The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed says “no administration has ever embarked on a massive infrastructure renewal, more so at a time of dwindling earnings” than that of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The minister said this on Monday in Lagos at a media briefing to present the major achievements of the Buhari administration for the outgoing year 2019.
“Gentlemen, if there is any area in which this administration has been consistent in terms of development, it is in the area of building and revamping critical infrastructure.
“As we speak, infrastructural projects, roads, rail, power, etc are ongoing in all the six geo-political zones,” he said.
The minister said that in the outgoing year, Nigeria and Siemens signed an agreement to generate 11,000 MW by 2023.
He said the power agreement was to support the activities of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and the 11 Distribution Companies within the country, including software maintenance and support for four years.
According to Mohammed, laying of rail tracks on the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge rail line has almost been completed and test run has commenced.
“Contractors were mobilised to various construction sites across the country to deliver on the road projects.
“There are heightened activities on the Lagos-Badagry, Port Harcourt-Enugu and Port Harcourt-Aba, Onitsha-Enugu, Ilorin-Kabba, Loko-Oweto Bridge, Okene-Auchi Road.
“The same heightened activities are ongoing on Kano-Katsina Expressway, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Expressway rehabilitation and Obajana-Benin Road, among others,” he said.
The minister added that the President in a landmark move, signed into law the amended Deep Offshore Bill.
“This Act means that Nigeria will now receive its fair, rightful and equitable share of income from our own natural resources for the first time since 2003.
“All these years, Nigeria has failed to secure its equitable share of the proceeds of oil production, because all attempts to amend the law on the distribution of income have failed.
“But this administration has broken the jinx.
“For the first time under our amended law, 200 million Nigerians will start to receive a fair return on the surfeit of resources of our lands.
“Increased income will allow for new hospitals, schools, infrastructure and jobs,” he said.
Mohammed noted that the briefing was to set the record straight and counter efforts by political opposition to obfuscate the steady progress being made by the administration in all sectors.
He stressed that the achievements and progress recorded by the administration were by no means exhaustive.
Source: NAN
