Abuja — The National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), and the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) Unit of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) have described the frequent outbursts by the Minister of Works and Urban Development, Dr Hassan Lawal, over poor state of infrastructure nothing short of playing to the gallery.

The union, in a joint press conference, recently described as unfortunate the noise being made by the minster on the poor state of nation's roads are not commensurate with the level of project executed; however challenged the minister to tell Nigerians the progress of work on the federal roads for which N116 billion worth of contracts were approved by the Federal Executive Council.Addressing newsmen, the national operations coordinator of NARTO, Comrade Lawal Isa, advised the minister to allow professionals in the ministry inspect the projects to evaluate and determine the quality of work done instead of the minister undertaking a nationwide tour for the purpose.He added that the usual television clips showing the minister flamboyantly making ceremonial visits to selected road projects which have been ongoing before becoming minister of works are mere publicity stunts which do not help the road users in any way.

Comrade Isa lamented that going by the facts on ground, the approved road projects are not likely to be completed on schedule, stressing that the slow pace of the road projects is capable of derailing the attainment of Vision 2020."We cannot afford a repeat of Anenih saga during the Obasanjo regime, when about N300 billion earmarked for road development in the country went down the drain to the detriment of our roads."We are already apprehensive about the process of concessioning of Lagos-Ibadan expressway which seems to have been shrouded in secrecy, as no relevant stakeholders; particularly, the road users were allowed the opportunity to be part of the process with a view to understanding the cost implications."