The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, on Tuesday said that Nigerians are more interested in having money in thier pockets rather than the structural changes the Buhari administration is aiming to build.

The minister said this while speaking in Abuja at a forum organised by News Agency of Ngeria (NAN). While pleading with Nigerians to have a little patience, Amaechi, however, said there is no money to run government.

He said: “We encountered challenges; were we expecting to encounter those challenges? Yes; did we think that we will meet the quantum or volume of those challenges?” he asked.

“We didn’t anticipate that things were this bad. We thought you go to government and there would be money for you to run government and others.

“Now you have the situation where there is no money to run government. I hate to use the word difficult; I hate to use the word impossible but we met things close to difficult and impossibility.

“That is why Nigerians are impatient; they want to see results and for them, change is not about change in structure, it is about change in their pocket.

“Because their pocket is getting dried and they wanted us to put some more resources in their pocket.

“What I usually say to people is that we beg you to give us time; we will achieve our objective if you give us time and we will both thank God for that opportunity.”

Speaking on his Ministry, Amaechi stated: “We need over 50.9 billion dollars in the next five years to develop infrastructure and 50 billion dollars is not a joke,” he said.

“One of the infrastructure we are trying to develop is the railway infrastructure; the president has kindly agreed that he will fund it because the contract was awarded by Obasanjo, the former president; he awarded the contract for Lagos to Kano.

“President Jonathan awarded the contract for Lagos to Calabar, what the president has agreed to do is to fund it; he said can we fund the ones we have already awarded; no more awards until we have developed the ones we have awarded.

“So we are focusing on the Lagos to Kano railway and the Lagos to Calabar rail line.

“If you look at the communities surrounding this rail line; Lagos to Kano will start from Lagos to Ibadan; it will impact on so many sectors of the economy including housing; people who ordinarily will not be able to pay for house rent in Lagos can live in Ibadan, can live in Ogun and come to work in Lagos.”