Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, has advocated that proceeds from the nation's oil funds be invested in infrastructure.
He said if put to good use, the funds would help bridge the infrastructural deficiency which had stunted the country's economic growth over the years.
He cited the National Theatre, the National Stadium and the Tafawa Balewa Square among other such infrastructure that are legacies of the oil boom of the 1970s.
Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, has advocated that proceeds from the nation's oil funds be invested in infrastructure.
He said if put to good use, the funds would help bridge the infrastructural deficiency which had stunted the country's economic growth over the years.
He cited the National Theatre, the National Stadium and the Tafawa Balewa Square among other such infrastructure that are legacies of the oil boom of the 1970s.
"They are the kind of defining things that you and I can look back and say, 'okay around the Year 2014, when the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE – P) money came, this is what we did with it," he while hosting the Presidential Committee for (SURE-P).
Fashola said since oil prices fluctuated globally, the Federal Government should be able to invest proceeds of the commodity during boom times on enduring infrastructure and services that benefit the larger society.
He said that the government would subsequently be able to point at such infrastructure and services later as evidence of its service to the people.
Advising the SURE-P to re-strategize on how and where to invest the oil fund in order to give maximum benefit to Nigerians, Fashola pointed out that building and construction had helped to energize the economies of many nations across the globe adding that the agency should always have it at the back of its mind that the revenue from oil would not last forever.
He recalled that the Petroleum Trust Fund, set up by the Federal Government at the time of one of the booms, invested the money on roads in some parts of the country much to the benefit of indigenes.
He urged the agency to pursue a model that would bring enduring benefits to Nigerians.
"For me, when I look at some of the places in some parts of Nigeria where I know that it was the PTF Fund that gave them roads, it probably commends itself to me as a model to pursue."
Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer, earns an estimated US$65 billion from the product annually.
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