By Abdullahi M. Gulloma
Abuja
Chairman of Senate Committee on Works, Kabiru Gaya has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for addressing the nation’s infrastructural deficits through appreciable budgetary allocations to works.
Fielding questions from State House correspondents after a close-door meeting with the President yesterday, Gaya commended the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approving N155 billion for the reconstruction of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road.
“We are also very happy that he has awarded the road projects from Kano to Abuja which will cost N155 billion, that is a plus. And also being that I am the chairman of works Committee, no government for the past 16 years has been able to put so much money on road project like this government.
“In the budget of 2011-2014, it was only N26 billion that was allocated for works but in 2016 when President Buhari came in we had a budget of over N200 billion for works and in 2017 we have over N400 billion and for 2018 we have about N500 billion for works. So, we are rehabilitating our roads and those that were abandoned for years the contractors have gone back to site,’’ he said.
He said members of the Senate Committee on Works have gone round 26 states of the federation to monitor the various federal projects being executed in the states, stressing that the committee would soon complete the visits to the remaining states in the South West and three states in the North West regions of the country.
“We have seen that work are going on, in some places there are issues of payment but the contractors are back to site because the president has orders for them to be paid and I’m sure payment to contractors commenced last week and will continue till next week,” he said.
