Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has lauded the China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) contributions in infrastructural development through it resources and Corporate Social Responsibility to reduce infrastructure deficit in the country.

In a statement by Taiye Elebiyo-Edeni, Media Assistant to the minister, Rotimi said that CCECC assistance through funding of infrastructure in the country had led to the giant developmental stride in Nigeria, adding that the company is part of the rail success story.

“I must commend the CCECC they’re doing good work and I’m grateful that we’re able to get a European firm to supervise them. Both of them are doing wonderful job and occasionally we have disagreement, it is to be expected with such large project.

“There are few occasions where we have the issue of quality where the consulting engineer says ‘I don’t agree’ and the company does not want to change. I will go at them and say ‘you must, because this is the man we will hold responsible so you must obey him’ and they obey and have been cooperating to provide Nigerians with good quality infrastructure.

“Occasionally it may cost us more like the issue of signaling but we’re on track and we insist on quality. I tell people that when there’s a railway accident, it’s not just three or four people that die. If you’re not careful, it will be in hundreds. So, you must construct to the point where you avoid derailment according to global standard.

Amaechi said that the Europeans and Americans have contributed their quota to the infrastructure development of the country, adding that it was also a commendable effort on their parts.

He, however, said that the Chinese model was more appropriate to Nigeria because it directly funds infrastructural projects.
“That is why every Chinese loan is tied to a project. The Chinese would say ‘Ok, I have $10billion for you but you have to show me the project and give the contract to a Chinese firm.

“As much as I criticize CCECC from time to time whenever I work with them, we must also show some level of gratitude, to them, for delivering constant value and going the extra mile to impact the lives of Nigerians through their Corporate Social Responsibility programmes.

“For instance, the Kajola project is not part of their contract; they’re looking at the future. They’re looking at sustainability of the railway modernization programme by building the plant that would manufacture the rolling stock and coaches to feed the programme so the country don’t have to rely on imports.

“If they want to manufacture wagons from here it means they must be getting orders from Nigeria. No problem at all they can even own it. For me, what is critical is the employment it creates that’s why I ask for them to localize the technology.

“The second part is to thank them for the Transport University in Daura, which they have agreed to build.

“Now what does the university do? It localizes the technology, it teaches Nigerian students how they can construct their own rails and how they can build their own locomotives and coaches.

“We’re grateful because it’s not part of their contract. They can say ‘my contract is XYZ and my profit is XYZ where do you want me to get that money’ but what they have done is to be able to share part of their profits with Nigeria which set the CCECC apart.

“The Transport University is going to be built entirely for free by the CCECC.”

By Perpetua Onuegbu
The Federal Government on Thursday handed over a two kilometre road it constructed to the Federal Polytechnic (FedPoly), Nasarawa, Nasarawa State.

The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola on behalf of the Federal Government did the handing over to the management of the school.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the road construction is part of the 43 road intervention embarked upon by the Federal Government within tertiary institutions across the country.

Fashola, represented by the Federal Controller of Works, Nasarawa State, Mr Isaac Daikwo, said the gap of the nation’s infrastructural needs was steadily been bridged by a gradual process of repairs, renewal and construction on major highways and schools.

“While it is true that a lot of work needs to be done in many sectors of our national life, including education, the Buhari government has stepped up to lead the process of getting it done.

“Currently, there are 43 road interventions, and students are expressing renewed enthusiasm with regards to attending classes, because some defective roads have been restored to good condition.

“To date, 29 of the road intervention projects have been completed with 17 already handed over in 2020.

“Today we hand over this one to Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa in Nasarawa State as a critical intervention to support education,” Fashola said.

Responding, the Rector of the institution Mr Abdullahi Ahmed commended the Federal Government for the intervention noting that construction of roads and drainages had remained a major constraint to the school over the years.

“Our situation here in Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa was so compounded because we are located in a flood-prone area, where most of our lecture rooms, workshops and laboratories are difficult to access during the rainy season.

“This road project will not only make our lecture halls, workshops and laboratories accessible but will also safeguard the massive investment of government which would have been affected by gully erosion due to lack of roads and drainages,” Ahmed said.

He noted that the institution had no statutory avenue of funding to fund road projects except for such interventions from the government.

He said that Tetfund was doing much in the provision of infrastructure but there were limitations to what it could do.

He assured the minister that the school community would ensure effective maintenance of the road while appealling for more interventions.

In the same vein, the polytechnic’s Registrar, Alhaji Munir Ahmad in his remarks appreciated the Federal Government for the intervention and appealed for more to be done for the institution.

According to him, the road intervention is the first of its kind since the establishment of the polytechnic in 1983.

He said that the school would be happy if such intervention was carried out on another of the major entrances of the institution.

He added said the school had a land mass of over 2,000 hectares and having more network of roads would do much good to the academic community.

Speaking on behalf of the students, Mr Adams Jamilu, the Students’ Union President, was full of praises for the government.

“Before the road was constructed, the licensed motor bikes and vehicles that took students to school often break down due to gullies and potholes.

“This caused many students to be late for lectures and some even had accidents that prevented them from attending classes,” Jamilu said.

He said with the construction of the road, students now found it easier to go to classes and that when the rainy season begins,the sufferings due to bad road would be a thing of the past.

By Perpetua Onuegbu
Stakeholders from the public and private sectors have come together in Abuja to validate Nigeria’s 10 years Sustainable Development Goal’s (SDG’s) plan to achieve the global goals of action in the country.

The Head of Communications, Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goal’s (OSSAP-SDGs), Mrs Janet McDickson, made this known to newsmen on Thursday in Abuja.

McDickson said this came about as the global community accelerates efforts to achieve the global goals in the decade of action for the SDGs.

She said stakeholders have validated a strategic implementation plan for the attainment of the development agenda in Nigeria.

According to her, the document: ‘Nigeria Sustainable Development Goals Implementation Plan (2020-2030) was unanimously endorsed by over 300 participants drawn from the civil society, public and private sectors.

The document was endorsed at the physical/virtual validation workshop hosted by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs in Abuja on Tuesday.

The Head communications said document laid out elaborate plans for Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting, Financing, Advocacy, and Sensitisation for the SDGs in the next 10 years.

In the statement, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, said it was important to develop a strategic implementation Plan for the SDGs as Nigeria joined in the decade of action.

“Particularly as the country is developing a successor plan to the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).

“As Nigeria developed a successor development plan to the ERGP in 2020, the mainstreaming of the SDGs into the medium and long-term development plans is imperative.

“The SDGs are being mainstreamed and integrated into the various thematic areas of the Plan. Consequently, SDGs’ implementation and its monitoring shall hinge on the Plan processes.

“In this ‘Decade of Action’ for the Global Goals, Nigeria will adopt ‘holistic cum heuristic’ approaches and will continue to utilise national development planning as the primary instrument to drive SDGs implementation,” she stated.

The presidential aide added that the Nigerian government had demonstrated strong commitment in the overall implementation of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.

She added that institutional frameworks have been established at the national and sub-national levels to support effective implementation of the global goals.

Adefulire reiterated that the SDGs could not be achieved with stand-alone policies and programmes/projects and therefore, the goals must be deliberately integrated into national and subnational policies and development plans.

“While modest progress has been achieved during the first phase (2016-2020), dwindling financial resources; lack of capacity at the subnational level; persistent insecurity across the country; and COVID-19 pandemic have all combined to slowdown progress towards the achievement of the SDGs in Nigeria.”

The presidential aide further noted that during the ‘Decade of Action’, there was urgent need to build back better from COVID-19 setbacks and fast-track the achievement of the SDGs and the implementation plan would help to achieve this.

“This National SDGs Implementation Plan offers a coherent roadmap for Mainstreaming, Acceleration and Policy Support (MAPS) for the SDGs.

“Mainstreaming the SDGs into the national and subnational development plans is a necessary pre-requisite for effective implementation.

“Effective Integration of the SDGs into sectoral policies and plans requires smart and innovative approaches of identifying ‘influencers’ and ‘accelerators’ among the SDGs.

“The interconnectedness and inter-linkages of the SDGs provide opportunities for synergies and trade-offs to achieve better outcomes,” she added.

Adefulire emphasised the need to continually seek creative and innovative financing mechanisms through which public and private resources could be mobilised to support accelerated implementation of SDGs in Nigeria.

“Indeed, to achieve the transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda – ‘Leave no one behind’, we need the expertise and financial resources of all – public and private sector; scientific community; donor community and the wider civil society,” Adefulire stated.

By Lucy Ogalue
The Federal Government has signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mota-Engil Group on the construction of 1.959billion dollars Kano-Maradi Standard Gauge Railway lines.

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, in a statement by Eric Ojiekwe, Director Press and Public Relations of the Ministry, said the project was aimed at linking the whole country by rail.

Amaechi signed the MoU on behalf of the Federal Government while the Managing Director, Mota- Engil, Antonio Gvoea signed on behalf of the contracting firm.

According to the Minister, the new railway corridor which is to be located in northern Nigeria will run through Kano, Jigawa and Katsina and through Niger Republic territory as far as Maradi.

He said other cities such as Danbatta, Kazaure, Daura, Mashi, Katsina and Jibiya would also be affected by the rail line in Nigeria.

The minister said the 283.750 kilometre rail line would help develope freight and passenger transport as it would be integrated with road transport.

He added that it would contribute greatly to the local economy as well as the nation’s social sector.

According to Amaechi, the duration for the project is 36 months and the contract type is Engineering, Procurement and Construction.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by the Ministry’s Permanent, Dr Magdalene Ajani, the Director, Legal Services, Pius Oteh, the Managing Director, Mota-Engil Group, Antonio Gvoea and Head of Legal, Mota- Engil Group, Cameron Beverley.

It was also witnessed by Magajin Garin Kano, Muhammad Wada, Director, Mota-Engil Group, Kola Abdulkarim, Vice President, Mota-Engil Group, Mohammed Abdul-Razaq, among others.

He added that the Nigerian Ambassador to Germany, Yusuf Tuggar and the Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority, Hadiza Bala-Usman among other diginitaries also witnessed the signing.

By Lucy Ogalue
Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi has said that the inauguration of the Lagos-Ibadan rail line has been put on hold due to the upsurge of COVID-19 in the country.

Amaechi, who disclosed this in Abuja, said that over 60 staff on project site have been infected by Covid19 while trying to complete the project.

“First let us admit that over 60 of our staff, not ministry of transport staff, but the staff working on the rail project have been infected by COVID-19. Luckily nobody has died and I pray nobody will die, but you see the kind of sacrifice everybody is making to get the rail to function.

“They are people sacrificing their lives to get to that point, we are of the view when we made that decision that Nigeria will not say 2020 was a bad year, so remove one year and add another year to Buhari administration.

“As far as we are concern, we need to learn how to leave with COVID-19, I really want to congratulate those that achieve that feat, we were to inaugurate first week in January. We had to stop those doing minor completion because of the rise in COVID-19 transmission.

“The timeline for inauguration will depend on COVID-19. If COVID-19 stop today or reduces we will commission the project.”

Amaechi further stated that the train services on all route might stop if passengers do not adhere to COVID-19 protocol.

“We will allow the train to run but if we see that we are conveying passengers who have Covid from Lagos to Ibadan, we will stop it. Just like we are threatening to stop Kaduna-Abuja if people don’t comply with the COVID-19 Protocol.”

He said that the Abuja-Kaduna route convey about 4,000 passengers daily, stating that if anyone transmit COVID-19 onboard it would be a serious challenge.