Minister of Works, David Umahi, has slammed Remi Oseni, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) who accused him of prioritising unimportant projects in the ministry amid the plethora of bad highways nationwide.
Oseni had called out Umahi over the deteriorating road network in the country during a house hearing on Thursday.
He accused Umahi of focusing on funds.
However, reacting to Oseni’s statement, Umahi told reporters on Monday that the lawmaker had not attained half of what he has achieved in life.
Saying he would not join issues with the lawmaker out of the respect he has for the Speaker of House of Representatives and the National Assembly, the former Governor said, “His (Oseni) time is very damaging to the wonderful institution of the National Assembly, especially the 10th national assembly. For the respect of the Speaker and, of course, the Senate President and the National Assembly institution that I belong to, I will refrain myself from joining issues with him.
“He said I have failed… No one in life ever said I have failed and I have never failed in anything I am involved in and if he likes, he should go and check my pedigree.
“I believe that God has to be with him to attain half of what I have attained in life. So, I will not join issues with him because I have tremendous respect for Mr Speaker and the National Assembly.
“But I will try to clarify some things. He said I was involved in some issues… Yes, he is right because he sounded as if he was representing the contractors and what were the issues? The issue of Variation of Price and that was a very terrible programme that was eroding the little resources we put in the budget.”
