Constrained by Paucity of Funds, Inherited Power Policies

Fashola is tackling infrastructural challenges but constrained by paucity of funds, says

ne of the cabinet appointments that attracted generous media reviews when President Muhammadu Buhari named his team in 2015 was that of Ministry of Power, Works and Housing. There were several reasons for this. Chief among them was the fact that the ministry had direct impact on job creation, the quality of lives of the people, the pace of development of the nation, the attraction of foreign investors, and how well the government would be rated. Prior to the advent of the Buhari administration, Power, Works and Housing were separate ministries manned by different ministers. It was surprising to many that these three critical sectors were merged. Not even the pedigree of the minister, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, a former governor of Lagos State who was adjudged to have performed well in office as governor, could allay analysts’ pessimism.

A clear indication of the importance of the ministry was the fact that it was the only ministry with a minister and two ministers of state until recently. The two ministers of state appointed for the ministry were Mr. Musthapha Baba Shehuri and Mr. Suleiman Hassan, who moved to the Environment Ministry.

Fashola, who was not oblivious of the great expectations of Nigerians and the fact that how the Buhari administration will be rated rests substantially on the record of his ministry, set out his agenda barely a month after he assumed office. He promised to address the funding gap that had made the ministry less effective, to increase in the budget for Power, which was N5 billion in 2015 and Works, which was N19 billion, and also to develop a model National Housing programme.

When the current administration came on board in 2015, several federal roads were in bad shape while many key road projects had been abandoned by contractors due to poor funding. Also, Power generation was 4,000 MW, transmission capacity 5,000 MW, and distribution capacity 2,690 MW. These were grossly inadequate for a population of close to 200 million and the largest economy in Africa. There was also a huge housing deficit.

The ministry has however completed several road projects while many others are ongoing, despite the paucity of funds. In addition to this, the federal executive council has just approved the award of contracts worth N169.74 billion for the construction and rehabilitation of 10 roads across the country. Apart from constructing or awarding contracts for new bridges such as the 2nd Niger Bridge, Bodo-Bonny Bridge and LokoOweto Bridge, the ministry has also embarked on maintenance work on bridges neglected by past governments. These include the 3rd Mainland Bridge, Isaac Boro Bridge, Tamburawa Bridge, Eko Bridge and the old Niger Bridge. In addition to working on public highways, the ministry has embarked on building and rehabilitating internal roads in federal universities and tertiary institutions, which were not focal points of the ministry for so long.

To ensure that Nigeria imbibes maintenance culture, the ministry is also embarking on the implementation of the National Infrastructure Maintenance Programme recently approved