ANY Nigerians dread travelling by road and the cause of their anxiety is not far-fetched. The roads are bad. Despite the billions of naira spent to put them in good condition in the past 14 years, they remain deplorable and a death trap.
The roads are said to have gulped about N1.414trillion since 1999. Between 2011 and last year, the Jonathan administration spent N700 billion to repair critical roads nationwide.
There are other notable interventions in road infrastructure by different regimes. For instance, between 1996 and 1998, the Federal Government, through the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) spent billions on building and rehabilitating roads.
In 2000, the then Federal Ministry of Works, in another intervention tagged “Operation 500 Roads,” attempted to upgrade 500 ‘critical’ roads across the country. In 2003, there was another intervention, which culminated in the establishment of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA).
The frequency of these interventions has generated concern about the effectiveness of the initiative, which has left the roads in deplorable conditions, with a small percentage adjudged to be in good condition.
These, many Nigerians believe, are caused by inconsistencies in government policies, flawed procurement practices, and corruption.
Take the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Worried that the conventional tolling plan on the road constructed in 1974 has failed, the government concessioned the road to Bi-Courtney Road Services Ltd., on Design, Build Operate and Transfer (DBOT) terms. The 25-year-tenured concession sealed in 2009 was valued at N89.53 billion.
But in November 2012, the concession plan for the 120-kilometre road was terminated. At the re-launch of the reconstruction in July, last year, President Goodluck Jonathan gave a completion period of 48 months for its rehabilitation. It remains to be seen how Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, and Reynolds Construction Company Plc, will meet the deadline when the counterpart fund of N50 billion which is 30 per cent of the total sum of the project, put at N167 billion has yet to be released. Last week, the Federal Government said it could only provide N25 billion this year, while the balance would be paid in 2015. The remaining 70 per cent, which comes to about N117 billion, will be shopped for by the two contractors.
The Ministry of Works added that a 25-kilometre alternative road would be constructed by the Federal Government this month.
Godwin Eke, a Deputy Director in the ministry, who is also the officer in charge of section One re-construction, noted that this is to provide relief to motorists while work continues on the road’s main carriageway.
But similar interventions are also desired on the Benin-Ore Road.
A regular traveller to the Southeast through Benin-Ore-Sagamu Road would attest to the fact that the journey is anything but smooth. In fact, many recounted how they spent several hours, sometimes spilling over the next day on the road. A journey, which ordinarily shouldn’t take more than four hours, could at times take a whole day.
Many had felt that though it is a federal road, the states through which the road runs, particularly Ondo and Edo states, should feel concerned about the agony of users of that very important road. Undoubtedly, the Lagos-Sagamu-Ore-Benin road has become a metaphor for failings in government.
Then Minister for Works Housing and Urban Development Dr. Hassan Lawal had awarded a N12.2 billion contract for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of two sections of the road to Messrs Reynolds Construction Company Limited (RCC), handling the Salami-Ajebandele-Ore-Benin Road Section One (Ajebandele-Ofosu road in Ondo State) and Messrs Borini Prono and Company Nigeria Limited for the repair of Sagamu-Ajebandele-Ore-Benin Road Section II in Ogun State, with a completion period of 30 and 18 months in that order.
The Reynolds contract was worth N9.89 billion while the Borini Prono and Company Nigeria Limited job was put at a cost of N2.50 billion.
The deplorable Abuja-Lokoja-Okene Road is one that continues to claim lives as the government dailies and continues to shift delivery timeline on the project.
Senator Nurudeen Abatemi-Usman (Kogi Central Senatorial District), calling for the road’s completion said: “It is unimaginable the kind of pains the good people of Nigeria are subjected to on this road at every festive period, because of traffic congestion. This is why I think the Federal Government must ensure that this road is completed in due course. It will equally go a long way in reducing the rate of accidents because of its deplorable condition.”
But the new Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen, blamed inadequate funding as the main reason for the delays on the rehabilitation of the roads across the country. The minister, an architect, reiterated the need for appropriate funding as the panacea for good road network across the country.
“This road took off in 2006/2007. In 2008, there was no budgetary allocation for it. That was where the problem started. Beyond that, in 2009 and 2010, there was meagre budgetary allocation to the road. That made it impossible for the kind of progress that was envisaged at the commencement of the project,” he revealed.
But can the same be said of the Okigwe-Umuahia road? It was learnt that the main contractor CCC, which was to rehabilitate the road from the Enugu end, has abandoned the project, with no sign of the company in the area, though it is working very slowly in Enugu from Onitsha end.
The Kaduna-Abuja highway that links most states in the north boasts of over 400 pot holes. The state of the road leaves much to be desired as a link to the Federal Capital Territory.
Going to Enugu through Onitsha, an average traveller would tell you is another hell on earth.
The Enugu and Onitsha axis was the economic stronghold of the old Eastern Region. The road is now a shadow of its old self -no thanks to the deplorable state of the highway linking Enugu, Awka and Onitsha.
Travelling on the road Enugu-Onitsha Expressway built in the 70s by the Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo has become a nightmare, with motorists often abandoning the highway to reroute their trips through the old road from Udi to Awka.
The contractors hired to fix the road abandoned it.
They have since withdrawn their equipment and barricaded some sections of the road.
Nobody can say the content of the memorandum of the contract.
The contractors – Messrs CCC Construction Company – ascribed its non-performance to the non-release of funds by the government. They said the project was abandoned out of frustration. The road is not, indeed, a glory to the Land of the Rising Sun.
Another road for which there continued to be calls by motorists for rehabilitation by FERMA, is the rehabilitation the Kaduna-Kano road to alleviate their pains.
A regular traveller to Oturkpo or Makurdi, the Benue State capital en-route Otukpo, the ancestral home of Idoma kingdom, spends close to four hours on a journey which ought not to exceed two hours. The neglected road has remained a perpetual nightmare to travelers as potholes have taken over the road.
A document titled: “Federal Government’s proposed expenditure on road rehabilitation, upgrade and expansion between 2011 and 2013,” released by the National Planning Commission in Abuja, stated that the Federal Government proposed to spend N461.8billion on the rehabilitation and expansion of Trunk ‘A’ roads across the country.
Specifically, it said N5.5billion would be spent on the dualisation of the Onitsha-Owerri road and the Onitsha-Eastern Bypass; N2.6billion on the dualisation of the Section One of the Ibadan-Ilorin road; N6.97billion on the construction of the Kano Western Bypass and N565.3billion on routine maintenance and strengthening of road failures.
According to the document: “The total capital outlay for the massive rehabilitation and expansion of all Trunk ‘A’ roads and the ongoing road construction is N461.8billion.
To increase the percentage of roads in good condition from 20 per cent to 70 per cent within the plan period, the Federal Government will embark on the rehabilitation, upgrade and modernisation of 7,000km Federal Trunk ‘A’ roads.
“The network will be kept in a useable condition through the activities of FERMA across the various locations in the country, which will result in the maintenance of about 19,868km of the existing road network by 2013. The total capital outlay estimated for the completion of the projects is N700billion.”
Nigeria has a total road network of 193,200km, comprising 34,123km federal roads, 30,500km state roads and 129,577km local government roads.
Ironically, despite these budgetary allocations for road construction and rehabilitation by the government, more than 70 per cent of the 34,123km federal roads across the country are in deplorable conditions.
Between 2009 and 2010, about 61 projects valued at N214billion were awarded under the zonal intervention programme of the Ministry of Works. But most of the projects are still ongoing.
With the failure of the conventional tolling and the realities that of dwindling funding for the regular maintenance of the roads, the Minister of State for Works, Mr. Chris Ogiemwonyi, made known that the Federal Government is considering concessioning the construction, rehabilitation and /or maintenance of federal roads, including the Abuja-Lokoja Expressway, to the private sector under a Public-Private Partnership scheme.
The contract for the reconstruction of the Abuja-Lokoja road, along with the Port Harcourt-Eket and Kano-Maiduguri roads, into dual-carriage highways, was awarded in July 2006, by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, for N419billion.
The rehabilitation of the 186-km Abuja-Lokoja road, estimated to cost about N40billion, is part of the Abuja-Abaji-Benin highway linking the FCT with Kogi State as well as some major cities in the Southwest, Southeast and Southsouth.
The contract for the rehabilitation of the road was divided into four and awarded to different construction firms.
However, Ogiemwonyi said the Federal Government had already issued a notice of termination of contract to Bulletin Nigeria Limited, the contractor handling the rehabilitation of a portion of the road for alleged poor performance.
He also said the Ministry of Works would partner the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission to select a reputable private firm to which it would farm out the project.
“One road that is of strategic importance to this country today is the Abuja-Lokoja road. We have since realised that the road, which was awarded two years ago to four different contractors, is ongoing. However, in order to fast-track the construction of that road, we need extra funding, which will come from our partners.
“We believe that the Lokoja-Abuja road is good for Public-Private Partnership arrangement. That is one of the major roads we are thinking of. Once we are through with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, we should be able to advertise it,” Ogiemwonyi said.
He added: “Already, we have done the design of the road. This is one of the roads where so many lives have been lost. So, the Lokoja-Abuja road is one of the roads we are going to concession.”
Asked when the process would be completed, Ogiemwonyi said: “You know that the government is a continuum. Our duty is to ensure that the right things are done. We will be glad if the road will be ready for Mr. President to inaugurate as part of his campaign. The road is vital.”
The Managing Director, FERMA, Mr. Kabiru Abdullahi, said the agency spent about N26.5billion on maintenance in the last two years.
He said the agency repaired about 4,500 kilometres of roads and constructed drainages covering about 1,168 kilometres.
He stressed that FERMA needed about N120billion yearly for road maintenance across the country, lamenting that inadequate funding had severely hampered its capacity to carry out its statutory mandate.
The lack of maintenance of roads has become a public issue as it typifies the failure of leadership. Good roads are a basic component of good governance. Nigerians are wantonly exposed to risk daily as a result of the failure of the state to provide adequate amenities for its citizens.
With the dry season fast receding, it is doubtful if much could be done this year again. Yet, the rate of carnage on the roads shows that something urgent ought to be done to remove this blot on Nigeria’s image before the nation is stepped into another season of politicking.
