The Federal Government has disclosed that about N40billion is required to replace nine public buildings that are currently in bad shape.
The buildings include; the prisons, courts, federal secretariats, hospitals, a Federal Government college and four of blocks of building in the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, including the powerhouse.
The government also disclosed that the country was capable of saving billions of Naira annually if members of the public embraced maintenance as they do religion.
This was disclosed in Abuja, yesterday, by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola SAN during the public presentation of the ‘National Public Building Maintenance Policy’.
The minister also stated that data from other countries shows that maintenance contributes about 3 percent to South Africa, Canada and United States of America’s GDP.
Speaking on the importance of the policy, the minister said: “The Federal Government’s decision on maintenance is an economic decision. It is meant to empower Nigerians at the base of the economic pyramid especially those who are artisans.
“It is also meant to empower the middle class; those who are in small and medium scale enterprises, manufacturers of cottage industry produced equipment and generally drive the growth of Nigeria’s economy.”
On the financial implication of poor maintenance, the minister said: “We used nine public buildings as pilot; the prison, court, federal secretariat, hospital, Federal Government college and four of our buildings and the power house. The total overview of those nine buildings showed to us that it will cost about N40billion to replace those buildings.
“We thought that if we pursue maintenance at about N600 million to N900 million per annum, those buildings can achieve their desired life of between 50 to 70 years. If we had N40 billion in any event, instead of using them to replace existing buildings, we should be using them to expand and provide more for our growing population.
He also said maintenance would create employment opportunities.
“If we spend under a billion a year, we found out that we will be employing over 400 people in just those nine buildings.
“One of the schools will require about 34 people and I did a quick check; there are about 104 unity schools, so if you multiply 34 by 104 for schools alone, you will begin to see the numbers we are seeing.
“In the Ministry of Interior alone, if the work begins to get to prison to make sure that there is water, electricity and that roofs don’t leak; just imagine if it spreads across all the police stations in Nigeria because they are public buildings as well. Can we then truly say that there will be no work in this economy?”
Giving an instance of the workability of the policy, the minister said: “The data available from South Africa, Canada and the United States shows that maintenance as an economy contributes from 1.5 percent to 3 percent GDP contribution and that is massive and that is why I feel I need to let people know that what we have signed unto is enormous and that is why I said this is the work that I have done here that I am most proud of and I hope that I live to see the result.”
Commenting on recent law prohibiting discrimination against people living with disability, Fashola urged architects to brace up to achieve the five years compliance target set.
He said: “On the signing of the law to protect people who are living with disability or discrimination, we require five years to achieve compliance. Compliance means that in every public building, a person living with disability can operate, function, climb and descend without assistance. So, apart from lifts, there must be ramps to enable those who are in wheel chairs move freely.
“So, our architects must brace up in designing buildings at the proper slope. Our parking lots must now have designated number of parking spaces for people living with disability. Our airports will have to be retrofitted and redesigned to provide a dedicated channel for entry and exit points as seen all over the world.