The second Niger Bridge will open before the Christmas holidays — Fashola
The Federal Government intends to open the historic Second Niger Bridge to the public on or around Christmas of this year, putting an end to the years-long wait to travel on this crucial infrastructure that was envisaged decades ago but left on the drawing board by the previous administration.
For this to happen, however, the continuous flooding on the four-kilometer approach from the Asaba end of the bridge must subside so that the contractor can finish the connecting road to the bridge, which the contractor has already constructed and illuminated.
Mr. Babatunde Fashola, the Minister of Works and Housing, dropped the clue during a news conference to showcase the accomplishments of the Buhari administration in the sectors of Works and Housing, which was attended by the Ministers of Information and the FCT, Mohammed Bello.
Read Also: China set up police stations in Nigeria and 20 other countries
Fashola boasted that the government was able to develop and complete at least 8,352.94 kilometers of roads and create at least 339,955 jobs between 2016 and 2022 despite the shortage in federal funds resulting from a depressed economy and a decline in oil revenue.
The minister also reported that the renovation of 12 main highways spanning 896.187 kilometers in the country during the same time period has resulted in a 56.20 percent reduction in travel time and has benefited the residents of the areas through which the roads pass.
Fashola stated that the Buhari administration had devised a number of initiatives to raise funding for the construction of essential road infrastructure in the country and to alleviate the suffering of Nigerians on specific notoriously poor routes.
Among the initiatives introduced by the administration to facilitate infrastructure development are the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund, the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund, the Sukuk Fund, the Road Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme, multi-lateral loans and grants, and partnerships with other government agencies such as the NorthEast Development Commission.
He stated that the PIDF has contributed significantly to the construction of the Lagos-Shagamu-Ibadan Dual Carriageway Section I: (Lagos-Shagamu) in Lagos State, the Lagos-Shagamu-Ibadan Dual Carriageway Section II: (Shagamu-Ibadan) in Oyo State, the construction of main works including associated infrastructure for the 2nd Niger Bridge, and the rehabilitation of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria
In the housing sector, Fashola claimed that the ministry is constructing no less than 6,022 housing units nationally, but has only finished 2,864 units in 35 states and the FCT, generating 29,030 direct and 57,874 indirect jobs.
In the same spirit, the minister said that he had issued 6,337 certificates of occupancy to Nigerians who had been granted federal lands and property but had not received their titles for more than three decades.
In the same region, the minister revealed that 2,731 allottees of landed property had been granted permission to conduct business on their property, generating N2,210,577,837.95 in revenue for the federal government.
The minister indicated that the more than 48,000 files in the land registry will be scanned and converted to digital documents to eliminate manual transactions and save time and resources.
In an effort to offer office space for federal employees in the states, the federal government has made significant progress in building federal secretariats in Lafia, Yenagoa, Ekiti, Oshogbo, Gusau, and Awka, according to the minister.
In addition to the construction of the new federal secretariats, the minister stated that new facility managers had been hired to supply and maintain services for the workers’ comfort.
According to him, facility managers in 28 federal secretariats across the country employed a total of 1,548 individuals, while 845 individuals oversee the National Housing program.
Fashola boasted that the infrastructural achievement recorded by the Buhari administration was the realization of the “Change Agenda” which was rolled out in the ministry of Works and Housing in 2015 as part of the larger objective of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to grow the economy by revamping and expanding the nation’s infrastructure on a scale not seen in a very long time.
The Minister boasted, “In these last seven and half years, the administration has been very resolute in the pursuit of progressivism, which is globally recognized as the improvement of the human condition. Indeed, the Ministry of Works and Housing is present in all the states of the Federation either through a road, bridge, National Housing Programme, federal secretariat, or Special Intervention Project.
“If in 2015 the complaint was the neglect or lack of life-defining infrastructure across the country and today these infrastructure are being completed or within the finish line; if in 2015 the conversation was on the existence of a large number of abandoned infrastructure and the seeming lack of political will to complete those infrastructure in spite of the availability of resources and today the Buhari administration has made these possible in spite of lean resources; if in 2015 such critical infrastructure as the Second Niger Bridge, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway were either totally non-existent or in very deteriorated state and if today the PMB administration has demonstrated that needed political will to break the jinx on our nation’s historically most difficult projects, does it not stand to reason to conclude that the party which formed the Government deserves to continue to deliver to the people of Nigeria these life-defining infrastructure. Think about this,”
The Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who coordinated the press conference, boasted that the administration had done well by implementing high-impact projects that meet the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians across the country in its effort to leave a lasting legacy, but he lashed out at critics who attempted to minimize the government’s accomplishments.
Mohammed stated, that in the din of partisanship, detractors have attempted to minimize this administration’s monumental and unparalleled accomplishments.
Some presidential hopefuls have even presented shoddy photocopies of this administration’s accomplishments as their Blueprint. However, the series we are beginning today will have them gasping for air as we discuss all of the accomplishments in the many industries. Because we have so much to exhibit, the frequency of these briefings will be high for the duration of our term.
“Despite attempts in some circles to downplay the achievements of this administration, I have no scintilla of doubt that history will be fairer and posterity will be kind to us. Those whose trips have been shortened and smoothened by good roads and bridges will remember those who built those roads and bridges; those who use the modern terminals at our airports will remember who built them.
“Those who ride on modern trains along Lagos-Ibadan, Abuja-Kaduna, and Itakpe-Warri will not forget those who made that happen. And the 9.8 million school children who are fed daily, the 1 million youth that have been empowered as well as the 500,000 who are undergoing training under the N-Power, and the 1,632,480 households that have been enrolled in the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme will not forget,”
