Lagos gets Presidency’s nod to reconstruct airport road

Lagos State government yesterday confirmed approval from the Federal Government to reconstruct the Airport Road from Oshodi.
Confirming the approval in a statement by the Secretary to State Government, Mr. Tunji Bello, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode acknowledged the effort and intervention of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.
It said Prof Osinbajo has granted permission to the state to start work on the project.
The statement reads: “We are very appreciative of the good gesture of His Excellency, the Acting President, for acceding to our request which is not only very timely but a very heartwarming one. Posterity will never forget this genuine developmental action.”

The governor also described the approval as a 50th birthday gift to the people of Lagos State, describing it as a further demonstration of the determination of the present administration to ensure the effectiveness of the Executive Order on the Ease of Doing Business. The Order was signed last Thursday by the Acting President.
The statement also commended President Muhammadu Buhari for providing an enabling environment to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country.
According to the governor, an upgraded access to the International Airport- the gateway to the nation’s commercial nerve centre – will attract new investments.
The governor had in March, alledged that the Federal Government, through the ministry of Works, was frustrating the state’s effort to reconstruct the road.
Ambode had said: “The road linking Oshodi to the International Airport, you would all agree with me is a national embarrassment. In the spirit of the regeneration and urbanisation that this administration has set out to achieve, we believe strongly that the image that is exhumed by the decadence of that road must be repaired and we took it upon ourselves to appropriate in the 2017 budget that the House of Assembly should approve the total reconstruction of the Airport Road from Oshodi to the International Airport.
“The state currently has a design of 10 lanes to come from Oshodi to the International Airport with interchange and flyover that would drop you towards the Local Airport.

“The contractor is already set to go and everything as I said, has been completed and we already have the cash, but alas! we are having challenges with the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. This is a Federal and not a state road. The Federal Ministry of Works believes that they should do the road, but they have not been able to do it all these years past.
“I just want to appeal to the Federal Ministry of Works, to let go or reimburse us with whatever it is that they are owing us and even if they are not willing to pay us now, we have the money to do it. It is a national disgrace and we would not be part of it. We would like to do it as part of the celebration of Lagos at 50,” Governor Ambode had said then.
In its reaction, the Federal Ministry of Power, Works & Housing said the delay in granting the request of Lagos State was because the Memorandum conveying the Lagos government request of which was already before the Federal Executive Council (FEC), was yet to reach completion stage.
It said: “The Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing Ministry has presented the Memorandum conveying the request of the Lagos State Government to the Federal Executive Council as was done with a similar request by the Kaduna State Government in 2016.
“Due to the fact that two of the roads also connect Ogun State, the FEC could not reach an immediate decision on them because it requested the input of the other state government affected.”

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