The Federal Government of Nigeria through the Ministry of Works has approved the construction of the Oyo-Iseyin federal road by the Oyo state government.
Oyo state governor; Engr. Seyi Makinde Makinde disclosed this earlier today while speaking at the 3rd stakeholders meeting to discuss the developmental projects, the success of his administration and performance of the 2020 Budget.
Governor Makinde who explained the importance of the road to the economy and people of the state revealed that the farming estate construction at the Fasola area of the state embarked by his administration will be troubled without the road in the right shape.
His words: “On the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Oyo-Iseyin road even though it is a federal road, why? Because we’re investing a lot of money into the Fasola farming estate. If you neglect that road, all of that money will go to waste.”
“I’m happy to inform you that the minister has given his final go ahead and he said all the documents have been signed. I need to commend him because our people prefer to play politics with everything.”
Governor Makinde revealed that although the construction of the road has been approved by the FG, the funds allocated for the road was far below the required funds to successfully complete the road project.
“If you remember, our Federal honourables and one of the Senators representing Oyo Central said the Federal Government already allocated the funds to complete that project. When we got to the minister, we asked him, how much do we have in this budget for this road? He said 200 million and he asked, how much do you think is the estimate to complete this road, he said 12 to 13 billion. He was clear even on the money allocated for the project and I stand to be corrected, I’m saying this openly, if they have contrary information, they should say it.”
“All the money they budgeted for this road can not even complete even the design of the project. I said to him, Oyo state has committed resources, the contractor is already mobilized, they are there on-site right now and we have a twelve-month duration to complete the project and it will cost us 9.9 billion naira of Oyo state money to meet up with Federal standards.”
Governor Makinde expressed gratitude to the Minister of Works, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) for not being partisan on the award of the road project.
“The minister said and I’m quoting him verbatim: “Hear you people, this is not PDP or APC when it’s time to fight for people’s vote we will fight for people’s vote but when its time to develop our state and country, we should go ahead and just do it.”
Governor Makinde revealed that his administration is now waiting for the written approval to commence the construction of the road.
“So, hopefully, we will get the written approval within this coming week and we will proceed to officially flag off the Oyo Iseyin road.”
Consequently, Makinde advised residents in therefore state to actively participate in governance saying that citizenry participation is the beauty of democracy.
“The beauty of democracy is that we can all be part of the transformation we want as citizens,” he concluded.
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