The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, on Wednesday called for the speedy completion of the ongoing renovation of the National Assembly complex ahead of the delivery deadline of August 2023.
Gbajabiamila made the call in Abuja as he toured and inspected key aspects of the work, particularly the House of Representatives Chamber, the dome and foyer of the complex.
However, he warned that this must not compromise the quality of the work to be delivered.
The Speaker said that though the renovation, which began last month, had progressed well, he would still ask the project managers to speed up the pace and beat the deadline.
Gbajabiamila stated, “This work started in August, a few weeks behind schedule, but for a good reason. So far between August and now, giant strides have been made; you can see the whole chamber has been ripped apart, and the innovations are going to be state-of-the-art.
“We will be proud to have a chamber that matches the best standard all over the world; so I am quite impressed with the work so far.
“I would encourage them to double the pace because, as it is, this is not for the benefit of the 9th Assembly but for the benefit of the 10th Assembly.” The whole chamber isn’t going to be ready until sometime in August next year; so we are talking close to a year, and that tells you the level of work that is going on.”
However, the Speaker insisted that speeding up the pace of completion must not compromise the quality of the work.
“This used to be a hearing room to a legislative chamber, a lot of adaptations and a lot of innovations have been made and we are quite pleased with the work so far; so we are ready to go.”
The Speaker said the 10th Assembly would most likely be inaugurated in the temporary chamber, except the project managers would be able to complete the renovation of the main chamber months before the scheduled deadline.
“The 10th Assembly more than likely will kick off from here unless work can be accelerated, but you don’t want to accelerate work and compromise the quality of the work, so it’s better late but done well. Anything worth doing is worth doing well”, he added.
