Fashola urges states to collaborate with FG on road projects

Mr Babatunde Fashola, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing on Friday called for collaboration between states and the Federal Government to maintain and rehabilitate roads across the country.

Fashola, who made the call in Uyo when he visited Gov. Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom, said his visit was to assess ongoing federal roads projects in the state.

He said the collaboration was to give room for knowledge sharing so that collectively the problems could be resolved.

According to him, there are things that the Federal Government can do that the states cannot and there are things the states can do and the federal cannot.

Fashola said the Federal Controller of Works in the state was the Federal Government representative, adding that his presence was to seek support to achieve government goals and not to compete with the state.

He said the ministry had submitted the report of reimbursement to states that executed Federal Government projects to the presidency.

“We have just got the final confirmation from the Bureau of Public Procurement recently, and reimbursement will commence as soon as we get the Federal Executive Council approval.

“It is the responsibility of the Federal Government to connect with the states and the states to connect its constituents.

“There must be a state agenda where its representatives at the National Assembly are engaged.

“On our part, we are getting the cooperation of the National Assembly to connect the states,” he said.

In his remark, Prof Moses Ekpo, the Deputy Governor of the state commended the minister for embarking on inspection tour of federal road projects in the state.

Ekpo said most of the Federal Government projects in the state awarded since 2013 had been abandoned.

He lamented the complete absence of the Federal Government presence in the state, and called for proper documentation of projects being handled by the Federal Government in the state.

“We must originate the request and make progress before communicating our representatives at the National Assembly.

“On our part, we assure you that the state government will not be a problem to development coming to the state,” he said.