17 October 2020
The Senator representing the Southern Senatorial District of the State, Sen. Gershom Bassey, has called for adequate funding and the complete award of the entire Calabar-Itu highway to end the sufferings of the people plying the road.
Sen. Bassey made the plea at the Senate, while supporting a motion moved by Sen. Albert Bassey for the award of contract for the complete construction of the Calabar-Itu highway.
According to Sen. Gershom Bassey, even though Julius Berger was awarded the construction of the Calabar-Itu highway, there is a critical section of the road that was not awarded, and therefore called for a complete and total award of the entire road.
"Let me first of all, whole-heartedly put my weight behind Sen. Albert Bassey and his plea for Calabar-Itu road. There is a section of that road that is yet to be awarded. Even though Julius Berger was awarded this contract, there is a critical section of that road that is yet to be awarded.
"And so, I join Sen. Albert Bassey to plead for the funding of that project. I want to also plead with the executive that that road and the complete and total road should be awarded, including the unawarded section of that road."
Contributing to the debate on the federal budget recently presented by President Muhammadu Buhari, Sen. Bassey lauded the initiative of Mr President in four thematic areas of economic recovery, promotion of economic diversification, enhanced competitiveness and social inclusion.
He, however, wants the executive to address the issue of funding for the maintenance of critical infrastructure like roads, which has only N30 billion in the 2021 projects for the 36,000km federal roads in the country.
The Senator also expressed concern about some of the inconsistencies in the budget like the raising of taxes, while the President wants to lift 100 million Nigerians from poverty in the next 10 years, and wants this to be addressed so that the country can achieve the lofty objectives of the budget.
"The President's speech talks about four main thematic areas – economic recovery, promote economic diversification, enhanced competitiveness and social inclusion. And then, overall it talks about lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years. These are really laudable objectives and I want to agree whole-heartedly with His Excellency, our President. But how are we going to do it? Because I see the budget, and there are some areas that I'm not quite clear about."
