The Chairman of Bi-Courtney Limited, Dr. Wale Babalakin, on Wednesday accused the Federal Government of disobeying the laws guiding the Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement in the country.
He said it is worrisome that Federal Government could not obey its own laws meant to guide the execution of PPP arrangement in the country, which he said is inimical to national infrastructure development plan.
According to him, his company, Resort International Limited, the owner of the Federal Secretariat, has so far lost about N80 billion due to Federal Government’s failure to honour its obligations under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement in the conversion of the Federal secretariat to resident apartments for Nigerians in the Diaspora.
Babalakin spoke while addressing captains of industry and key stakeholders in his paper at the 21st Nigerian Economic Summit, going on in Abuja, titled: Unlocking the binding constraints to Public-Private Partnerships in Nigeria, said it is not the government’s business to run business and as such should not discourage private sector involvement in infrastructure development by dishonouring the laws of PPP.
Babalakin who use examples of Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal II, Federal Secretariat Complex and Lagos–Ibadan Expressway projects to highlight challenges of PPP in Nigeria, said it is regrettable that Federal Government has become constraints that hinder the development of PPPs in Nigeria and insisted that effort must be made to proffer workable solutions if Nigeria is to benefit from the development potentials in PPP arrangement.