‘I owe you nothing, It’s your road’, Tinubu responds to Wike’s appeal for refund on projects

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, stated on Wednesday that the federal government (FG) under his administration would not provide reimbursements for federal projects carried out by states of the federation.

Tinubu, who is on a two-day visit to Rivers State, was responding to a request made by Governor Nyesom Wike in Port Harcourt during the inauguration of the Rumuokuta Flyover.

However, Tinubu told Wike that if Wike lobbied him, he might change his mind about the request.

Justifying the request and why his administration has been able to deliver a number of major projects seamlessly, Governor Wike had told Tinubu, “Part of why we are having uncompleted projects have to do with our procurement laws. If you follow the procurement law, it will take very long to complete projects.

“How much does the procurement law, I mean for federal, says, 15 to 30% (mobilisation). When you give a contractor 15%, inflation is rising almost every day, before you give another money they will call for variation because of increasing cost of materials.

“In our own case, I call Mr Speaker, to say we can’t continue with this. We had to amend our own procurement law to give us the latitude to pay 70% to a company we know has the capacity to deliver within time.

READ ALSO: Shehu Sani mocks Wike, says gov’s invite to Tinubu for projects commissioning a ‘mark of desperation’

“How much did they charge us, about N80 billion. We fall back on our Internally Generated Revenue, to say every month, take N4Bn, finish this road in 18months. That is why we have never failed in completing our projects.

“Unfortunately, these projects are FG roads. We don’t want our people to suffer. I believe FG government should say let us refund these money. I assure you, as you enter office and approve to pay these monies back, other states will also do same thing. So that (refund) is the first request we are making to you.”

Responding, the President elect told Wike, “On the demand you made for refund, I owe you nothing. It’s your road. You’re the one living on these roads. I commend your efforts. You have to lobby me to collect.

“To commission this project today is another way of building bridges across Nigeria which cannot be overstated. It is on the strength of your character that I stand to fulfill the promise I made during the campaigns. I’m happy we have been able to establish a relationship.

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