The Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives
Congress (APC) at the weekend raised the alarm over the plan by the state Governor,
Oluseyi Makinde, to spend N8 billion on a proposed reconstruction of the
Lagos/Iwo Road Interchange axis in Ibadan, the state capital, describing it as
"a misplaced priority as well as an attempt to squander government
resources."
Makinde had last Friday announced the state
government plan to immediately embark on the project which would be completed
in about a year as a measure to decongest the area and also give the physical
outlook of Ibadan a facelift.
The governor stated this at Adogba Central Mosque
where he had joined the congregation for the weekly Jumat service to clear the
air on what his government would do to compensate for the facilities expected
to be consumed by the reconstruction project.
But the APC in a statement issued and made
available to journalists in Ibadan by its state Assistant Publicity Secretary,
Prince Ayobami Adejumo, said the present administration was now popular for
building castle in the air in demonstration of its gross incompetence and
avowed desire for mismanaging public funds.
According to him, "The good people of the state
were taken aback by the action of Makinde last Friday when he chose a Mosque as
the place to announce the plan to do a multi-billion project. Without any
record of presentation at the State Executive Council meeting or consideration
and approval by the appropriate organs of the government as required by law,
the governor reeled out a contract sum for another white elephant project.
"The
question on the lips of many people now bothers on how the cost of N8 billion
was arrived at even when no picture of the proposed project has been shown to
the world. What is the scope of the reconstruction project and where are the
engineering designs culminated in the contract sum? Was there any due diligence
before the cost was arrived at, and when did the consultants carry out their
survey of the proposed site? Where is the Bill of Quantity (BoQ) and when did
the relevant office advertise for tender to be made?
"Another
pertinent question is that: why the desperation on the part of the governor to
commit a bogus amount of money to any construction work in an area that would
be covered by two different projects already awarded by the federal government?
There are strong indications that the ongoing Lagos-Ibadan expressway
rehabilitation project would take of the expansion of the Lagos/Iwo Road
Interchange while again the recently awarded rehabilitation of Ibadan-Ife expressway
project would cover the remaining portion of the axis.
"As it has become the usual practice of
Makinde administration to put the cart before the horse, the people of the
state cannot just watch while a government without any blueprint or action plan
would continue to experiment after five months in office. So far, the only
achievement of the current administration is the rebranded exercise books
distributed recently with pomp and ceremony.
"It would have been better to follow up on the
exercise books distribution with provision of pieces of furniture and release
of running grants for the use in public primary and secondary schools across
the state. Rather, the state government embarked on loan bazaar as it awarded
some supply contracts without anything to show for the billions of naira being
spent on a daily basis.
"As if this was not enough, Makinde again took
to the mass media recently to announce his plan to construct a new Gbagi market
on the popular Exhibition Ground in Sanngo, Ibadan, at a time experts blamed
the vehicular traffic challenges bedeviling the state capital on the existing
market places in the heart of the city. If not sheer display of incompetence
and the unbridled quest to mismanage public funds, there is no reason for this
kind of desperation for contract awards by the present administration."
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