Borrowings under Buhari justified – Fashola

Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Works and Housing, has claimed that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has justified all its borrowings by constructing various infrastructure projects across the nation.

The minister stated this at the closing ceremony of the 28th National Council of Works meeting held in Kano on Thursday.

According to him, the ongoing projects across the country had justified the debts, especially when compared with what the previous administrations had done.

He said, “Our first budget in 2016 was over N250bn, up from the N18 billion we met in 2015. That was an increase of over a thousand percent, even though the price of crude oil was dropping, we did not raise taxes.”

The minister explained that the Federal Government had been able to deliver more than 1,800 kilometers of roads across the six geo-political zones so far, stressing that the Buhari-led Administration was determined to complete all the ongoing projects before the expiration of its tenure in May next year.

In his remarks, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State said there was a need for synergy between the federal highways and states to achieve the set objectives.

He commended the Buhari administration for initiating various projects in his state.

The five-day council meeting which started on Monday with the theme: “Infrastructure, the season of completion”, brought together various stakeholders from all states of the federation.