Some senators have said that federal government should hands-off any form of public expenditure on a major capital infrastructure project that can be funded by private firms to enable her free some more funds to meet human capital development needs of the country.
They argue that because the government is involved in so many capital projects all over the country, it creates room for corruption and leakages that fritter away money that otherwise would be used for the development of social infrastructure for the benefit of the people.
Senators Tolu Odebiyi (Ogun West) and Senator Olalekan Mustapha (Ondo West) both believed that engaging in capital intensive infrastructure projects such as the construction of roads and railway lines, power infrastructure, etc has made corruption inevitable in the system and government will not have the funds to fund human capital development.
Both senators spoke separately with Tribune Online in their respective offices in Abuja advocating that government would be able to conserve more money to fund the social infrastructure that will boost human capital development and accelerate national prosperity.
Senator Tolu Odebiyi said corruption has become part of the nation’s fiscal system and advised that the best way the federal government can severe the malaise from the public service was to reduce its involvement in capital projects like roads, airport, railway, power etc.
He said the real private sector has a lot of resources and access to international funding for critical infrastructure development. Therefore, the government should leverage their assets to fund rail, roads and power while they evolve ways to recover their funds in accordance with global best practices.
He pointed out that while the nation hurriedly handed over power infrastructure to incompetent managers was due to poor assessment of their capabilities which evidently shows they cannot manage the power sector.
He said the experience was not reflective of true private investment, adding that it called for more due diligence in the processes to vet private investors to ascertain those with pedigree and required financial muscles to sustain and expand the already existing infrastructure needed to be improved upon.
He said it is not as if the federal government was not pumping money to boost different national infrastructure but it is failing to achieve the desired result because of corruption.
“I will have to agree that corruption is not just a curse. It is also becoming like a part of our DNA.
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“It has become part of the system right now and it accounts for so much of our deficits and the challenges that we are having as a country.
“What we have to look at is that if we as a government nation, for instance, leave the capital project for the private sector to develop and build government will be saving a substantial amount of money. That would have been frittered out through corruption.
“If we get out of the capital project, we can reduce corruption significantly and then pay people living wages.
“All that money that is spent on capital projects should be used to pay people living wages. And then you can have performance indices spelt out for assessing ministries departments and agencies.
“I will give only 25% in funding infrastructure. Everything else is going to security,” Senator Odebiyi stated.
He further stated that: “The reason you have corruption is because we’re the ones doing the roads. We’re the ones doing the rails. the government wants to do everything and so it creates room for corruption to fester.
“If you take your hands off it you will reduce the level of corruption in the system. The less that the federal government owes fewer activities of corruption that would be present in the system.”
Advancing his view on why the federal government should shed off some major project to the private sector to finance and construct, Senator Mustapha said when government focused on human capital development, it will have more funds to build hospitals, schools and meet other welfare needs of the people while regulating other critical sectors.
He maintained that road construction can be effectively and efficiently managed by private funding.
“At some levels, some parts of the medical services can be concessioned. Especially when you talk about specialised cases.
“There are too many roads that can be concessioned in Nigeria, if anybody says most roads in Nigeria are not viable, they are lying. There are some that are viable. There are some that will be viable.
“Now the government is constructing the Lagos-Ibadan expressway; if they finished constructing that road and decide to concession it, whatever they get from there can be used to maintain the road. Therefore, maintenance of the road will be taken away from the government.
“When you use a road and it is maintained regularly, that road can be used for twenty years without the need for new construction.
“Why do keep wasting our time spending money on things that can be done by other people, why do we have to be carrying the burden of other people on our heads instead of shifting it to the people who are willing to carry those burdens,” Mustapha stated
It would be recalled that the minister of works, Babatunde Fashola recently advocated that the country should look at the possibility of floating N10trillion National Infrastructure Bond as a way to create and maintain a mass pool of funds to meet the funding gap and challenges associated with timely construction and completion of road infrastructure in Nigeria.
He said the money would be recovered from tolling.
There are 540 road projects currently ongoing across the country by the ministry of works, the minister, Fashola told the Senate committee on works.
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