PRESIDENCY VERDICT: Fashola Is The Most Outstanding Minister
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has been adjudged as the best performing minister in President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet.
Fashola’s performance report was adjudged as the most outstanding among the 43 ministers whose reports were recently reviewed by President Buhari. Even his fellow ministers were said to have acknowledged his performance.
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THE WHISTLER had reported that Buhari, on August 14, 2019, said in a tweet that ministers in his second term would be given “implementation targets” attached to their portfolios. The president made the statement ahead of his inauguration of the ministers into the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for his second term.
Buhari has since kept to his promise to review the ministers’ performance from time to time.
His special adviser on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, disclosed in a post on his personal blog (FemiAdesina.com) that the president has been reviewing the performance of the ministers.
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Adesina said Fashola of the works and housing ministry emerged outstanding among all the ministers when he presented his performance report at Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.
The presidential aide said the president asked the ministers “probing questions”, adding that those of them who performed well left the FEC meeting with their shoulders high while the underperforming ones left “like a rain beaten chicken”.
“Fashola’s performance got everyone applauding,” said Adesina.
He said Fashola had been mandated to ensure the development of infrastructure projects such as the building of quality houses for Nigerians at lowest possible cost, construction of at least 200,000 housing units a year by establishing modular construction facilities across the country, ensuring completion of the 2nd Niger Bridge, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Expressway, Obajana-Kabba Road.
Others are the task to complete 64km of Sukuk Bond financed road projects, implement scheduled maintenance of 5,000 kilometers of roads annually, actively collaborate with the private sector to create a large number of well-paying jobs for Nigerian youths, and implement a strategy towards the realization of Mr President’s June 12 promise to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years.
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Adesina said during his presentation, Fashola used pictures and video to show the progresses made on the above-mentioned projects.
He said the executive council was “brought up to speed with the scope of the works” at the ongoing 2nd Niger Bridge project.
“As the Minister made his presentation, I observed the President smiling in delight, grinning broadly at some other times, shaking his legs and rubbing his palms together. He saw money being well spent, the dividends of democracy being delivered to the people, and he was quite glad,” said the presidential aide.
Fashola is a Nigerian lawyer who served two terms as Lagos State governor from 2007 to 2015.
He was first appointed minister by President Buhari in November 2015 and was reappointed for a second term in 2019.
As Lagos governor, Fashola embarked on reforms that include the rehabilitation of public schools in the state, acceleration of development of the Eko Mega City Project, among others.
