More than 17, 500 workers to be engaged as road construction begins
Mr Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing.
The Federal Government says more than 17,500 road construction workers are to be re-engaged as contractors return to project sites across the country.
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, made this known when he featured on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said that the contractors had declared their readiness to re-engage workers, who were laid off due to the huge debt owed by the Federal Government in the past three years.
“We are trying to ensure that everybody (contractors and workers) go back as quickly as possible to have the most effective impact.
“Just by speaking to 20 of our road contractors yesterday on the number of people they have laid off who they can move back to work.
“The return that I got was over 17,500 people that they would re-engage.
“So, that is the first step. We have over 200 road projects, so, that is just 20 contractors and we are going to be meeting with more.
Now, that’s change. People who lost their work are coming back to work. That’s what this budget brings.
“Capital expenditure for the ministry is about N353 (billion). That’s a lot different from what we had in 2015.’’
Fashola criticised the failure of the previous governments to settle debts owed contractors, a situation, which he said, had created enormous challenges even in the face of dwindling oil revenue.
He, however, stressed that the government would not allow current challenges to distract it from doing its best possible to improve the well-being of the people.
“If contractors have not been paid for three years when oil was selling for a lot more, the budget is bigger now but the responsibility is just enormous because the oil resources have reduced.
“So, this is what we should have done three years ago when we had income at close to 100 dollars per barrel.
We are going to run as hard as we can. And everything little thing that we do, we hope would improve the quality of peoples’ lives.
According to him, the biggest impact of the budget so far is the restoration of jobs, beginning with the construction sector.
“Taking one simple step means that we can take about 17,500 and more people to work. That’s more important to me than how much debt was owed.
“Those people are heads of families. They are Nigerians who can get up again, have their dignity restored and go back to work; that’s how you rebuild an economy.’’
The minister, who expressed displeasure over the delay in the passage of the 2016 budget, said that the contractors had pledged to cooperate with the government to complete the projects as soon as possible.
He said to that end, government had appealed to the construction companies to increase the pace of work on site in order to regain lost time.
He added that although the ministry did not get all the funds it had proposed, “but compared to the 2015 budget, the difference is change’’.
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10 Comments
That is good that thousand of construction workers would be going back to work. However the government needs to ensure that the quality of the work, the timing and price paid is up to international standard.
That is my concern also. So we don’t come back in a couple of years and see the fixed roads in a state of disrepair again
Trust me…That is not part of their vocabulary at all!
If I were fashola, I would change road construction contracts to mandate that all roads must be in good working condition for 10 years after end of construction and that all (if any) repairs in that time frame will be borne by the contractor at no cost to the government. That would make contractors sit up a bit and put a bit more quality into their work. And it is very possible because i know many Julius Berger roads that have no issue after almost 15 years. Awolowo road Ikoyi was done by JB around 2001 and till today there is no pothole on that road despite the heavy load on it. Likewise many others in lagos done during Tinubu’s tenure.
People who were working under Jonathan’s PDP, but lost their jobs to APC cluelessness have been re-engaged.
Fashola says that is ‘change’. I cannot understand that logic.
It is when you employ more than what you inherited that you do politics. They are still playing catch up, yet he is preaching ‘change’?
The APC has no ideology looking at how Buhari manages the economy.
I think the PDP were more progressive in ideas. Corruption is a Nigerian problem not PDP problem because we have the same characters in power today.
I don’t like joining issues with people opinions, but I will like to correct some ideology of some of your logical reasoning, first construction workers didn’t lose their jobs cos of Apc cluelessness rather pdp cluelessness and desperation to win cheap praises for campaigning and election purpose, they engage themselves in too much contracts which sum up to owing contractors huge depth that is when we still sell crude at over a $100/barrel , the Apc government inherit these depts but cos they can’t go by the way of the former clueless government, they have to stop all contracts make plans into the budget which is their own and the result is what u read above if you don’t add any sentiment to it. When dis worker were laid off I guess you are one of dose that criticize the Apc government and gave kudos to pdp government, so if the workers are now back to work you praise hail your criticism and hail the Apc for listening to you and making sure they bring the workers back to work like they did.
A simple answer for my logic: Julius Berger started leaving Lagos-Ibadan expressway days to the hand over to Buhari.
And when Buhari came in, for political convenience, he started shouting the treasury is empty.
So, other contractors left sites and laid off workers.
As leader of a country, your political statements can hurt the economy.
But Buhari has been travelling up and down. Where is the money coming from? Empty treasury?
Correct!
When last did you pass Lagos Ibadan expressway, just after RCCG camp? Contractors were still on site early 2015. That road is as smooth as an aircraft’s race track. They left site middle of 2015 when a new government took over and they were no longer sure of their next installment. I appreciate that Fashola wants to continue from where Jona stopped, but he does not have to run down the last government to announce his resumption of work. He is not even sure whether he will have enough money to finish the project. Jona engaged the 17,500 workers gainfully. Now they are being restored back after one year of doing nothing. The only change I will see is if he doubles the employment by engaging additional employees.
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