Facts and figures as Fashola’s ministry unveils compendium

Lasun Alagbe

All is now set for the public presentation of ‘Proof of Infrastructure Delivery Across Nigeria: A Three-year Report on the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing’, a book edited by media executive, Hakeem Bello, who is the Special Adviser to the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola. The book will be launched this morning at the ministry complex in Abuja.
Coming in the form of a compendium, the work captures the activities of the government in the key, three-in-one ministry against the backdrop of the government’s agenda for the industry. It also puts in focus the achievements of the minister, alongside the ministers of state, Baba Shehuri and Suleiman Hassan.
A former Head of State, General Abdusalami Abubakar, puts this in perspective in the foreword, noting, “From the evidence provided in the speeches and photographs collected in the book, the current administration led by Buhari and through the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing has been pursuing the implementation of the policies and programmes with diligence and determination. The book is replete with photographs of newly built houses, roads either being constructed or rehabilitated and power plants being switched on. It presents a concrete evidence of goals as they are being pursued, missions as they are being actualised and achievements as being recorded.”
Bello, who was also Fashola’s media chief during his eight-year tenure as the governor of Lagos State, worked with Theo Ogeziachi as General Editor and seasoned photographer, Lukman Olanipekun, who provided photographic evidence of the events, projects and achievements the publication projects.
As noted in a review, many people believe that a major area to measure the Buhari administration’s success or otherwise is power. Although the sector has been largely privatised, only a very few people want to reason with government if the so-called new companies fail. For a minister such as Fashola. Understandably, therefore, the rate at which they have been able to take the sector gets a lion’s share in the book, which zooms to the reader’s face with an amazing artistic quality in terms of print and presentation qualities.
While the editors are responsible for a major chunk of the materials presented, the book also enjoys the blessings of external contributors, including some media men. These are largely those who had first-hand experience of activities of the ministry, in terms of being part of inspection tours and having encounters with the ministers, especially Fashola.

The publication is divided into three parts: Defining the Goal, Clarifying the Mission; Funding the Vision; and Field Accounts from all the Geo-Political Zones. While the first part covers major speeches by Fashola, including the inaugural and the agenda-setting ones on the country’s electricity challenge and moving the housing sector forward, the second section captures budget presentations of 2016, 2017 and 2018. This area seems simple and given but the fact is that funding of the sector appears to be a major feat of the Buhari administration. As documented in the book, each f the components that, for instance, received less than N2bn in 2015, got as much as N35bnin 2016.
‘Field Accounts from all the Geo-Political Zones’, on the hand, encompasses reports on nationwide inspection and verification tours, with appraisals coming from different sources. Among the reports accommodated are ‘Nationwide Inspection, Verification Tour: Fashola in Kogi, Benue, Nasarawa and Plateau States’, by Hakeem Bello; ‘Fashola: A Shuttle in the North Central’ by Ralph Agbana of ‘The Guardian’; Preaching peace in the South-South Zone’, by Bello; text of an interview by Fashola, titled, ‘My Ministry I now Refocusing on Project Completion’, by Bode Gbadebo of Leadership; and ‘BRF: On the Road not Travelled’, by Ebitimi Tamuno, published in ‘The Nation’. In this regard, Modestus Umennzekwe’s ‘Fashola: Why is no one Talking?’
Interestingly, ‘Proof of Infrastructure Delivery Across Nigeria straddles’ not only almost every topic or area you may want to talk about in power, works and housing, it also serves some cultural and tourism purposes. The reason is that leafing through it is like travelling through many parts of the country, with the flora and fauna of its different geo-ethnic groups bristling into one’s nose.