Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, says that the current
administration didn’t anticipate that things were this bad. Amaechi also
la,ment on how Nigerians have become impatient about the present
administration's change agenda as they desire to see change in their pockets
and not just in structures. The Minister was speaking at a forum organised by
the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Abuja yesterday May 24th, Amaechi said the
present government met a bad structure in governance and is trying to correct
it. He says they will need at least $55.9 billion to develop infrastructure in the
transportation sector.
“We didn’t
anticipate that things were this bad. We thought you go to government and there
would be money for you to run government and others. Now you have the situation
where there is no money to run government. I hate to use the word difficult; I
hate to use the word impossible but we met things close to difficult and
impossibility. That is why Nigerians are impatient; they want to see results
and for them, change is not about change in structure, it is about change in
their pocket. Because their pocket is getting dried and they wanted us to put
some more resources in their pocket. What I usually say to people is that we
beg you to give us time; we will achieve our objective if you give us time and
we will both thank God for that opportunity. We need over 50.9 billion dollars
in the next five years to develop infrastructure and 50 billion dollars is not
a joke. One of the infrastructure we are trying to develop is the railway
infrastructure; the president has kindly agreed that he will fund it because
the contract was awarded by Obasanjo, the former president; he awarded the
contract for Lagos to Kano. President Jonathan awarded the contract for Lagos
to Calabar, what the president has agreed to do is to fund it; he said can we
fund the ones we have already awarded; no more awards until we have developed
the ones we have awarded. So we are focusing on the Lagos to Kano railway and
the Lagos to Calabar rail line. If you look at the communities surrounding this
rail line; Lagos to Kano will start from Lagos to Ibadan; it will impact on so
many sectors of the economy including housing; people who ordinarily will not
be able to pay for house rent in Lagos can live in Ibadan, can live in Ogun and
come to work in Lagos.” he said
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