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Minister of Works David Umahi has disclosed that President Bola Tinubu inherited more than 2,068 ongoing projects, totalling N13 trillion.
Umahi, who addressed newsmen in Abuja on the four legacy projects of the government, wondered why Nigerians are bothered about the borrowing of the government.
“We are borrowing for investment,” he said.
According to him, the government is giving Nigerians between 50 and 100 years’ guarantee on its projects.
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“So, if the past governments have been intentional in doing proper construction of roads, we will not have the problem we have. When we came on board, we inherited 2,068 ongoing projects, totalling N13 trillion and when people ask, why are you borrowing? We are borrowing for investment. When you want to make investment, you borrow to make investment. There will be return on investment, and our procurement is well specified according to the law of the National Assembly. And so, the first legacy project is a special procurement, and we built it from the company that had the audacity to tame the Atlantic Ocean at Eko Atlantic on Victoria Island. I was a child when I graduated, and I was working on V.I., and all of a sudden, Bar Beach overflowed and a lot of houses were taken by the Bar Beach flood. That was even then, not to talk of now, where the climate change has become a very big issue all over the world,” he stated.
On the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, the minister noted that the project is ongoing, adding that the president just approved 300 kilometres on the second carriageway.
“In Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, we have a lot of windmill energy to be done; tourism to be established within the corridor of the coast, factories to be built, housing estates. In the Trans-Saharan — that is a trade route of the colonial masters, and that is the food belt of this nation — Ebonyi, Benue, Cross River. And so, that project is on. The president had just approved about 300 kilometres of second carriageway,” he said.
