By Roland Ike
Minister of Works, Chief David Umahi, has said that the present administration under President Bola Tinubu has made remarkable interventions on roads across the country and should therefore be acknowledged by all.
Umahi’s assertion is contained in a statement signed by his Special Adviser (Media), Barr Uchenna Orji, reacting to a trending statement credited to the Chairman, House Committee on FERMA, Hon. Aderemi Oseni, berating him him over the state of roads in the country.
Umahi stated that such outburst amounted to “darkening counsel without knowledge” pointing out that the said bad roads numbering 2,604, were inherited from previous administrations.
“He failed to defer to the records of various interventions made by the President’s Renewed Hope agenda that have made great difference in the public transport trajectory of Nigeria.
“”This unprovoked attack is an inconceivable embarrassment demeaning the Minister and the Federal Ministry of Works.
“Neither the Minister nor the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry was in a meeting where the said chairman of the House committee on FERMA was said to have been addressing the Minister”.
Orji noted that Umahi had however chosen not to join issues with the said House Committee Chairman because of his respect for the hallowed institution of the National Assembly, the Senate President and the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives.
“The Minister views the action of addressing him as if he was before the House Committee on FERMA as deliberate, ill-motivated, misguided, self-serving and a vicious propaganda.
“This action is typical of a proxy representing the interest of non-conforming contractors who have constituted themselves into adversaries against the Federal Ministry of Works.
“The Ministry has insisted on best practices in project pricing, variation on price and foreign exchange differentials.”
He noted that the vituperations of the House Committee Chairman on FERMA were from the abundance of his heart.
“To however say that all the roads across the country have failed because the failure of the Minister to address the existing roads with the resources approved, shows crass ignorance.
“To also say the Minister failed to deploy the N300 billon supplementary fund approved for him or is concentrating on lesser priorities shows that little knowledge of the volume of road infrastructure deficits inherited from successive administrations.
“It also shows little knowledge of cost requirements for road construction or deliberate refusal to appreciate the Renewed Hope administration’s intervention milestones”, the statement concluded.
