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The Minister of Works, Engineer David Umahi, has replied to Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde after the latter criticised him for “dancing around” questions on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project.
Daily Sun reported that Makinde took a jab at Umahi, whose verbal spat with Arise TV presenter Rufai Oseni went viral over the aforementioned project.
While inspecting the Keffi section of the Abuja-Mararaba-Keffi Road, alongside the Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, on Saturday, Umahi said,
“I have a lot of respect for governors and the Governors Forum. But if a governor that is far my junior in engineering and governance insults me, I will talk back.
“One thing I’m very good at is Mathematics. I’m an ‘A’ student in mathematics.
“This controversy about cost per kilometre, I have told you that this project is about 43 kilometres.
“But we have increased it to utilise the money given for the project by the last administration, which was N73 billion. We have increased it to about 45 kilometres.
“If we are doing surface tracing on the shoulder, the cost will be different. If we are using asphalt on the shoulder, the cost will be different. If we are using concrete as we are using, the cost will be different.
“It is being mischievous when you ask for the cost of a length of road, but by the professorial information, you can ask for cost per kilometre; could be divided into sections.
“First, estimated cost, and estimated cost of this project, you can divide N73 billion over 45 kilometres,. That is the estimated cost. This cost has the element of contingency.
“When you have finished this project – and of course, you can see that in this project, there are places you are using the existing median and there are places you will construct new median – will the cost be the same? It is not possible.
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“When you have finished, you remove the vop, you remove contingency, you have not used. It is N40 or N70 billion, and probably you have done 50 kilometres.
“Then that is when you divide and have an average cost. Average cost of definitive and estimated cost is a probable element.
“When I heard that somebody, my brother and friend, Governor Makinde, the Governor of Oyo State, said… I don’t want to join issues with him.
“I think he is an engineer, an electrician. They called it electrical electronics. This is road construction.
“Electrical electronics no reach there (This is beyond Electrical Electronic Engineering).
“I am his senior in governance and his senior in engineering practice. And so anything he doesn’t understand, he should call me and ask, and I will not join issue because I have respect for our governors.
“I have respect for him as my friend and brother, but he should withdraw the word that I am dancing around. I never danced around, and if he insists, he should come for debate. That is very important.
“There is no ambiguity in cost per kilometre. But I am teaching them that cost per kilometre could be divided into estimated cost, which has an element of variance and average cost, which is definitive. That is what it is.
“So also is when somebody that is dangling without knowledge, going asking AI what is the difference between cost per kilometre and average cost.
“I am happy that AI told him what I told him. I am happy that the NUC program on who is a professor also made me right.
“You can become a professor by the reason of your practice, and I think God has made me one when it comes to practical. Field engineering program, that is what it is, you can’t take it back.”
