By Mitaire Ikpen

Abuja—Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, has attributed the slow pace of work on the East-West Road, transversing the Niger Delta region, to poor releases of funds to the Ministry for the project, which he said will be completed by December 2014.

Presenting his ministry’s stewardship, yesterday in Abuja, at the ongoing Ministerial Platform to mark this year’s National Democracy Day, Orubebe expressed concern that paucity of funds may delay the actualisation of the master plan for the region.

He noted that his ministry’s major achievement remains sustained peace and security in the region, which had boosted the nation’s oil production capacity from pre-amnesty level of 700,000 bpd to 2,600,000 bpd.

Orubebe explained that the East-West Road project, which his ministry inherited from the Ministry of Works in 2009 at 10 percent completion, lacked the requisite designs, hence more fund was expended on redesigning the road. He was optimistic that the project, which was now 50 per cent done, under his Ministry will be completed before December 2014.

“When in 2009, the road was given to us at 10 percent to fast-track its construction, a lot of things were noticed wrong with the project, right from the foundation, there were even no designs for the contract and we had to do all of that, but today, the road is at 50 percent completion.

”Mr. President is from the Niger Delta and I don’t see anybody that is more committed to ensuring that the road was completed. Funding arrangements are being put in place and I can confidently tell Nigerians that the East West Road will be completed before December 2014.”

On complaints that his Ministry, which was created to coordinate the development of the oil rich region had not done much to change the infrastructural deficit in the area, Orubebe said the actualisation of the region’s Master Plan had come under threat from inadequate funding of the ministry.

He noted for instance that the total budgetary releases to the Ministry was N94 billion, N58.8 billion and N36.4 billion in 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively, pointing out that these were a far cry from budgetary appropriations.

“The Ministry’s budgetary allocation and releases have been grossly inadequate and dwindling. In 2012, total appropriation was N57 billion out of which N16 billion had already been released. High costs of projects and technology required for infrastructure projects as a result of the terrain in the region constitute a serious challenge,” Orubebe added.