Babatunde Fashola brings Leadership on Project Inspection
Typically, it should not be a minister's job. But we are thankful that Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has rejected some federal government housing and road projects because they were not done properly. He deserves our commendation for doing what civil servants would have done by simply following project specifications and contracted agreements.
As road accidents have become "the #1 killer in Nigeria", government must take action to ensure that contractors deliver projects with absolute quality. I will also ask him to consider inspecting Abuja airport road which I think is the worst road system in the world. Yes, someone can merge and exit at 70 miles per hour (about 112 kph) with no artificial barrier to force a slow-down. No one wonder, that road has many accidents.
In most parts of the world, a merge would require running an arc or in some cases a circle to force the driver to slow down. That is not the case on Abuja airport road because it was done with no known international road construction standard.
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Mr Fashola who inspected the two projects in Birnin Kebbi, the capital of Kebbi State, told the contractors to undertake the project within specification otherwise the government would not accept them
He observed that most of the roofing of the bungalows in the Federal Housing Estate and road culverts were not done properly.
“The roofing is not standard and road culverts are not properly done. They have to reconstruct some of these buildings because we cannot accept them; their roofs are not well constructed,” he said.
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“I am not satisfied with these culverts, you have to reconstruct them.
“The government has overcome the challenges of funding but is now faced with the challenge of getting the project done in compliance with contractual agreement.
“With all clear intention, we cannot do the work, we have to entrust the contractors to do the work for us, hence they should do it according to the agreement,” the minister said.