Thorough Documentation And Clearance Procedures Are Key For Effective Roads – Dave Umahi

The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi has come out to declare that no existing federal road can last up to seven years.

He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, contractors have been in the habit of increasing the cost of their projects to swindle the country through contract variation and the use of asphalt materials, so there must be proper authorisation before contracts are sanctioned.

Umahi added that thorough documentation and clearance procedures should be of great importance henceforth for things to be done the right way.

His words, “There is no project being constructed right now in Nigeria that is going to last for seven years. The question is are we going to be maintaining or reconstructing our roads every 10 years? That is what we have been doing. I travelled from Abuja to Benin City through Lokoja, all the stretches of the road are on contract, and ongoing, this is through the policy of the last administration but how much of the roads are motorable? I travelled through the roads myself and I shed tears for the kind of pains our people are going through.”

“I spent 14 hours on the road having started my journey at 10 am and got to Benin City at 2 pm the next day and I was very happy I experienced the pains. President Tinubu said I must travel through all the projects so that I could brief him on my experience and tell him the truth.”

“Unless Mr. President does something about our procurement, his lofty intention to help this country may not be achieved. documents will be sent to the Bureau of Public Procurement for a no-objection certificate and it will stay for six months. How will the contractors do the additional job you directed them to do without backup authorisation.”

“This is my line of instructions and I will do whatever the president instructs me to do he is the only one and God that can cancel my instructions so don’t waste your time reporting me to anyone apart from these two. No matter the amount of blackmail and lies, it will not prevail.”