Abuja — Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola has said that the Federal Government projects will have more meaningful impact on the people if the state governments get involved in the identification and award of contracts for such projects.

Fashola stated this when the Senate Committee on Works led by its Chairman, Senator Julius Ucha paid him a courtesy call in his office at Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.

According to a statement issued by the Media Consultant to the Committee, Mr. Benard Akoma, the governor said it will be difficult for the Federal Government to meet the desired aspiration of the people without the states being part of the exercise

According to him, the states are closer to the people and they know their needs more than any other person in Abuja, Fashola posited.

"I am concerned that the only time we hear about any project from the Federal Government in our state is in the News," he bemoaned, stating that it will be difficult for the Federal Gover-nment to meet the aspirations of the people without the states being part of the exercise.

"I think in the process of choice of project, it is important you consider at this period the inputs of governors," the governor told the senators, "that the state government will be in a position to tell the federal government the priority roads to tackle."

According to him, "we will be able to suggest to you the roads that carry the highest traffics and instead of doing four or more roads, if we take one major road, it will probably have impacted more on the people," he advised.

The governor who regrets that most often the state government may not know who the contractors handling projects in the state are and therefore may not be in a position to assist when there is problem called on the federal government to officially involve the state so that they can help in stabilizing the contractor in the state if they encounter local problems.

These are areas the state can always contribute because we know our people more than the contractors, he said. According to Fashola, this is a partnership that must be seriously pursued saying "the federal government is not working for itself but working in pursuit of the federation created by the federating units." Fashola

Ucha who led members of the committee on oversight function of road contracts awarded in the South West by the federal government told the governor that about 25 to 30 zonal intervention roads were captured in 2009 budget.

He said that the Federal Ministry of Works had specific instruction from the presidency that such zonal intervention roads must be awarded in 2009.

"The briefing from the ministry which is also part of what we are going out to see is that 95% of the project has been awarded," Ucha said.

The Senate Committee Chairman stated further that, "seven of such roads were awarded in South West alone and they are called Presidential intervention roads," Ucha told the governor. He said that a committee of the executive and the legislature met to identify such roads across the geo-political zones of the country. Describing the roads as critical, Ucha said, "they include Shagamu/Ajibadele and Kabba-Effun-Alayi-Elimo-Ogbomosho roads among others in South West.