Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, has commended the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing (FMWH) for ensuring quality work on roads construction across the country.
He restated legislative support to Federal Government in this regard.
Ado-Doguwa gave the commendation on Thursday along Abuja-Kaduna highway, on his way back to Abuja, where he coincidentally met the Minister of State for Works and Housing, Mr. Umar El-Yakub and his entourage on oversight of road projects.
In an interview with newsmen, Ado-Doguwa said as a commuter, good samaritan and a representative of the people, he decided to stop and check what was happening on the road.
Ado-Doguwa said he was surprised to see a minister in full force, conducting an oversight function to ensure diligence and quality work by contractors.
He said that some months ago when he plyed the Abuja-Kaduna highway, some sections were virtually unpassable, noting that it was one of the reasons that exposed commuters to security threats.
Doguwa noted that the palliative work that resumed on the Abuja-Kaduna highway would give road users some relief, especially knowing that it was a major route connecting Southern and Northern parts of the country.
“Abuja-Kaduna highway is like a trans-saharan road that connects Nigeria with some neighboring countries like Niger Republic and others,” he said.
He further said that to them, being on the other side of government as legislators, the FMWH was easing their responsibility and duties by engaging on oversight visit to ensure the contractors and other stakeholders were doing the right thing.
“This is of course a relief to the oversighting institution of the legislature; this will be my take home to the floor of the house, I have seen the ministry and minister so concerned about the plights of the people,” Ado-Doguwa said.
He also said that the President Buhari’s administration had been working tirelessly to ensure security and had recently achieved great feat, amounting to zero incident of insecurity on the Abuja-Kaduna highway.
Doguwa also said that for them at the legislature, they were also doing their best to encourage the government and its agencies to ensure proper funding of its projects.
According to him, road and other infrastructure were key comittments of the president Buhari’s administration.
“The President has delivered a lot of the commitments, the left, right and center of the country is like a construction site, and we will continue to support them especially through funding,” Ado-Doguwa said.
He also noted that in the 2023 appropriation bill presented by President Buhari, they provided sufficient and strategic funding for projects, especially to the ongoing ones.
He said that one of the key words of President Buhari, on the submission of the 2023 appropriation bill was that it was a budget of sustainability and transition.
He explained that the budget would ensure sustainability of key projects such as the ongoing road construction and rehabilitation across the country through proper funding.
“Buhari will not want to handover to his suscessor with a chunk of ongoing projects, this is his mission as well as ours, because we are a partner to the executive arm of the government,” he said.
He commended the minister for the palliative work inspection, noting that it was part of the Federal Government’s efforts in ensuring accountability.
“It is worth commendation that the minister sees reasons to come to the areas which hav dangerous potholes and a lot of exposure to insecurity, to bring palliative measures,” he said.
The Minister of State, Umar El-Yakub, among other areas of the projects, inspected the ongoing 48 Kilometres Eastern bye-pass in Kaduna, awarded in 2002.
The minister began the road inspection from section one (Abuja-Kaduna), where he would on Friday, inspect section two (Kaduna-Zaria) and section three ( Zaria-Kano), among other sections.
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