Under Buhari, over 900 road contracts ongoing ― APC legacy awareness

A think tank group in the All Progressives Congress has noted that unlike previous administrations before it, the Muhammadu Buhari government has made landmark achievements in road construction, reconstruction and rehabilitation across the country.

The APC legacy awareness and campaign, in a statement issued, on Wednesday, and signed by the former national publicity secretary of the party,  Lanre Issa-Onilu and incumbent National youth leader, Barrister Ismail Ahmed, said the present administration has “cumulatively devoted significantly more resources to road and transport infrastructure than any other administration since 1999, and the results are starting to emerge, in roads, bridges, highways, rail lines and stations, and air and seaport upgrades.”

The statement recalled that in the area of roads and bridges, work has since resumed on several stalled, abandoned or solution-defying road projects that were inherited, like the Loko-Oweto Bridge, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Sagamu-Benin Expressway, the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, Onitsha-Enugu Expressway, Kano-Maiduguri Expressway, Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway, Obajana-Kabba Road, Ilorin-Jebba Road, Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonshoki Road, and several others are in progress, with some already close to completion.

The duo of Isa Onilu and Ismail Ahmed, further revealed that to mitigate the financial challenges often encountered for large-scale infrastructure projects, the Buhari administration has implemented a number of landmark and innovative methods.

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The statement further listed this to include, the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), in 2018, with $650m in seed funding, the Highway Development and Maintenance Initiative (HDMI), the Issuance of Sovereign Sukuk Bonds (the first in the country’s history) dedicated to road infrastructure in the country, amongst others.

“All of these initiatives have been carefully designed and introduced to ensure that financing is no longer a challenge for road construction, rehabilitation and maintenance, and to make the private sector a key partner alongside the government in the development of critical road infrastructure.

“President Buhari’s infrastructure vision is a carryover of the groundbreaking legacy of his days in charge of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), one of the most impactful infrastructure interventions ever seen in Nigeria between independence and the start of the fourth republic.

“Today, two decades after the PTF was rested, the president is surpassing his own infrastructure records, and Nigerians are invited to follow the progress of these projects, and enjoy the emerging benefits, in terms of jobs, improved journey times, enhanced logistics, and a boost to local and sub-national economies.

“The president is determined to set new standards in terms of federal commitment to upgrading national infrastructure, and there is now no doubt that some of the projects Nigerians have most looked forward to in decades, will be completed and commissioned in the time between now and May 29, 2023, when the president’s second and final term in office comes to an end.”

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

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