The Minister of State II for Power, Works and Housing, Surveyor Suleiman Hassan Zarma, has called for community participation in the ownership of public assets and critical infrastructure in the country. Zarma also stressed that people in the communities should be sensitized to take personal responsibility for the protection of public infrastructures.
The Minister said this while declaring open a oneday Stakeholders’ Conference on Preservation, Protection and Community Ownership of Public Assets and Critical Infrastructure organised by the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Abuja. A statement issued by the Principal Information Officer, Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Olatunji John, quoted Zarma as saying that: ‘It is sad to note that there are lots of damages and inadequate maintenance of these public assets which are yet to meet the need of the citizenry’’.
The minister added that the conference will help inform, educate and enlighten the people on the efforts of the government to provide adequate infrastructure, and the need to encourage stakeholders to cherish and preserve them for posterity. Zarma, however, promised that his ministry will continue to make concerted efforts in ensuring that its three sectors meet up with the mandate of delivering critical infrastructures to Nigerians in the areas of improved power generation, adequate funding and resuscitation of abandoned/ new road projects; and the provision of mass housing across the country.
Earlier in his remarks, the Director- General of the National Orientation Agency, Dr. Garba Abari, had stated that infrastructure development, preservation and protection were critical elements to measure the level of development in any nation.
He said: ‘’If we accept this as a fact, it then stands to reason that no nation can be said to be truly developed, unless it continues to invest not only in the development of new infrastructure, but also in the protection and preservation of existing ones’’.
The NOA boss also called for collaboration and synergy between stakeholders in Nigeria’s infrastructure sector and the agency for the protection and public ownership of national infrastructure in the country
