Why FG stopped states from rehabilitating roads TheNigerialawyer

The Governor of Ekiti State, Governor Kayode Fayemi has said
shortage of funds forced the federal government to stop states from
rehabilitating Federal roads.

Fayemi gave the clarification in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday at a
colloquium tagged: ‘Building a Sustainable Economy Through Values
Orientation and Innovative Thinking’, marking the first year of his
second term in office.

The Governor said he would have loved to fix some of the federal
roads in the state but for the stringent warning from the Minister
of Works, Babatunde Raji Fashola that there won’t be refund on such
interventions.

Speaking particularly about the collapsed Ureje bridge along Afe
Babalola University during a flooding a couple of weeks ago, Fayemi
said : ” I would have loved to do some of these roads but the
Federal Government said leave our roads alone.

“They made it clear that if any state rehabilitates any road,
there won’t be refunds and this is because there is no money.

“This year, FG budgeted around 250 billion naira for roads. If
the government is to complete Lagos-Ibadan, Kaduna-Abuja and
Kaduna-Kano expressways, it will cost a sum of N500 billion out of
about 36,000 kilometres of roads waiting for rehabilitation”, he
said.

However, Senator representing Ekiti North Senatorial District,
Mr. Olubunmi Adetumbi and former Minister of Sports, Mr. Bolaji
Abdullahi, have advised the country to redistribute its wealth and
foster entrepreneurial education, to reduce the gap between the
rich and the poor citizens.

They said , though very large numbers of the youths are
educated, but disclosed that the education curriculum must be
critically rejigged to ensure that the right education are given to
graduates.

Adetumbi, who was one of the discussants, said there must be
need for the states of federation to be innovative and think of how
to increase the internally generated revenues through
public-private partnership to build and sustain the economy under a
corrupt free atmosphere.

“In order to build a Sustainable economy , there must be a
partnership between the government and the people. The major
problem of our economy is poor environment and growing businesses ,
which Ekiti didn’t have in good numbers and once business
environment is bad, then the economy will continue to be
repressed.

“Ekiti has a poverty rate of 57 percent .This should be a
concern to us all . Our unemployment rate is 14 percent , second
highest in the Southwest. Ekiti has no reason to be poor or has
high unemployment rate, because of good atmospheric and soil
conditions it has.

“Governor Kayode Fayemi has started with youth entrepreneurship
and we have to build on that to turn around the economy of this
state and it has to be accompanied with value reorientation among
our youths .

“Value reorientation is very important . But the greatest
influencers now are politicians and that is why we as leaders must
be careful and be good leaders. We must be careful with the ways we
live our lives, because we are the greatest influencers in the
society”.

Adetumbi advised Ekiti to key into the concept of digitised land
registry, describing the initiative as best way to generate
revenues for any state.

Former Minister of Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, regretted
that the wealth of Nigerians are concentrated in the hands of few
people, which he said signposted the level of inequality in the
system.

“Even President Muhammadu Buhari while declaring open the
Nigeria’s Economic Council in Abuja recently emerged the first
President in the country to bring the issue of inequality to the
front burner of national discourse.

“The president said the wealth of the nation is concentrated in
the hands of a few from five states of the federation. In
inequality, Nigeria was ranked 157, making it the most unequalled
country and the poverty capital of the world. The GDP does not show
the reality of our state of economy.

“The issue now is, when the rich people are flying around in
private jets, which isn’t wrong, let us help the poor to be able to
travel to their villages on good roads.

“We are talking of education and our youths are going to
schools, we must also ruminate on the kind of education that will
make our youths relevant, which I believe is by embracing
entrepreneurship”, he said .

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