The Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has said his administration has “done” several federal roads across the state without receiving payment from the federal government for the projects.
Mr Adeleke said this on Tuesday during an Arise TV town hall programme in Osogbo ahead of the 15 August governorship election, while responding to a question about the poor condition of the road leading into Ile-Ife.
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The governor said the road referenced during the programme was a federal responsibility and should therefore not be used to assess his administration’s performance in Osun.
“Do you know I’ve done many federal roads and I’ve not been paid? I have done about seven federal roads, up till now I’ve not been paid,” Mr Adeleke said.
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Mr Adeleke’s extent and even the nature of the state’s intervention on the roads are not clear. It could not be immediately ascertained if he meant rehabilitating or constructing the roads. He also did not specify the lengths of the federal roads his administration worked on.
But he later expanded the figure, saying his administration had completed “about nine” federal roads without receiving payment, and that he had personally raised the issue with the Minister of Works.
“I’ve done nine federal roads, up till now they’ve not been paid for [by the federal government]. I’ve talked to the minister, I’ve gone to visit him. I told him I’ve done these federal roads and he said ‘no problem, I will look into it,’” the governor said.
Under Nigeria’s federal road intervention framework, state governments that undertake the rehabilitation or construction of federal roads are eligible to seek reimbursement from the federal government, subject to the applicable approval and verification processes.
Mr Adeleke’s comments came during the town hall programme after Opeyemi Adamolekun, the Executive Director of Enough is Enough, a civil society organisation that advocates better governance in Nigeria, raised concerns about the road leading into Ile-Ife, describing its condition as poor.
The governor rejected the attempt to draw in the road in the assessment of his administration’s performance, stressing that the route was under the federal government’s responsibility.
“No, no, no. That’s not fair. That’s [a] federal road. Talk about Osun,” he said.
Under Nigeria’s federal road intervention framework, state governments that undertake the rehabilitation or construction of federal roads are eligible to seek reimbursement from the Federal Government, subject to the applicable approval and verification processes.
Mr Adeleke said beyond federal roads, his administration had undertaken extensive road construction across Osun, particularly to improve connectivity between farming communities and urban centres.
He stated that his government had constructed about 350 kilometres of roads across the state. According to him, several of the projects involved roads that had remained abandoned for decades before his administration intervened.
Mr Adeleke said most of the road projects were particularly important because of the state’s dependence on agriculture and the need to connect farmers to markets.
“So all the roads that I’ve done, because in Osun State we are farmers. If we don’t have good roads, how are we going to have connectivity?” he said.
Mr Adeleke is seeking re-election on the platform of the Accord Party, contending with 13 other political parties’ candidates, including Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Adeleke rejects claims of substandard roads
The governor also rejected allegations that roads constructed under his administration were of poor quality.
In late July, PREMIUM TIMES reported the criticism by rival parties over the defect of the new Osun’s Lameco Flyover in Osogbo after part of the infrastructure cracked, which raised political rows in the state ahead of the August election.
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The governor during the town hall engagement dismissed the accusations, said qualified Nigerian engineers were involved in the projects and that he personally supervised their work.
“It is a sin to say that the roads I constructed are substandard. I used professional engineers. I used Nigerian engineers. I supervised their work,” Mr Adeleke said.
His comments come as road infrastructure remains one of the major issues featuring in the campaigns ahead of Saturday’s governorship election, with the condition of federal and state roads drawing competing claims from the major political parties.
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