Babatunde Fashola, the Minister of Power, Works, and Housing has said that contractors who executed federal government’s road projects over the past three years were not paid for their job.
Speaking at the inaugural “Buharimeter” town hall meeting in Abuja, Thursday, Mr. Fashola said the contractors had, nonetheless, continued to work with the present administration based on their credibility.
“As far as my ministry is concerned, I think the best way to understand where we are is where we came from,” Mr. Fashola said at the meeting organized by the Centre for Democracy and Development.
“If you look at the budget of the country from 2007, a country that was making a minimum of $100 per barrel for almost a decade, we shouldn’t be here. But the reality is that in 2007 we spent only N41 billion on roads in Nigeria. The highest we spent between 2007 and 2015 was in 2009 when we spent N195 billion on roads.
Mr. Fashola said despite non-payment of the contractors, work would soon begin on the Jebba-Ilorin road as well as the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
“The Jebba-Ilorin road is a very significant road,” he said.
