Fashola Begs For Extension Of His Ministerial Tenure

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has requested the extension of tenure of the Minister of Works and basic executives in the service, saying a four-year term is too short to even consider designing streets, embrace obtainment and building the streets.

Speaking at an event in Abuja on the theme, “Proof of Infrastructural Delivery across Nigeria,” a three-year special report of the ministry, Fashola stated:

“Government cycles in the last 20 years have been fixed tenures of four years at a time, subject to how the electorate vote. Personnel changes are effected by retirement, deployment, opportunities and cabinet reshuffles. As a result, critical directors, permanent secretaries and ministers are turned over in a quest for efficiency.

“In all, since 1952 to date, Nigeria has had 34 ministers of works and I am number 34 in a period of 67 years. This amounts to an average of a minister every 1.9 years.

“A further interrogation of the data of tenure shows that very few of them served for up to four years and above and the majority served a little over a year, which is barely enough time to design a road not to talk of undertaking the procurement and actually building the road.”