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.