Atiku Shares Thoughts On Bridging The Infrastructure Gap

Former Vice President and Peoples Democratic Party leading presidential aspirant Atiku Abubakar has said that poor funding and chronic under investment by successive governments have crippled the state of Nigeria’s infrastructure.

According to the PDP presidential front runner, the poor funding has left an annual funding gap in excess of N15 trillion (USD 10.5billion) in infrastructure development.

He stated that sound infrastructure and adequate power are essential for stimulating economic growth and development in any nation and vital for improving the lives of people.

Commenting on the challenge, the former Vice President said “let us look at roads, transportation and power, only 15.3 % of the 195,200km of the road network in Nigeria is adequately tarred and motor-able. Only 67 % of tarred roads are in good or fair condition compared to other resource-rich nations in Africa. Our transportation services depend on dilapidated roads and the railways is non-existent. Nigeria’s current supply gap in electricity is over 20,000MW as the power sector has struggled to supply reliable power to its citizens and economy.”

All these, Atiku said, have to stop because as “President I promise to commit infrastructure spending of about 12% of GDP which will considerably improve infrastructure development without posing any significant risk to overall economic growth. Good infrastructure supports social and cultural advances so it is imperative that a strong infrastructure development drive is pursued in order to stimulate the necessary development.”