My Candid Opinion of Ministry Of Works and Housing In 2019
The year 2019 was a remarkable one for Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. During this year, Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN, was reappointed as the Minister For Works and Housing by the President Muhammadu Buhari after demerging the Ministry which in his first tenure included the Ministry for Power.
No sooner had he resumed, he swung into action. This culminated into impressive accomplishments in terms of construction, rehabilitation, repair and maintenance of roads and bridges.
Among these accomplishments recorded in 2019 are the ongoing reconstruction works on major bridges, arterial roads and rehabilitation, which includes:
Emergency Repairs of Existing Niger Bridge at Onitsha/Asaba; Owerri Dual Carriageway (close to Madonna) in Anambra State ; Construction of Ojutu Bridge on Erinle River, Ilobu,. Osun State.
Emergency Repairs of Failed Section of Ijora – Apapa Flyover and Approach Road by Leventis in Lagos
Reconstruction of Ohan & Moro bridges in Ilorin – Igbeti Road
Emergency Repairs of Washout at Kwaita Bridge along Abuja – Lokoja Expressway
Reconstruction of 3No. Insurgent damaged Bridges in the North East
In addition, another feat achieved by the ministry is the collaboration with the Federal Government in the expansive spending on Federal projects across the nation, which has not left any state in Nigeria today without a Federal Government visible road project. Recently , officials of the Ministry works , took a tour the erosion control project at the Ekpoma stretch of the dual carriageway from Obajana to Benin City.
It is also pertinent to note that the Ministry of Works and Housing with its critical stakeholders ; the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and some road contractors handling national projects, in one of the organizational sublime strides, prepared a document which contained the action plan to fix failed portions of federal highways and arterial roads in respect to the recently celebrated yuletide. The document contained 123 roads billed for rehabilitation or already undergoing repairs.
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These rehabilitation projects cut across the 6 geo-political zones of the country. Among the roads billed for rehabilitation were the Abuja-Kaduna road at Km 4,5,15,16,18 and 30, Gombe-Biu, Wukari-Benue, Benin-Asaba, Benin-Sapele, Ibadan-Ogbomosho, Onitsha-Owerri dual carriage way to mention but a few.
In the Housing sector, the Ministry brought to the fore, the Pilot National Housing Programme. This has led to a nationwide Housing construction currently at various completion stages in 34 states of the Federation.
In addition, 1000 certificates of occupancy in respect of Federal Government landed properties nationwide were approved and signed and the beneficiaries were duly informed in four national newspapers; Thisday, Leadership, Nation and Daily Trust.
The Ministry is not resting on its oars in terms of effective delivery of its duties and mandates to the states as well as accountability to the people of Nigeria.
Okere Grace Onyinyechi is an IT Student with Federal Ministry of Works and Housing
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