Nigeria’s Minister of Works & Housing — Babatunde Fashola stated that the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway’s completion was being held up primarily by a lack of funding and the rising cost of construction materials.
Fashola revealed this while appearing on the Your View programme on Television Continental. He explained that crash barriers had been brought back to the site due to the high volume of vehicles using the road, and he begged the contractors for understanding and cooperation.
The former Lagos State Governor said this while accusing the previous administration of ignoring important infrastructure.
He said, “Let me first appreciate commuters who use that road, a major transport artery in Nigeria for their understanding. This road could have been built between 1999 and 2015 but it wasn’t. This road is in better shape than we inherited and it is now at the last mile of completion.
“The major source of delay first is funding.
“You remember at a point this road was removed from the budget completely and I was engaging the National Assembly until the president unveiled the presidential infrastructure development fund which was essentially from investments from the Nigerian LNG and funds recovered from outside Nigeria.
“So, when people talk about corruption and anti-corruption, a president who goes to recover funds stolen and put it in investment for his people is the real anti-corruption as far as I am concerned.
“On the crash barriers, they are there because we are building through a major transport artery. Our last traffic count indicates that at least N40,000 vehicles use that road from the Lagos end to the Sagamu end.
“After Sagamu it drops to 22 thousand so that has to be managed to ensure the safety of the construction workers.
“We closed site work in December because traditionally construction companies shut down mid-December and resume mid-January.
“We are still expecting to finish the project in the first quarter.”
When asked about solutions to reduce gridlock, he said, “You can’t expect to drive fast in a construction zone, there will be a bit of slowdown and it is in that slowdown that ‘how we behave’ becomes very important.”
Speaking further on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Fashola said: “I hear the concern about Lagos-Abeokuta (Road) and there are people we should ask why Lagos -Abeokuta (Road) was not built.
“I can categorically say that all roads that lead into and out of Lagos as a strategic commercial capital of Nigeria are receiving one form of attention or the other.
“Again, contractors had abandoned the site when we came and we revived and we are putting the Sukuk into it and the last Sukuk has about N7 billion in it. So, we don’t have all the money to build it. I understand there is more pain on the Ogun side but the Lagos side work is going because the contractor is constructing from Lagos to Ogun.
“In a matter of weeks, I am hopeful we would have a more enjoying financial solution not only to Lagos-Abeokuta but also to Akure and Ado Ekiti and once that is done, whether we are in government or not, those roads will be constructed,” he concluded.
