PERHAPS listening to the complaints of the indigenous contractors over the perceived preference giving to their foreign counterparts in contract award in Nigeria, Ogun State government has decided to give the indigenous contractors priority to handle the 171 roads earmarked for construction.
In a statement signed by head of media, Ministry for Works and Infrastructure, Mr Ayotunde Ewuoso, it was stated that henceforth, Ogun government is ready to engage the services of Nigerian contractors to handle it’s projects.
Quoting the Commissioner in charge of the Ministry, Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, where he said that government would give indigenous contractors preference over the ‘’big ones’’ in the award of contracts for the construction of 171 rural roads in the state.
According to him, the 171 rural roads earmarked for construction include 25 semi-urban roads and three in the rural areas that cut across the 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs) and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs).
According to Adegbite, many contractors working for the ministry are admixture of foreign and indigenous companies.
“Looking at the present jobs where we have requested for bids for the construction of the 171 rural roads and 25 Semi-Urban roads, we deliberately wanted to engage the services of indigenous contractors to handle some of the road projects, especially, the rural roads, while we are not stopping the big contractors not to apply. But what we are saying is that let our focus be on indigenous contractors to see them demonstrating their experiences and skills. That is the best way to develop our own,” the commissioner remarked.
Adegbite who stated that the present administration has revolutionalized the infrastructural sector of the economy pointed out that ‘’before any road would be considered for construction, government would have seen that it’s a road that will maximally benefit everybody’’.
While reacting to the accusation that government was more concern in the construction of federal roads at the detriment of State roads, the Commissioner noted that government had constructed several State roads across the length and breadth of the Ogun State, adding that though, priority had always been considered on issues of roads construction.
‘’ There is hierarchy when you are doing roads. The one that benefits most are the spine, which are major roads, and they are the ones to do first. We are not claiming that government ends with this administration. Government is continuum. If past administration had been doing this, we would have found something else to do”. He argued.
Adegbite assured that all the roads constructed by the government were designed to last for 30 years and above, adding that the State government had written the Federal Ministry of Works on the needs for it to cede some of these roads.
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