About $10billion is required annually by the Federal Government to revamp ailing infrastructures across the country.

The fund would have to be expended consistently for the next ten years. A lecturer in the Department of Business Law, University of Ilorin, Dr Mubarak Adekilekun, disclosed this in Ilorin yesterday while delivering a paper at a One-Day Mandatory Continuing Professional Development workshop organised by the Kwara State branch of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers.

The workshop was themed "Real Estate Investment as a Basis for Political and Economic Sustainability in Nigeria". As a recipe to discourage corrupt practices among top office holders, the don proposed death sentence for any of them found guilty to have illicitly enriched self.

He said the government needed to move fast by making a scapegoat among the alleged looters, saying "until we do it, I'm afraid whether there is a way out". Adekilekun said the current economic doldrums in the country has made it imperative for government to hands off provision of infrastructural facilities while asking private sectors to come on board.

The don asked the government to provide conductive atmosphere for investors in order to hasten infrastructural provision. He said Nigeria must rework her law by making it comprehensive and implementable to address certain lacuna.

"The world bank recently gave an estimate that for Nigeria to fill its infrastructural gap, it needs not less than $10billion annually for the next ten years repeatedly, it means on yearly basis.

"It is not only Nigeria that has been complaining about dwindling economic revenues, that as we are getting money, the money is no longer available because of drop in oil prices and others. The proposition now is that government should be a facilitator of economic development.

"The government needs not to insist that we want to provide roads, houses and others, but you can invite private sectors who will come and partner with government in order to provide these infrastructural requirements. We have a lot of countries that have been doing it, like Singapore, South Africa, Malaysia and United States and they are working.

"The major problem we have in Nigeria is in respect of enforcement, availability and adequacy of laws, because you don’t expect an average white man to come and invest in Nigeria without seeing a law that is very comprehensive that he knows would protect his own interest, and that is what is really lacking in Nigeria, otherwise Nigeria has enormous resources", Adekilekun said.

The don, however, advocated the need for the country to imbibe indigenous science and technology in its entirety to enable it compete with advanced nations. In his welcome address, Chairman, Kwara State branch of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Mr Abel Omoniyi Afolayan, urged the government to invest in real estate to sustain economic and political stability in the country.