The Chairman of Bi-Courtney Construction Company, Dr. Wale Babalakin, on Tuesday, alleged that the interference of the Goodluck Jonathan administration in the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway project was responsible for the delay in its completion.
Speaking in Gbongan, Osun State, on Tuesday, at the opening of the 2018 policy meeting on admissions by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, Babalakin explained that the termination of the contract by the Jonathan administration was responsible for the stoppage of work and the slow pace of work now that the Federal Government had taken over the construction of the road.
He said the best way to develop infrastructure in the country was for the government to support those who had the vision to create various projects, saying this would help in addressing the infrastructural deficit in the country.
By doing this, he said, the government would have also addressed the problem of abandoned projects which he described as a big issue now.
Babalakin said, “We must also state very clearly that the best way to develop infrastructure in Nigeria is to support and enhance those who have the vision and imagination to create projects and see them to completion. This is a far cheaper and reliable way to achieve results rather than spending scarce government resources on projects that never appear to come to an end.
“If the ill-advised move that led the President Jonathan government to interfere with the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway project had not happened, the road would have been completed in or before 2014. It would have been an eight-lane highway with seven overhead bridges and other facilities at a cost not exceeding N112bn.
“Today, we are faced with an unending project with indeterminable costs and maximum inconvenience to road users. We must collectively put an end to this way of doing business.” (Punch )
