Sophia Michaels
The Nigerian Senate has identified over 10,000 government projects abandoned at various stages across the country.
This was made known by the Deputy Minority Leader, Senator Kamorudeen Lere Oyewumi who stated that the Upper Legislative Chamber has given approval for a thorough probe of the abandoned projects with a view to resuscitating them where necessary for the betterment of the nation.
The Senator, who is representing Osun West, while speaking with newsmen, explained that the probe was aimed at identifying viabilities of the projects, reasons for their abandonment and how much was committed to them.
He said that experts on various fields have been assembled to determine the usefulness and how much it would cost the present administration to revive the projects so as to prevent the purposes of conceiving them from being defeated.
The former Commissioner, National Population Commission, NPC, further hinted that the contractors, who abandoned the projects, would be identified and encouraged to go back to sites.
He added that where anyone is found to have gone against the law, such a person would be handed over to anti-corruption agencies for necessary action.
The Senator, who lamented that cases of project abandonment have become worrisome and unbearable, stated that drastic steps would be taken by the present administration to minimize the ugly national embarrassment.
“Having completed the ‘committee assignment’ process and senators assigned to committees, they have gotten off to a good start by focusing on cases of abandoned projects.
“Members of the 10th Senate have been assigned to various committees. The senate is in recess and we would be returning on September 25th to start legislative activities with a fresh vigour. I want to tell you something. We have nicknamed the 10th senate as a corrective senate.
“Before we came up with this, it was as a result of so many observations and brainstorming. Most of the people that are in the 10th Senate have gotten elected for the 3rd term, 4th term. They were part of past administrations. So, we have seen things that are wrong and if we see that something is wrong, we have to change the way we do it.
“If not, we will keep on getting the same bad result. If we ourselves have christened the 10th senate as a corrective senate, it has to be made known that what to expect from us will be different from what you have been seeing before.
“Let me just give you one hint, we discovered that across the country, there are more than 10,000 abandoned projects.
“These are projects that have gone through all the required processes and it is assumed in the reckoning of the government that these have been delivered to the people of the communities in question.
“But, alas, when you get there, nothing has been done”, the Senator said and appealed for maximum cooperation of Nigerians to enable the Senate achieve the set goals.
