The Minister of State, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Dr Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, while leading members of the Senate Committee on FCT on assessment tour of some sites within the territory, called for adequate funding for the 5000 Wasa Affordable Housing Project in the FCT.
She told the committee members, led by the Chairman, Senator Smart Adeyemi of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), that the challenge facing the completion of the Wasa project was a lack of funding, “if there is no issue of aggressive and critical funding to this project, we will come back to a review situation, she said.
“With the economic situation of this country; with the accelerated prices of goods in the market which causes the incessant increase in what we buy and the prices of labour, we will need to sit.
“We need to look into areas of collaboration with the Senate to ensure that there is adequate funding for this critical project to ensure the takeoff of the affordable housing to give succour to residents.
“As long as we keep reviewing, the prices will not be affordable”, Dr. Aliyu stated.
While commending the handler of the project, Gilmor Engineering (Nigeria) Limited, Aliyu said the company had been able to tackle the issue of insecurity at the site with the construction of a police post.
She however said that more needed to be done to ensure that there was security to lives and property.
Senator Smart Adeyemi acknowledged the importance of the assessment tour, “the essence of the assessment tour is to be able to look at projects as we work the budget, he said.
“I’m particularly impressed with the presentation made by the minister of state and the engineer.
“Democracy is all about good governance. And when you talk about good governance you talk about the protection and improvement of lives of people and property.
“This is one project that I’m particularly delighted and I want to commend the minister for allowing this project to continue in spite of the long years that we have been waiting for its completion.
“We will be able to look at the budget. We are going to look at how we can assist this project more than what was provided.
“We are all in the struggle of the improvement of the wellbeing of the people. So we will do all we can”, Adeyemi added.
