Image Source:premuimtimesng.com
The Minister of Transport, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi had an arguement with the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Loans, Treaties and Protocols, Mr. Ossai Nicholas Ossai, on the
award of contracts for the construction of railways to the tune of $33 billion. The argument made the committee to suspend proceedings for about 30 minutes after which the Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila restored peace.
Image Source:The Eagle Online
Ossai, expressed vexation with the Ministry of Transport for obtaining over $33 billion loan from China for the construction of rail project without any clear financing arrangements. He claimed that most of the commercial contracts agreements lacked local content clauses, said it was unfortunate that the deals were sealed by non-designated and un-authorised officials.
Ossai’s claim annoyed Amaechi who insisted that there was no truth in the allegation that his ministry obtained $33 billion for the construction of railway projects.
The minister, who had a hot exchange of words with Ossai, disclosed that his ministry had so far obtained $1.6 billion loan for the construction of the Lagos -Ibadan railway project.
Amaechi also faulted the notion held in certain quarters that the local content laws were breached by his ministry.
“Mr. Chairman, I have the right to speak, you invited me, I was once a member of the House. If you say Ministry of Transport has a contract of $33 billion, we want to see it because as the minister of transport, the only contract awarded so far is that of $1.6 billion for Lagos-Ibadan which is under threat.
“The implication of having a contract of $33 billion is that I will have a large number of workers. There’s no $33 billion contract in the Ministry of Transport. What we have is $1.6 billion contract awarded under President Muhammadu Buhari and $800 million contract awarded by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
“By the time we came, the contract awarded by Jonathan, signed by Aganga, had been completed up to 80 per cent, so we didn’t have to do the meeting of local content. The only one that has to deal with the issue of local content is the $1.6 billion contract that was awarded for Lagos to Ibadan for which the Chinese government is providing $1.2 billion and we’re providing the remaining $400 million.
“There are over 20,000 workers, and only 560 of them are Chinese, we need to begin to say the truth. It’s good to tell Nigerians the truth, this is very political and we will show all the contracts awarded by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government.
“You asked about training, there are over 150 Nigerians in China being trained as engineers. We will provide the document to you by Tuesday. They have built two training institutions in Idu and Daura. We provided you with the list of total number of Chinese workers on the Lagos-Ibadan project,” the minister said.
Ossai had to make Amaechi know that they were not quarreling but rather ironing out national issues.
When Ossai said he was not talking about South South rail but Nigeria at large, Amaechi retorted: “You have approached me on south south rail. Have you not?. Until you get the loan, there will be no contract. And there will be no loan.”
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