In what appears a major policy reversal, which the Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen, has called a novel approach to funding projects worldwide, the federal government yesterday announced a new measure to fast-track the completion of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

The government said it would now issue N100 billion bond.

Disclosing this when former Senate Deputy President, Ibrahim, Mantu led a committee tagged Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Reloaded, to honour the minister for his exceptional performance, Onolememen explained that the N100 billion was in addition to the N50 billion to be sourced from budgetary provisions in the 2014 and 2015 fiscal years and N17 billion to be provided by a “government institution.”

He said: “Government can decide how it funds its road projects and government has made commitment of up to the sum of N50 billion.”

“And we also have government institutions that are putting money down for up to N17 billion

“We have decided as a government and as a ministry that in order to fast-track completion of that road, we will be issuing road bonds and infrastructure bond. And we will raise the balance of about N100 billion. That’s a novel way of funding construction projects across the world. That is what can guarantee the quick delivery of that road.”

He recalled that after the mobilisation of contractors to the site last year, the government had budgeted N25 billion this year and planned another N25 billion in next year’s budget.

“Let me use this opportunity to dispel the calculated attempt by never-do-well, people with personal interests as against public interest, who sponsor spurious reports,” he said.

He noted that after three years of concessioning the Lagos-Ibadan expressway to a “Nigerian concessionaire” in 2009, for three years he did not as much as construct one kilometre of road.

“We terminated that concession because ab initio, that concession had failed completely. After three years, the concessionaire had not as much as tarred even a kilometre of road. There was no reason for any self-respecting government to tolerate that situation, especially when the contractor decided to abandon the original contract and started brandishing a new contract agreement for us to engage him. It was impossible and for us to do the needful, we had to cancel that concession and take the road back because it is our property,”Onolememen said.

The minister continued: “We have to improve on that road, reconstruct in the interest of Nigerians. In fact, since that road was re-awarded to Julius Berger and RCC, construction work has been going on unabated,” adding that people who travelled on the road in November could attest to the fact that all the failed portions and the pot-holes had disappeared and he restated that major construction work had commenced.

On January 21, Onolememen had announced that a total of N300 billion had been ploughed by private investors into three critical infrastructural projects – the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, the Second Niger Bridge and the approach road to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, surpassing anything the federal government could have mustered in so short a time.

Onolememen, who made this known in Abuja, while playing host to the Chairman and Board of Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), explained that this underscored the importance of public-private partnership (PPP).

According to him, contrary to this humongous investment by the private sector, there were 180 projects struggling for the N100 billion budgetary allocation to the ministry by the federal government.