Bashir Nura Alkali Resumes Office As New Permanent Secretary For Works Ministry The newly appointed Permanent Secretary of Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Mr. Bashir Nura Alkali has resumed duty following the recent approval and redeployment of Permanent Secretaries in the Federal Civil Service by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR. The Permanent Secretary in his taking over speech at the Ministry’s Headquarters Conference Room, Mabushi, Abuja yesterday appealed for the support of the management and staff of the Ministry to move the Ministry forward. Alkali expressed hope that the cordial relationship he had with the staff and management at Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development would be the same and better in Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. He added, ‘’Every Civil Servant would want to come to this Ministry because of its activities and programmes. ‘’Every Civil Servant will want to come to Federal Ministry of Works and Housing because the experience there is huge and challenging and by extension if you could manage in the Ministry, I believe you could manage anywhere in Nigeria,’’ he said. The Permanent Secretary, pledged to work with the directors and staff he met on ground and to assist the Honourable Ministers in carrying out the mandate assigned to them. ‘’I will say I’m here to work and from what I had been told and seen we have excellent directors and staff that are going to assist in this job. I was just telling the Minister that our job as Permanent Secretaries is to assist the Ministers implement and deliver the mandate of the Ministry and I believe that is what we are going to do,’’ he said. He assured of paying attention to issues brought to his attention by staff with a view to addressing them’’. I assure you that I’m a listener, I will listen to everybody but I will not be able to solve each and every problem of individuals’’, he said. Mr. Bashir Nura Alkali had worked in Ministries of Justice, Police Affairs, the State House. His last posting was at the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development as the Permanent Secretary before his deployment to Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. Earlier in his remarks, Engr. Chukwunwike Ogbonna Uzo, Director Overseeing the Office of the Permanent Secretary welcomed the new Permanent Secretary, and said that it was his first time for over thirty-three years of service to witness a Permanent Secretary taken over in a Ministry and all his former directors accompanying him. That tells you the kind of person the new Permanent Secretary is. ‘The people he is leaving behind are not happy losing him. But it is a gain to us in Federal Ministry of Works and Housing,’’ said Engr. Uzo. Uzo handed over two sets of hand over notes. That of the former Permanent Secretary and that of when he acted as the Director, Overseeing the Permanent Secretary’s Office.   ...

East -West Road Returns to Works Ministry for Completion 13 years after ... As Akpabio handed Project back to Fashola .... We need peace to deliver the project  - Fashola As directed by the Presidency, the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs has handed  over the East-West Road back to the Ministry of Works and Housing for completion. Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio handed over  the project back to the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN Wednesday, March 30, 2022.  At the handing over Fashola said, "It is an uncommon act because it is the decision of the Federal Government of Nigeria that this project that started then in the Ministry of Works be transferred to the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and thirteen years after the President directed that the project be handed over to the Ministry of Works and Housing for  completion." Accordingly, the Works and Housing Minister said that peace is needed within the host communities for the project to be delivered.  “One condition for any project to take place is communal peace. If we don’t have peace there, we cannot do anything,” he said. While appealing for peace, collaboration and sacrifice from the communities, Mr. Fashola also urged  representatives of the various communities at the event to take the message back home that peace is needed to deliver the project. On the progress of work done he said, “Progress has been made from 2009 till date no doubt but unfortunately that progress is not reported because of the passion with which the uncompleted part has been reported." Fashola directed the Director Overseeing the Office of the Permanent Secretary  in his Ministry, Engr.Chukwunwike Ogbonna Uzo to constitute a requisite team from the Ministry to undertake actual assessment with the contractors so that the Ministry will be able to sign off in the proper engineering and civil construction terms at  the point the Ministry is taking over, adding that Mr. President will be briefed on the progress of work done so far. Earlier in his remarks, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio said that  in order to fast tract the completion of the project, the people of Ogoni Land demanded that  the project be supervised by  Federal Ministry of Works and Housing that has much more experienced professionals in terms of engineering services. Akpabio explained that the project was awarded in 2006 by the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo and that as of 2022 Sections 1-4 of the project is  eighty percent completed.  “As we hand over the East-West road to you today, about 80% of the project has been completed and that the situation today is that it is easy to drive from Port Harcourt to Yenagoa under fifty minutes.” On the length of the road, he said it is a 328 kilometre road that starts from Effurun in Delta State and transverses the Niger Delta, Rivers State and ends up in Oron in Akwa-Ibom State, while Section 5 of the road is from Oron to Calabar in Cross River State. On Funding, the Minister said that the sum of 10.4 billion naira was awaiting release and that he has directed that the money should be released to the East-West Road Account to be controlled by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.   ...

Roads: President Buhari Wins Great Builder Award For Africa ·       As Fashola receives Award of Excellence for commitment to road infrastructure ·       Nigeria to host the 2022 Inaugural  on March 31   Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has won the Super Prize Great Builder Award while the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN, received an Award of Excellence for the African Road Builders -Trophee Babacar Ndiaye for the year 2021. President Buhari was chosen for the award for significant Improvement in road transport network in Nigeria while the Minister was chosen as recipient of his award for commitment to road and transport infrastructure in the country during the 2021 Inaugural Conference of the African Road Builders - Trophee Babacar Ndiaye - which was held in Cairo, Egypt. With headquarters in Abidjan, Cote d' Voire, the African Road Builders - Trophee Babacar Ndiaye holds the annual event with the objective of celebrating good examples and encouraging all African countries to improve road and transportation Infrastructure. The Conference also aims to promote development of road transport in Africa by rewarding each year an African Head of State for significant Improvement in road transport in his country. The Conference members and participants drawn from some African countries also include; Political authorities from the member countries, Road and Transport Authorities, The African Development Bank, Development Partners operating in the member countries, Local Road and Transport Actors in Nigeria, among others. Nigeria is billed to host the 2022 Inaugural Conference – “Conference Inaugurale”, in Abuja on Thursday, 31 March, 2022, during which President Buhari will be conferred with his Award at the closing dinner of the conference. The Conference theme is "Building Roads, Building Economies – “Construire Des Routes, Batir Des Economies”. ...