After the row between the governor of Lagos State, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode and the minister of power, works and housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, the federal government has given approval to the state to reconstruct the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Road from Oshodi.
The state governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode who disclosed this in Lags said the acting president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo conveyed the approval to him.
Ambode who commended the acting president for his statesman like approach to issues and for fast tracking the process: “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.
He also described the approval as a 50th birthday to the people of Lagos State, saying “it is a further demonstration of the determination of the present administration to ensure the effectiveness of the executive order on improving the ease of doing business recently signed by the acting president.”
He expressed appreciation to the federal government for providing the enabling environment to attract foreign direct investment into the nation, adding that with the upgrading of the International Airport Road which is the gateway to the nation’s nerve centre, the country will attract new investments.
It would be recalled that last March, Ambode raised an alarm about the state of the airport road describing it as a national disgrace that required immediate attention to salvage the nation’s image.
He had stated that the state presently had produced a design for the reconstruction of the road adding that it had the funds to embark on the project but was yet to get the go-ahead from the federal government.
“The road linking Oshodi to the International Airport…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 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…has been completed and we already have the cash…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,” said Ambode.
