Nigeria must build in order to foster development, prosperity – Fashola

Babatunde Fashola, minister for power works and housing, has said that there is a need to build infrastructure in the country in order to foster prosperity and development in the country.

He said that most developed countries had to build themselves to become developed, stressing the need for Nigeria to follow suit.

He further stated that there was nothing wrong with Nigeria as a country but the wrong choices being made in terms of infrastructure investment were creating problems for the country.

Speaking to participants at the maiden edition of the training workshop on dispute management in Africa Infrastructure Projects organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) weekend, Fashola stated that infrastructure was beyond buildings and constructions, being one of the parameters that defined the status of a nation, ranging from the developed, developing and under- developed nations.

He mentioned that building infrastructure also involved using tools to speed up work, adding that scanners had been ordered for the Apapa ports and would be installed in order to speed up the process of examining containers.

Speaking on opportunities in the infrastructure sector for Nigeria business owners, he made reference to the Mambilla hydropower plant going on in Taraba, which would require 18 million bags of cement, 42 thousand tons of steel and some other materials, and the 2nd Niger Bridge, which would require two million cubic meters of sand, 68 thousand tons of cement and 21 thousand tones of reinforcement, as opportunities. According to him, this was the opportunity for many business owners, especially MSMEs to become prosperous. He further stated that building these infrastructures would foster prosperity, employment opportunities and development in the country

Also in an interview with journalists, Fashola mentioned that there were sacrifices that needed to be made in order to achieve infrastructure goals.

“If we apply international processes, there must be some room to reflect international diversity and some of the ways that we do things without necessarily trying to be optimal. For example, our land tenure processes are not like that of Europe, so if we use contracting rules based on land tenure processes of another jurisdiction, it might be sensible to want to adapt if you really want to use the infrastructure to create growth employment and prosperity.”

He advised that various methods of dispute resolution, dispute anticipation and dispute avoidance should be examined in order to ensure that infrastructure development really achieved its objectives of providing work rather than causing disputes.

Speaking at the workshop, Babatunde Paul Ruwase, president of the LCCI, stated that infrastructure was critical to economic development, especially with respect to achieving the potential, promoting the ease of doing business and enhancing opportunities for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) in Nigeria.

Ruwase, who was represented by Leye Kupoluyi, chairman of Construction and Engineering Group of LCCI, added that infrastructure developments in African countries were largely driven by government expenditure on capital projects. He further stated that litigation process came with crude cost to the economy, advising that everything possible should be done to avoid litigation.

Babatunde Fagbohunlu, the chairman of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce International Arbitration Centre (LACIAC), said that Africa was in dire need of infrastructure such as ports, rail, roads, refineries and power, stressing that the effect of the shortage of these infrastructure was intense and the efforts of African governments to solve the infrastructure problem was being frustrated by disputes of different kinds, which also happened in the private sector.

GBEMI FAMINU