarded in 2010, is now 58% completed due to the commitment of the
present administration to delivering the project.

“When it was initially awarded, there was no proper funding until this
present regime when funding improved. We are lucky this project is
benefitting from Sukuk Loan , in addition to what the budget can
provide,” he said.

Mr. Awosanya said so far the sum of N26 billion had been paid to the
contractor, out of the contract sum of N47 billion.

He said if the current funding template is sustained, the project –
originally scheduled for completion in 2013 – will now be completed by
the middle of next year.

While conducting the Minister round the Asphalt Manufacturing Plant
for the project, Mr. Harel Vaknin, the Project Manager of Reynolds
Construction Company (RCC), the contracting firm, said all the
materials used for the project are being sourced locally.

He said over 600 people have been gainfully employed in the course of
executing the project.