A contentious exchange unfolded on Thursday during the House of Representatives’ investigative hearing on the adoption of concrete technology for road construction. Disagreement emerged between lawmakers and the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) regarding the legislative authority to delve into technical matters concerning road infrastructure.<\/p>\n
The Chairman of the Committee on Works, Akin Alabi (APC, Oyo), and the Chairman Board of Trustees of the NSE, Emeka Eze, engaged in a heated exchange on the House’s power to legislate on the adoption of concrete technology.<\/p>\n
The House initiated the investigation following a motion by Khadijah Abba-Ibrahim (APC, Yobe) in October, directing its Committees on Works, Environment, Finance, and Judiciary to probe the shift from flexible technology to concrete technology in federal road construction.<\/p>\n
During the hearing, Mr Eze, representing the NSE, asserted that the House lacked the legal authority to investigate technical issues related to the adoption of concrete technology. He deemed the investigation “inappropriate” and urged lawmakers to let the executive determine the suitable material for road construction.<\/p>\n
“Technical matters like specifications for roads or any engineering infrastructure do not lend themselves to legislative investigation,” Mr Eze stated, emphasizing that such matters fall outside the legislative purview as outlined in Section 88 of the constitution.<\/p>\n
Interrupting Mr Eze, Mr Alabi expressed disagreement, stating, “You cannot teach us our job.” Despite the tension, Mr Alabi allowed the presentation to continue, avoiding what he referred to as unnecessary drama.<\/p>\n
In response to Mr Eze’s objection, Mr Alabi clarified the legislative authority, asserting that as long as the National Assembly allocates funds for the ministry and projects, committees have the right to seek information and ask questions.<\/p>\n
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, has been advocating for the use of concrete in road construction, a departure from the prevalent use of asphalt technology in Nigeria. Minister Umahi highlighted the rising cost of bitumen, a key component in asphalt, and its potential impact on road contract expenses. The push for this change has faced resistance from contractors, concerned about the associated cost implications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A contentious exchange unfolded on Thursday during the House of Representatives’ investigative hearing on the adoption of concrete technology for road construction. Disagreement emerged between lawmakers and the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) regarding the legislative authority to delve into technical matters concerning road infrastructure. The Chairman of the Committee on Works, Akin Alabi (APC, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":8947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8937"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8962,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8937\/revisions\/8962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}