FG spends N2.7tr on infrastructure

‘Community policing best strategy for internal security’

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said the Federal Government has spent over N2.7 trillion on critical infrastructure across the country in two budget cycles.

Osinbajo disclosed this yesterday while unveiling a 2.5kilometer flyover named after Alhaji Aminu Alhassan Dantata at Fagge Council Area of Kano State.

The Vice President, who restated President Muhammadu Buhari’s renewed commitment to engendering growth in the country’s infrastructure architecture, commended Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje for his foresight. Earlier, Ganduje said his administration approved N500m to mobilise the contractor back to site after the project was abandoned at 25 percent completion by the immediate past government.

Ganduje pledged to sustain the development plan of Kano City to compete with megacities in Africa and across the world. Osinbajo also commissioned an interchange underpass along the Kofa-Ruwa-Katsina road, named after Alhaji Tijjani Hashim and laid the foundation of Sheikh Karibullah Nasiru Kabara flyover in the Kofar Mata area of the city centre.He also stressed the need to domesticate security architecture and engage communities in the management of their own safety.

Insisting that agitations for community policing in the country was indisputable, he declared that the best security strategy to overcome crimes and criminality was local participation in the security of lives and property. The Vice President’s position may have been informed by the decision South-West governors to form their regional security outfit named “Amotekun,” which now attracts divergent views from different segments of the country.

On poverty reduction, Osinbajo explained that the Federal Government has promised to bring 10 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years.“And I must confirm to you that this government is committed to actualising it and that was why it launched its social investment programme (SIP).

“Again, we are now feeding 9.5 million children daily in public schools across the country. The government also gave out N2m loan to traders. Earlier, he visited Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, at his palace where he commended the monarch for keeping peace in his Kingdom. Speaking, Sanusi commended the Vice President for recognising Kano as one of the peaceful states in the country and urged Osinbajo to consider the state as his second home.