The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Federal Roads

  • Buhari and federal roads

    The carnage witnessed last week along Benin-Ore road was not an isolated incident. It has become the permanent feature of the federal highways. Over 90 per cent of the federal roads in Nigeria are in ruins. My neighbour escaped death by the skin of his teeth in one of the federal roads, but his wife was not so lucky. In trying to avoid a dangerous crater on the highway, you run the risk of skidding straight into the river or colliding with another vehicle. I often shake my head in pity anytime I drive on these death traps that are called federal highways: How can anyone avoid fatal accidents on these roads? Even the most careful driver is prone to accident!

    Being a new administration, nobody will hold President Muhammadu Buhari responsible for the derelict state of these motorways. But once his government marks one year or two in office, Nigerians will forget that he inherited the dilapidated highways and an empty treasury. It is just about a month that the new government was sworn in and some smart guys are already attempting to deflect attention away from the malfeasance of the last administration. But a word first on the purse of the central government.

    It would seem an understatement for President Muhammadu Buhari to speak of inheriting an empty treasury. I think we should thank God that the President even met a treasury at all. With the monetary bonanza, bazaar and lottery that characterized the electioneering of the ruling party in the last general elections, we should be grateful to the almighty that both the purse and its contents had not disappeared altogether. With the sincerity of purpose, prudence in public finance management, transparency and accountability that will hallmark the Buhari administration (and we can see the signs already), I believe money will begin to flow back into the empty government purse and will ultimately be filled once more.

    But I have some worries. A friend once told me a story that has stuck to my memory. His disciplined, prudent and industrious secondary school principal ensured those sterling qualities rubbed off on the academy, resulting in the students passing their exams with flying colours and a buoyant school till. However, within a few years of graduation, the principal was transferred and replaced by a footloose and spendthrift head. The treasury was emptied in no time, and indiscipline soon began to take its toll on the performance of the students. The school eventually became a shadow of its former self.

    As the saying goes, a man may leave behind a gargantuan fortune, there is no guarantee those coming after him will be wise. As it stands today, the politics of Nigeria is so fluid and there is no certainty about anything.  No one needed a prophet to predict that the present ruling party would undergo one form of crisis or the other. That would be taken for granted in any concourse of people with different or disparate backgrounds. But no political seer could have predicted the recent events in the National Assembly. They left every mouth agape in shock, bewilderment and horror. Dangerous politics, brinkmanship, defiance! Perhaps, I misread the whole thing. My take-away remains – Nigerian politics is fluid; there’s no certitude about anything!

    I have employed every public space in the last decade to discuss the menace of federal roads in Nigeria. I did so many times in relation to our unitary system, often disguised as federalism and the revenue allocation formula, which gives 52 per cent to the Federal Government, 26 per cent to all the 36 states and 20 per cent to the local councils. The Federal Government is also in charge of the balance of two per cent. Clearly, the Federal Government is carrying a load that is heavier than that of the 36 states. No, it should be the other way round. Is it proper for the Federal Government, in a federation, to travel thousands of miles from Abuja in order to sink a borehole in a village or renovate a health centre, a primary school in a far-flung community when there is a state government that is in touch with such people on a daily basis, and will perform these responsibilities at a lower cost, since funds will move directly to where they are needed?

    In one instance, it was observed: “It is cheaper for states to own these federal roads. For instance, the ongoing repair work on the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos has continued to consume avoidable administrative costs. The Minister of Works and other federal officials who come all the way from Abuja to supervise and inspect the road will certainly collect allowances running into millions of naira, whereas it would have amounted to a routine duty for the Lagos Commissioner for Works and other officials. And when you consider that the Abuja officials will have to do the same thing again and again in all the 36 states of the federation, the preventable wastage of tax-payers’ money stares you in the face.

    Contiguous states to these federal roads will naturally collaborate to reconstruct and maintain them at far cheaper costs than moving money and officials first from Abuja to the regional office, and from the regional office to the states. There is so much wastage of public funds in Nigeria.”

    In a piece written in April 2014 titled – Between Abeokuta and Abuja, I submitted: “Despite the gargantuan 52 per cent being collected by the Federal Government, virtually all the federal roads in Ogun State are in tatters: Atan-Agbara road (Agbara is an industrial hub in Nigeria), Owode-Ilaro road, Ikorodu-Sagamu highway, etc. I’m sure the Minister of Works has never heard the names of some of these roads let alone know their locations… from the meagre 0.3 per cent Ogun receives from the Federation Account, the police are also being funded!…  Imagine the amount the state government spent to repair parts of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and several other federal roads that criss-cross the state! This is because the masses don’t like to differentiate between federal and state roads. Once any road is in Ogun territory, then Amosun is looked up to for its maintenance and reconstruction!”

    I call on the President and the National Assembly to ensure these federal roads revert to the states without much delay. The Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission and National Assembly should ensure that in the new Revenue Allocation template, each of the 36 states receives at least 1.5 per cent from the Federation Account. This is a win-win situation for the Federal Government and all the 36 states of the federation. And if a state governor decides to steal his state’s money rather than invest in social services, then his own people who see how some other governors have judiciously spent their own funds will one day rise up against the governor.

    With 25 per cent, the Federal Government should now concentrate on core federal matters such as foreign affairs, currency, maritime shipping, defence, etc. while most of the responsibilities are devolved to the states. This will make the Federal Government stronger and efficient, a beacon of excellent service delivery and an exemplar of institutional development. The President will even have the rest of mind to make Nigeria a major player in international affairs.

    • Soyombo, a media practitioner and public affairs commentator, sent this piece via densityshow@yahoo.com
  • Drivers, residents urge Buhari to rebuild federal roads

    Drivers, residents urge Buhari to rebuild federal roads

    Residents and commercial bus drivers in Aba, Abia State, have urged President Muhammadu Buahri to rebuild the collapsed federal roads not only in the state but also the entire region.

    Not only are the roads broken up in several parts and riddled with potholes; they are nearly impassable when it rains. Those who brave it, have tales of woe.

    Some residents and commercial bus drivers who spoke with our correspondent in Aba, the commercial nerve of the region on Tuesday, lamented that most federal roads in the city and other parts of southeast can only be described as death traps.

    They said that if nothing was urgently done, the Southeast especially Aba may soon be cut off from other parts of the country.

    Checks on Tuesday revealed that out of the three major roads, Aba-Ikot Ekpene Expressway, Port Harcourt Road and the Osisioma axis that connect the city centre to other parts of the region and the Southsouth, the best is the  Osisioma axis, even though it is not in the best of shapes. It serves as the major entrance and exit route for private and commercial vehicles including articulated trucks.

    The Nation can authoritatively report that the heavy influx of vehicles into the city centre through the Osisioma axis usually results to heavy gridlock on the road and one may spend more hours on the road at the slightest drop of rain.

    Residents and business owners who regretted that their repeated appeals and SOS calls to the last administrations at state and federal on their plight failed on deaf ears feared that economic and business activities in the commercial city would crumble if President Buhari and Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration fails to reach an understanding on how to partner with each other to tackle and bring to an end the sufferings of commuters and other road users in the state to an end.

    A commercial motorist plying from Aba to Akwa Ibom State who gave his name as Ifeanyi in a chat with The Nation said that they now use rural roads in Obingwa Local Government to and fro Aba and no thanks to some youths of the communities who always compel them to pay toll fess for using their village roads.

    “I am sure that you might not have traveled to UYO, Akwa Ibom State recently. You need to go to Akwa Ibom through Aba-Ikot Ekpene expressway and see for yourself what drivers are passing through there on a daily basis. We keep patronizing mechanics every week repairing one thing or the other. The only route we now is to find a bit motorable is the village roads, but the youths are also feeding fat on the road. We pay as much as N100 and at some point, we pay N50 and this is to and fro Aba to Akwa Ibom.

    “We are urging the federal and state government to collaborate and do something about the ugly nature of roads liking Aba with Akwa Ibom and other states, if not any other thing, to save us from these youths who are taken advantage of the bad road to exploit us. Aba is a commercial city that attracts traders from different parts of the country and Africa and so therefore, roads linking the city to other state should not be allowed to degenerate so badly as it is today”.

    •A tricycle on Port Harcourt Road, Aba
    •A tricycle on Port Harcourt Road, Aba

    Another commercial bus driver plying Aba-Port Harcourt, Chima Okorie narrating his experience asked the federal government to declare state of emergency on Aba roads.

    Okorie who said he spent nearly 3hrs one of the days last week from Milverton by Asa road to Osisioma because it rained on that day stated that the need for the reconstruction and total repair of all exit routes in Aba cannot be overemphasized, stressing that if the incumbent Governor, Victor Okezie Ikpeazu would be able to fulfill his campaign promises of building more roads and overhead bridges, it was help to decongest the city of heavy trucks that ply on the intra-city roads on daily basis.

    “All we want is for the federal and state government to partner and build more roads. Governor Victor Okezie Ikpeazu promised to build more roads and tackle the problem of traffic congestion in Aba. Let them see ways to divert some of the big trucks that come into Aba before going to places like Calabar, Akwa Ibom, Rivers State and other parts of the country from coming into Aba. It will help to avoid the roads from spoiling easily and as such reduce the constant repair of roads.”

    A journey from Milverton to Flyover which normally cost N70           now costs between N120 to N140 and could rise to N200 if rain falls.

    A resident of Ude Nwanyi by Port Harcourt Road, Mr. Kingsley Offor said that the situation could sometimes get worse that they have to trek home from Milverton because some of the tricycle drivers would not want “to go beyond no. 1 Port Harcourt road because they either do not want to be held in traffic or get their tricycle trapped in the water.

    “If there are people who will pray to God and God will answer their prayers, we living at Port Harcourt road will always pray for dry season throughout the year. That is the only time we can to an extent go home comfortably. Government should please look into our case. The past governor of the state and the past president could not do anything to ameliorate our situation and we hope that the story will not be the same now that Dr. Victor Okezie Ikpeazu and president Buhari are in power.

    I also believe that despite their political party difference, that they should consider the plight of Aba residents as Nigerians who are in dire need of both the presence of government at the state and federal level. Aba is an economic city that has and is still attracting investors and buyers from all over the world and should not be allowed to degenerate badly, Offor cried out passionately.

    It could be recalled that the administration of Governor Ikpeazu had flagged off the reconstruction of 7 roads in Aba with the promise that it would be completed and commissioned within its 100 days in office.

  • Vacate all Federal roads, Fed Task Force orders LASTMA

    As it gears up to take over traffic management on all federal roads, the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P)/FERMA Federal Task Force has directed the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) to vacate all federal roads in the state. It said any attack on his men may spark a row with the Federal Government.

    It said LASTMA should respect the 2004 court ruling which said that its jurisdiction does not extend to federal roads in the state.

    Speaking in his office last week, the National Coordinator of the Task Force Alhaji Abdulrazak Rafiu-Otto, said LASTMA should allow his officers and men to perform the duties for which they were employed. He stated that the men’s duties were the management and maintainance of traffic across all federal roads in Lagos and the recovery of all Federal Government properties and infrastructure in the state.

    Rafiu-Otto, who insisted that the Task Force has nothing against LASTMA, appealed that the latter stay off federal roads and concentrate efforts of its officers and men to ridding the state roads of the traffic gridlock that is intractable in the state. He said his agency would be willing to collaborate with LASTMA in the overall objective of riding the state of gridlocks.

    Wondering why the state government would raise a false alarm on the activities of his men, Rafiu-Otto said the agency was not illegal, as it was created by President Goodluck Jonathan as part of the SURE-P initiative which has provided jobs for thousands of Nigerian youths.

    He said there is no truth in the allegations that the Task Force is a band of political thugs recruited to prosecute the 2015 election, saying such claims was aimed at causing violence and confusion.

    He said “The officers recruited by the Federal Task Force are not thugs, but unemployed graduates and adults looking for a means of livelihood and they all appreciated that the empowerment is already yielding fruits.” He wondered why the Federal Government has not ejected them from its premises at the old toll gate site if they were illegal.

    He said arrangements are almost concluded to have President Jonathan inaugurate the Federal Task Force and deploy them to all federal roads across the country.

    “This would be perfected in a matter of weeks. What we are all waiting for is the necessary basic support from the Nigeria Police, the Department of State Security (DSS), the Civil Defence and all other security agencies to work with the newly established body,” Rafiu-Otto said.

  • FERMA intervenes on Akwa Ibom federal roads

    The Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) has commenced work on Ekparakwa-Iwukem-Azumini road; Ikot Ekpene – Umuhia road and Aba-Ikot Ekpene- Itu road.

    The Board member representing South South Zone on FERMA, Otuekong Idongesit Nkanga, disclosed this while briefing newsmen in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital.

    Nkanga, who was an Ex-Military Administrator in Akwa Ibom State, explained that FERMA acted on Presidential Directive ordering it to unlock the state from the poor conditions of the roads surrounding it.

    According to him, the Federal Ministry of Works had been working on the roads but the contracts were re-awarded due to poor performance of the contractors handling the road projects.

    He said: “You may have noticed particularly those of you from this environment that for some time now Akwa Ibom State has basically literally been locked out because of the poor condition of the Federal Roads beyond the state.

    “The roads in the state are all nylon tarred but beyond the state we cannot say the same. But there is a Presidential Directive that FERMA must stepped in immediately to unlock the state from the poor conditions of the roads surrounding it.

    “With the Presidential Directive, I need to let you know that Federal

    Ministry of Works has actually been working on those roads, contracts were awarded but because of poor performance of the contractors those contracts have been terminated.

    “FERMA couldn’t have been working on those roads at the same time

    Federal Ministry of Works is working on the roads. We have three different contractors working on those roads now. Zerock Contruction Nigeria Limited is to handle Ekparakwa-Iwukem-Azumini road; Walltown

    Stone Nigeria Limited is to handle Ikot Ekpene – Umuhia road while Mothercat Nigeria Limited is to handle Aba-Ikot Ekpene- Itu road.

    “Within this August break and into the dry season those roads must be clearly motorable that is the matching order that have been given and some of the contracts have now been re-awarded within the last three weeks to a month and I am very sure that those roads will be motorable and Akwa Ibom state will be unlock as it were.”

    While calling on the Federal Government to improve her maintenance culture on the existing federal roads, Nkanga argued that if more money is given to FERMA to maintain the roads, the country would have saved more than constructing new roads.

    His words: “What we are doing is an intervention by FERMA. FERMA is not coming to put brand new roads but it is an intervention so that people can make use of the those roads until a decision will be taken on how it will be done for a more permanent solutions.

    “In other countries, more money is spent on maintenance of the existing roads. When you hear people asking for the opening of new roads it is because the existing roads have dilapidated to a point that they cannot make use of it again. If you pay attention to maintenance in this country, we will be better off.”

  • Fed. Task Force restates right to federal roads

    Fed. Task Force restates right to federal roads

    There seems to be no end in sight in the tussle between the security agents with Lagos State government and men of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) SURE-P/FERMA Federal Task Force on who has the right to control federal roads in the state.

    The FERMA Federal Task Force last Thursday said it has the power by law, (going by a subsisting Federal High Court ruling),  to man all federal roads anywhere in the country, including Lagos State.

    FERMA Task Force National Director of Publicity, Mr. Olawale Oyeboh said though LASTMA has been doing a great job in getting the state moving, the federal agency is by law empowered to manage traffic on all federal roads.

    Lagos, being the former  nation’s capital, has 117 federal roads. It has the largest federal road network in the country after Abuja.

    On May 12, men  identified as officers of the FERMA Federal Task Force, took over Ojota, Alausa interchange, and ikorodu road among other federal roads in the state in an operation that took the state government by surprise. Men of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) had to withdraw from such roads to avoid a possible clash.

    The Federal Task Force, however, retreated following a rebuttal by the Lagos State government which described the outfit as “faceless and unknown.”

    The FERMA Federal Task Force returned to the office of the SURE-P/FERMA at the Lagos end of the old toll gate where they continued with their training.

    Matters, however, got worse on May 28, when men of the state Special Task Force on Environment, Sanitation and other offences headed by Bayo Suleiman, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), stormed the SURE-P/FERMA office of the Federal Task Force in a reprisal attack for the alleged attack on some of its men when FERMA’s task force  attempted to arrest a driver who illegally used the dedicated BRT lane at Ketu.

    In the melee that saw the SURE-P/FERMA offices vandalised, no less than 200 Federal Task Force officers undergoing training  were arrested and taken to the Lagos Task Force office, from where they were transferred to the Lagos State Police Command.

    Suleiman told reporters that he swooped on the task force’s office to avenge the attack on his men. “If this attack is not rejected now, it may degenerate,” he said.

    In a telephone interview last Thursday, Oyeboh said the arrested men regained their freedom at about 10 pm the same day, on the orders of the Inspector -General of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar .

    Oyeboh, who lamented the degree of violence by the Suleiman-led task force, blamed ignorance for the high handedness of the state against the federal agency.

    A Federal High Court in a judgment in 2004, Oyeboh said, ordered states’ owned traffic management outfits such as men of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) out of federal roads.

    The Federal Task Force spokesman said the judgment, which is yet to be appealed by any government including Lagos, gave FERMA the sole right, not only to maintain all federal roads, but to manage traffic on such roads anywhere in the country.

    He said the agency has lost millions of naira worth of property in the “sponsored attack on its office,” as thugs invaded the office to loot. According to him, policemen accompanying the state officials  willfully damaged properties in FERMA office.

    He said the National Coordinator for SURE-P/ FERMA Task Force Alhaji Abdulrazak Rafiu Otto has directed  men of the agency to continue with their training ahead of their assignment to federal roads later in the year.

  • ‘Repair federal roads in Abia’

    Abia State government has called on the Federal government to immediately commence work on the reconstruction of all federal roads in the state, especially the Aba/Ikot Ekpene, Port Harcourt roads, all in the commercial city of Aba.

    Speaking with reporters in Umuahia, the state Commissioner for Works, Emeka Longman Nwachukwu, said the call became necessary because of the deplorable condition of the roads which are affecting commercial activities in the state.

    Nwachukwu said the deplorable condition of the federal roads in the state which serve as link to other neighbouring states, are causing embarrassments to the state government, adding that the huge sum of money expended by the state government on maintaining the roads are yet to be reimbursed.

    He pleaded with the authorities at the Federal Ministry of Works to pay the outstanding money.

    He said: “When the money is repaid, the state government would be able to use it to do other things for the people.”

    He added that 51 roads are undergoing reconstruction across the state, stressing that each of the 17 local government areas is getting about three roads, including bridges.

    Nwachukwu said the state has become one huge construction site with the amount of construction going on in different parts of the state.

    “The quantity of construction work going on with limited resources at the disposal of the governor is a thing to wonder about.”

    He said all the contractors working in all sites have all gone back to site as Governor Orji has mobilised them with the necessary fund, adding that they do not have any reason not to work.

    The commissioner warned the contractors that government would not tolerate any form of delay, stressing that if any of them is found trying to play any form of pranks, he will be dealt with accordingly.

    He praised the Governor Orji for allowing all the contractors handling the works in the state to have local content.

    “This means that most of the contractors are locally based and have no need to disappear since they will easily be found in any corner of the state.”

    Nwachukwu said a lot of road construction is going on in the commercial city of Aba, adding that in the next few weeks, the governor will commence the process of road inauguration in all parts of the state.

    He warned residents of Aba to stop the habit of building on drainage system and blocking the drains, adding that government will soon commence the process of demolishing such structures built on such places.