While speaking at the Herbert Macaulay Memorial Lecture at
University of Nigeria, Nsukka, yesterday, the Minister of Power, Works
and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, announced that President Muhammadu
Buhari has approved the disbursement of funds recovered from looters
under the 2018 federal budget.
According to Vanguard, Fashola said the President had approved N120
billion from the funds for the rehabilitation of 36 roads across the
country, adding that Nigeria lost its best opportunity for development
during the oil boom from 2007 to 2015 to stomach infrastructure.
Fashola said at the lecture organised by Faculty of Engineering of University of Nigeria, Nsukka, that “while
other oil producing countries were busy building their nations at a
time oil prices were high, the past administration in Nigeria started a
different form of development, known as infrastructure of the stomach.
“We should never forget this. We decided to share the money
rather than invest the money just to win elections. The money that
should have been used to fund the Abakaliki rice was used to import
rice.
“This is the opportunity that President Buhari has come to
recover through the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan. So, when the
President is talking of change, he is talking of a time when we will
invest in real infrastructural development and not stomach
infrastructure.
“Unlike before, President Buhari has made a choice and that choice has led to massive development across the country.”
He also said the ministry had awarded contracts for the
rehabilitation of roads in 14 federal universities, including the UNN,
and carried out energy audit in the 37 federal universities.