The Senate has set up a panel to investigate the number of viable projects abandoned across Nigeria.
The committee will also recommend action on how to reduce abandonment and recover most of the projects. The Guardian had reported about the litany of abandoned projects dotting different regions in the country.
Members of the ad hoc committee are Lola Ashiru (chairman), Jimoh Ibrahim, Mpigi Barinada, Abdullahi Yahaya, Victor Umeh, and Isah Jibrin.
The decision followed the adoption of a motion on ‘Urgent need to look into 11,856 mega projects abandoned by the Federal Government’, sponsored by Jimoh Ibrahim (Ondo South).
The Senate noted that in 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan set up a committee on abandoned projects. This committee visited the 36 states and identified 11,856 projects abandoned by the Federal Government since the country’s independence in 1960.
Ibrahim said: “What is key to this investigation is the need to look inward at our infrastructural development as Foreign Direct Investment declined from $8.8 billion in 2011 to $3.3 billion in 2019, and the current account balance in that year from $10.6 billion to $5-17 billion. While the population was growing at around five per cent, about 86 per cent of the citizens were living under $2 between 2011 and 2019. Public debt increased from 17 per cent of the GDP in 2011 to 29 per cent in 2019.”
He said the government has the responsibility to set up a professional system that delivers value from major infrastructure development to its citizens, adding that for 66 per cent of projects to be abandoned since 1960, it is “nothing less than a calamity that reduces our pride as the Giant of Africa, if we are still one”.
Senator Isah Jibrin said the abandoned projects should be profiled and the viable ones sold to bring a return on investment.
In his remarks, Senate President Godswill Akpabio said Nigeria should not be using over 90 per cent of its resources to pay interest on loans.
The committee was given one month to report back to the Senate.
