Nigeria

Don’t fix federal roads if you will ask for refund - Buhari tells governors

Wednesday, September 25, 2019 at 10:10 AM by Aanu Adegun

- President Buhari has told governors not to fix federal roads again if they want to demand compensation for it

- According to the president, the demand from governors is on the high side

- The president also claimed that he has inherited enough debts

The federal government has told state governors not to fix any road if it plans to come back for compensation.

This was disclosed by Babatunde Fashola, Nigeria's works and housing minister, at a two-day interactive session with the Francis Uduyok-headed ad hoc committee on abandoned federal government projects (works) from 1999 till date.

According to him, this becomes imperative as a result of the huge amount requested by state governors after repairing the federal roads in their domains.

“What has happened to states; that’s another thing. The states submitted a bill of almost N1 Trillion when President Buhari was elected. He asked us to work out what was their entitlement and all of that.

Read also

Marry according to your earnings, stop raising families you can't cater for - Emir warns low income earners

“Ultimately, the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) certified about N454 billion. I don’t remember the exact amount now, except for two states. I think Cross River… There’s another state that didn’t have the documents at the time," he said.

Going further, the minister said after the huge demand, President Buhari specifically gave the directives that governors should not touch roads if there are plans to request for compensation.

“But the decision to pay those inherited debts, including the ones I contracted as governor of Lagos, was with the caveat that I should tell the governors to leave Federal roads alone. Those were the directives. I was not the one that took the decision.

“He said, ‘Tell them not to fix my roads again if they’re going to claim compensation. If you want to fix it and not ask for compensation, send me what you want to do. But if you want compensation, go and mind your business while I mind my business. This is because I have inherited enough debts," he added.