Fashola Denies Comparing Nigeria’s Infrastructure To That Of America

The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has denied comparing the infrastructural achievements of the Muhammadu Buhari government with that of the United States.

Recall that Fashola had said that the Buhari administration had achieved what the Joe Biden government is trying to achieve in terms of infrastructure.

The minister had made the submission on Thursday during the All Progressives Congress (APC) conversation series in Kano State.

Clarifying his statement during the inspection of the ongoing Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road project on Friday, Fashola refuted the statements credited to him, saying that he was misquoted.

The minister said he was making the comparison that Buhari has been able to get his parliament to authorize his spending while Biden is finding it difficult to convince the US lawmakers to approve his spending on infrastructure.

He said, “The first point to make is I didn’t say that Nigeria’s infrastructure is better than America’s infrastructure because certainly anybody who knows what he is doing will know that America is a much richer nation, their infrastructure is well ahead of Nigeria.

“What I was talking about at the presentation with the APC youth was about the challenges of infrastructure, and that it is universal, every country commits to infrastructure as a legitimate way to create work, grow the economy and distribute wealth as we have seen here. That’s the first point I am making.

“And that in a democracy, you always need parliament to authorize what you spent in infrastructure. So, I was making the comparison that Buhari has been able to get his parliament to authorize his spending, and that is why we are able to gather here.

“But that the American government is struggling to get authorization from their own parliament to start what we are already doing. I didn’t say that our infrastructure is better than theirs.”

Fashola also blamed the opposition PDP for twisting his statements, alleging that the opposition is running a “campaign of lies” against the APC government.

“The progress we are making here is making them uncomfortable, so they can’t disprove that work is going on and infrastructure is being developed. They are going to run a campaign of lies and disinformation, so we have to be careful with them,” he added.