Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has allayed fears that he is overwhelmed by the weight of running three important infrastructure providing ministries.
Fashola, who was at the maiden edition of `Buharimeter’ town hall meeting on Thursday, said the ministries combined were not bigger than Lagos state- which he ran for 8 years.
“In terms of the size of my ministry, I don’t think it is bigger than the ministries that I have superintended before. I am very grounded on that level. There are almost 30 ministries in Lagos and about 57 parastatals, and I was involved on a day-to-day basis,” he said.
“What is different this time is that I am working with a team that I have just met, so and it is taking time to understand everybody. We are having regular meetings. I need to know everybody on beat by name and by face. It’s like playing football, and you don’t know your teammate and you want him to pass, you’ll say ‘O boy pass’, but after a while you know each other by name and you will bond better.”
“Also, knowing the assets I am managing, visiting the sites, the power plants, touring the roads by driving rather than flying, and that’s taking some time. I have seen all of it on paper and I don’t think that it is something that has overwhelmed me.”
“I have a minister of state who is assisting me. I have a permanent secretary in charge of power, and I have a permanent secretary who is overseeing works and housing because we are in the same place, and I have very, very competent staff.”
Fashola promised that that his ministries would come through on the task of providing good roads, electricity and affordable housing.
In his first year as Minister, Fashola said he adopted three stages of “incremental, steady and uninterrupted supply” in the power sector.
He said the country reached 5,000 megawatts electricity generation in February just before the flurry of attacks on gas pipelines and oil infrastructure in the Niger Delta.
Leave a reply