ROAD  INFRASTRUCTURE REVOLUTION UNDER THE RENEWED HOPE ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT ASIWAJU BOLA AHMED TINUBU GCFR, WIN -WIN SITUATION FOR ALL STATES - As Benue State Governor  visits the Hon. Minister of Works Photo  speaks The Renewed Hope administration of the President of Nigeria, His Excellency Sen. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR  has proven to be a grandmaster  of inclusive and impactful governance that embraces  the desires of the federating States. The federal government  under Mr. President  carries along all the  States   in her road infrastructure  development plans. Just recently, the President of Nigeria  released  funds  for the commencement  of nationwide  palliative interventions  on our road infrastructure in addition  to the  budgetary  and extra budgetary  funds provided for the execution of the 2024 road  projects. The 36 State Governors have been working  progressively  with the APC led federal  government, notwithstanding party affiliations or ideological inclinations, to ensure that  roads of socio-economic  priority  in their  States are captured in the infrastructure roadmap of the Federal Ministry of Works.   Today, 16th January 2024, the Governor of  Benue State, His Excellency, Fr. Hyacinth Alia visited  the Honourable Minister of Works, His Excellency  Sen. Engr. Nweze David Umahi CON  in his office. The meeting was obviously  not unconnected  with the desire of the Governor  of Benue State to change  the infrastructural  landscape  of Benue State through  tapping  into Mr. President’s Renewed  Hope  infrastructure  initiatives across  the  nation. His Excellency Hyacinth  Alia is the second  Catholic Priest to be elected as Governor in the history of Nigeria. He emerged victorious in the Benue State Gubernatorial election held on March 18 , 2023, and on Monday, the 8th day of January 2024, the Supreme Court upheld his election and dismissed the appeal of Mr. Titus Uba of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), who was his rival on the 18th March, 2023 poll. He is proudly a member  of All Progressives Congress,APC. ...

Minister Of Works and His Finance Counterpart Jointly Inspect Abuja- Kaduna- Zaria- Kano Highway, Brainstorm with Julius Berger Nigeria Plc on Strategies and Milestones for Delivery of The Project Within a Record Time In keeping with the Presidential innovations on inter-ministerial coordination, cooperation, and collaboration in the tackling of sectoral problems under the Renewed Hope administration of His Excellency, Sen. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, the Hon. Minister of Works, His Excellency Sen.Engr. Nweze David Umahi CON and his counterpart, the Hon.  Minister of Finance & Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Chief Adebayo Olawale Edun, were on inspection visit to Abuja – Kaduna -Zaria-Kano Highway on 12th January 2024.  The dual carriageway which has been   a source of concern to road users because of the many dilapidated spots and security challenges, was awarded to Julius Berger Plc but could not be completed because of security and funding challenges. But the administration of Mr. President views the road as very critical for the socio-economic advancement of the nation and is therefore committed to completing the project on a record time. While brainstorming on strategies and milestones for fixing the road, the Hon. Minister of Works assured the contractors that funding would not be a problem going forward. "We have got a commitment from the Honourable Minister of Finance to make payment, and I am very sure if we pay Julius Berger Plc according to the commitment on funding, it will complete the job “ The Minister also said “we have issues of reviewing the contract sum, and we will sort that out. We sent our technical team to reexamine the sub grade, which will be the basis of our redesign, let me emphasis that this is the first project we are touring in this place, and Mr President in his Renewed Hope Agenda has expressed his deep concern on the completion of the project and he has directed that everything must be done to get the entire project completed” On his part, the Hon. Minister of Finance assured of the unwavering commitment of the Federal Government in the timely funding of the project in line with the agreed milestones.  “Under the mandate of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, we are both here on inspection to hear the commitment of the contractor handling the project and to support them, to as soon as possible complete this all-important reconstruction of the Abuja- Kaduna - Zaria - Kano Road.” The finance minister described the works sector as one of the most strategic sectors that will add value to the economic development agenda of Mr. President and would always be given priority attention. "We want to urge the contractor to do more.Infrastructure is a critical priority of the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. That is how we can get food prices down. Through transportation and easy transportation of agricultural products, we want to move freely across the country. To bring down the prices and inflation,we will be doing more on the funding. "  On the inspection team includes directors from both Ministry of Works and Finance, Managing Director Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, Engr Dr Lars Richter who conducted the two ministers round the projects and several other stakeholders. ...

MINISTER OF WORKS DIRECTS CONTRACTORS TO GO BACK TO SITE, SETS TIME FRAME FOR PROJECTS DELIVERY The Honourable Minister of works His Excellency Sen. Engr. Nweze David Umahi CON has charged the contractors under the Federal Ministry of Works to brace themselves for the standard of work and delivery time frame required of every contractor under the Renewed Hope administration the President of Nigeria, His Excellency Sen. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR. The Hon Minister gave this charge in a meeting with the Directors of the Ministry and the contractors held at the Ministry's headquarters Mabushi-Abuja, this 11th day of January, 2024. The Honourable Minister emphasized that going forward, contractors must take into account the plight of Nigerians and the Renewed Hope Initiatives on road infrastructure development in executing their projects. He maintained that the Ministry of Works means business and would not take excuses from contractors. He assured them that the Ministry would consider the review of contracts previously consumated in line with set parameters and prevailing economic situations, and that all generated certificates would be verified and paid accordingly, while urging them to ensure that all issues of contract variations were brought to the notice of the relevant departments of the Ministry. He thanked Mr. President for the prompt release of funds for palliatives works. ”The Bureau of Public Procurement has approved over 80% of requests for palliative projects. Those who indicated interest in the palliative project should please come to the Ministry to collect award letters and complete documentation. Mr. President has graciously released 50% of funds on palliative work, and so he wants to see action in all the 36 States and Abuja.” The Honourable Minister used the opportunity to announce the re-organization of the supervision structure for the Special Projects across the nation and introduced a special mechanism for tracking of certificates generated by contractors and expressed hope that with the new initiative under the Renewed Hope agenda of Mr. President, each State of the Federation would record not less than 150km roads in the Federal roads network in the year 2024, in addition to the special road projects funded through different extra budgetary platforms. 4. Earlier in his remarks, the representative of the Permanent Secretary and Director Highway, Bridges and Design, Engr. Awosanya Onatuga, stated that the meeting of the Directors and contractors with the Honourable Minister was agenda setting for the year 2024, and the essence was to take the task of performance that would help them move the Works sub-sector forward in accordance with the innovative plans of Federal Government under Mr. President. He thanked the Honourable Minister for the relief given to road users toward the Xmas and New Year seasons.  "We can say we did very well towards the end of last year. There were no adverse reports on any blockage, people sleeping on the road. Yes, we have not done so much; we are not where we are supposed to be, but with the spirit of the Hon Minister, the can-do spirit, and it's not slowing down, we are on the right track"   ...