Wike blames NASS for project abandonment in Nigeria

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has accused the National Assembly of often allocating paltry sums for execution of capital projects.

The governor who was speaking on Tuesday during the commissioning of the Faculty of Clinical Sciences at Rivers State University said the action of the lawmakers always leads to a constant variation of the cost of capital projects.

He said the implication has always been projects abandonment by various administrations.

The governor said it is the reason he ensures that he pays almost one hundred per cent of the cost of his projects to avoid cost variation.

Wike said: “The problem we are having is through the National Assembly which is most unfortunate. Take, for example, the cancer centre we commissioned yesterday, that centre cost us N25.9bn and we are not owing a dime. We paid Julius Berger 80% upfront and they completed it within record time.

“If it was National Assembly, a project that will cost N25.9bn, they will put for this year’s budget N500m, and then you can now imagine what will happen for a project of almost N26bn, you are now putting in budget N500m.

“In essence, in 20 years there will be variations upon variation on that project and at the end of the day, the project will be abandoned.

“With the inflation rate we have in this country today, if I now say, let’s complete this project it will take more than the original cost when it was awarded. That tells you we must change our pattern so we will not be having abandoned projects”.