The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Niger Bridge

  • Include Niger Bridge, others in plan, supporters urge Buhari

    The Buhari Support Organisation (BSO) in Enugu State has hailed President Muhammadu Buhari for his administration’s infrastructural upgrade.

    But the group urged the President to include major projects in what it called the Buhari Infrastructure Renewal (BIR) in his administration’s external borrowing plan.

    BSO said: “We are making this plea for inclusion of the Enugu coal-to-power, 2nd Niger Bridge, Maiduguri-Port Harcourt railway and Adani-Anambra rice projects in the Buhari Infrastructure Renewal segment of the Federal Government External Borrowing Plan 2016, 2017 and 2018, because of the following reasons:

    * Our understanding is that the creditors predicated their transaction on the Integrity Quotient (IQ) of Mr President.

    * Most Nigerians as well are receptive of the loan because of the IQ of Mr President, knowing well that the loan will be prudently managed.

    * President Buhari may not borrow again in the next eight years.

    In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Eze Chibueze, BSO reaffirmed its support for the loan because of the “truism that Mr President is handicapped by the culture of impunity, the collapse of oil prices and the unprecedented looting which took place, hence the general infrastructure deficit”.

     

  • Our Girls; FH/FWar; Lagos Calabar; Niger Bridge; MOWorkless: Otedola/Mowe-Ibafo drains/ potholes!

    Our Girls are still missing since April 14th 2015, two years tomorrow. Shame on us. We pray for their safe return.

    The Fulani Herdsmen/Farmers War, FH/FWar, claims more lives daily and requires military protection of farmers and the ranching of cattle with fattening and slaughtering on site or transportation live or frozen nationwide by rail and trailers. No Nigerian should be injured, killed or deprivation for you or anyone to eat cow-meat.

    Every government requires a Legacy Project. Buhari can solve the FH/FWar. There is more to governance than paying civil servants and servicing the greed of politicians for SAP- ‘Salaries, Allowances, Perks’ for life everlasting. Legislators must not prevent a government’s opportunity to save lives, reduce traffic and introduce 21st century travel and to change rail landscape destroyed in favour of trailers for 40 years. Nigerians deserve better; a better future than their past. The Chinese and Japanese have 200-400kph bullet-trains. Yet we take loans from Japan for common classroom blocks and from China for common flyovers. Meanwhile others are building a Saudi Arabia/ Egypt Bridge across the Red Sea – a defining Legacy Project! Buhari must build his Lagos-Calabar Railway with the $2billion Chinese loan!

    Nigeria needs of 1000s of Legacy Projects, not irrelevant white elephant projects. We require 1000 bridges and a Second and Third Niger Bridge. The urgently needed Second Niger Bridge is an election bait joke and also used to inflate and then take money from the budget. Will the Second Bridge become a Buhari Legacy Project or is it cursed by political need for greed? Each government promises the bridge but always fails due to insincerity. Happily there is Fasola’s Lekki Bridge, a functional Legacy Project that required interparty and inter-government cooperation. This model should be copied nationwide in federal-state relationships which should be cooperative not combative.

    Sadly even existing bridges ‘spoil’ in Nigeria! The Director of Works must OPEN THE DRAINS ON THE BRIDGE on the exit out of Lagos before the OTEDOLA ESTATE JUNCTION to drain the flood which caused terrible accidents last Saturday. How can the Director of Works sleep while the flood reduced the bridge to just one lane compounding the fuel-caused gridlock? Yet the solution needs brains not budgets. The Ministry of Works, MOW, failed to INSPECT AND INSTITUTE PREVENTIVE MEASURES. Is this total forgetfulness, nonchalance and even a no understanding! Why is the Ministry of Works making the minister look incompetent or irresponsible when the labels belong to the MOW? Is the minister supposed to inspect roads himself and execute preventive measures like ‘DIG OUT THE GUTTERS OR EVEN DRILL NEW HOLES’ in the sides of that bridge and even the nearby long bridge before more citizens die from preventable road crashes causing carnage and conflagration? The necessary holes need opening now. Are rainwater, earth, sand, corn and grass supposed to appear and grow on bridges? However such bridges are dangerous and should carry A HEALTH HAZARD WARNING. ‘THIS BRIDGE/ROAD COULD SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH. POTHOLES/ FLOODS KILL!’

    Who is responsible for signposting the major potholes across Nigeria and especially on the Lagos-Ibadan road plied everyday by 10-20 FRSC vehicles and staff looking for ‘Dangerous Drivers’? Who will arrest the ‘DANGEROUS ROAD’? Should the FRSC signpost DANGEROUS POTHOLES AND DANGEROUD 20-50 METRES for drivers’ protection? The FRSC sends SITUATION REPORTS to Ministry of Works, but appears not empowered to empower the citizens by pointing out to citizens the dangers just ahead for fear of ‘Embarrassing the Ministry of Works-lessness’.  The Highway Code has road signs. There is a neglected responsibility to signpost danger spots on roads by whichever government agency runs the roads –‘the Ministry Of Works-less’. It would be better to fill the potholes daily. FRSC should PUBLISH a POTHOLE WATCH on its website and CONTINUE TO TELL the Ministry of Workless. FRSC should arrange to slow traffic down and if possible throw some sand into the deep potholes to save lives while waiting for the Ministry of Workless to learn ‘POTHOLE FILLING’ IS MORE GLORIOUS THAN ‘CONTRACT GIVING’. So who is to ‘BELL THE POTHOLE’! Nigeria HAS FAILED AGAIN AND is the only country where FOUR OF FIVE AGENCIES CANNOT AND will never translate into better maintained roads with common ‘POTHOLE FILLING’ and proper SIGNPOSTING OF DANGER SPOTS like rough patches and potholes.

    We are IRRESPONSIBLE! The Ministry of Workless must CHANGE its attitude to work. WE LOST TOO MANY. We finally overcame the traffic jam at Ogere on the Lagos Ibadan road and have substituted it with 10-30km daily 4-6 lane and especially Sunday afternoon Mowe/Ibafo gridlock caused by just two or three 30metre sections forcing a single lane to Lagos due simply to waterlogged bad road. Of course this is compounded by ROAD EDGE IMPATIENT DRIVING AND commercial traffic in the towns. The Ministry of Workless is supervisor to the contractor but must ensure traffic-flow and motor-ability of the as yet unrepaired areas.

    ‘Fellow Nigerians’ have ‘Powerlessness, Petrolessness, Pensionlessness, Salarylessness and Joblessness@2016??  Why does the Ministry seek to add of Worklessness through ‘DELAYS AND DEATH BY POTHOLE’ to the travails of Nigerians? THERE ARE TOO MANY DEAD. ‘OPERATION FILL POTHOLES OR WE DIE’, BUDGET OR NO BUDGET.  We want Potholelessness!

    NB: Never slap anyone, especially children, wives and domestics –you may damage their eye for life and cause deafness! You may even ‘Slap the eye out’.

    There is drought/famine in Ethiopia and Drought in India. Save water!

     

    • Check tonymarinho.com for blog
  • NSIA spends $2.2m on Second Niger bridge, says MD

    NSIA spends $2.2m on Second Niger bridge, says MD

    The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has spent $2.21million (about N439.78million) towards the construction of the Second Niger Bridge, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the agency, Uche Orji, has said.

    Orji, who gave an update yesterday at a media briefing in Lagos, said the Agency, acting through its wholly owned subsidiary, NSIA Motorways Investment Company (NMIC), is collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Works and Julius Berger Investments (JBI) as joint sponsors on the financing, development and construction of the Project.

    The bridge which is estimated to gulp $700million by 2012 estimates, is billed for completion in 48months, he said.

    The 11.9km length bridge, Uche pointed out, is structured as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) and would be constructed and operated on a Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis.

    He said: “It is expected that the Bridge would be constructed and delivered in 48 months. When completed, the Bridge and adjacent roads will have six  lanes with three  in each direction.”

    He said the Project was initially estimated to cost N108 billion excluding duties and Value Added Tax (VAT), stating that if VAT if duties and VAT are included, the Project cost would jump to N117.9billion. “This was equivalent to $700 million at the then prevailing exchange rate of N154/$, pointing out that the final project cost would naturally be affected by exchange rate fluctuations and other variables.

    Orji, who was accompanied by the Chief Investment Officer/Executive Director, Hanspeter Ackermann and  the Chief Risk Officer/Executive Director, Stella Ojekwe-Onyejeli, said the Federal Government has made a N30 billion commitment to the Project, but has released N18.3 so far, adding that the consortium would raise the remaining funds for the project from Nigerian and international lenders and equity providers.

    He said to underline its commitment to accountability and transparency, the NSIA assembled a team of Nigerian and international advisers with proven capabilities and global experience in PPP infrastructure projects to ensure the Project gets first-class advisory services, stating that these consultants were engaged through a rigorous and competitive procurement process.

    He said the total consultancy services cost so far is less than one per cent of the estimated project cost, saying the cost, was far below going international rates. As he put it: “Whilst there is no standardised benchmark for transaction costs, the European Investment Bank’s Economic and Financial Report No. 3 of 2005, indicates that, on the average, the level of transaction cost for the procurement phase  of PPP projects is over 10 per cent of the capital value of the relevant project in Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.” He however pointed out that this EIB survey estimate, excludes other costs related to contrast monitoring and renegotiation in the operational phase of the relevant projects.

    He said NSIA’s technical consultants on this project have been instrumental in value-engineering the project and reducing the initial project cost to the current level, adding that the agency has put in place a multi-stage approval process for all disbursements under which all payments involving construction are made only after approval by a third-party engineering firm, which matches work completed against amounts due.

    Orji expressed concern that the NSIA has yet to receive any additional funding apart from the initial $1billion it received from inception, but nevertheless struck a positive cord that it has in its possession about $550million it is managing for two government agencies, including the Debt Management Office (DMO).

    He said the chances of additional inflow from official sources are slim, given that government’s main source of revenue – crude oil, has suffered about 50 per cent price decline, “consequently, I do not anticipate a substantial growth in the funds under management through that source.”

  •  Our Girls; Adefuye, RIP; 2007 Ignored letters to Ban Ki-Moon: UN Media plan; 2nd Niger Bridge

    Our Girls are missing since April 15, 2014. During his visit, the UN Sec Gen Ban Ki-Moon supported strident calls for their release.

    We mourn Great UI-ite, History Professor Ade Adefuye, 68, distinguished diplomat in Jamaica, UK, the Commonwealth and Nigerian Ambassador to the USA. RIP and May God comfort the family, Amen.

    On 6th May 2007, I wrote this unacknowledged letter to Ban Ki-Moon at UN Building, New York.

    Dear Ban Ki-Moon, A UN POSTER IS WORTH 1,000 WORDS but unseen by the world’s 3+ billion school youth. Why?

    1. Problem:  The UN’s wealth of preventive knowledge is not yet bridging the Ignorance Gap among the world’s people who suffer from ignorance while awaiting rare educational visits of NGOs or a UN team. Children, the Weapon of Mass Development, are in poor learning environments lacking life-skills.
    2. Solution:  Adorn Classrooms with 10 UN POSTERS each to achieve the UN POSTER EMPOWERMENT of 40-60million teachers & their 60 +million classrooms and disseminate all UN messages. – A UN- Schools Anti-Ignorance Initiative making every classroom a UN Information Room.
    3. Methodology: Preparation and worldwide distribution of UN Life-skills Posters. That knowledge will save/improve lives of school children’s families. – About 40-60million sets of posters are needed -the cost of a few UN jeeps.
    4. Funding: By UN/Public/Private AND MEDIA Partnerships at world/country level.
    5. Distribution: The UN agencies have posters that rarely get to world schools hungry for knowledge. The UN Sec Gen could get UN Country Rep to find Public/Private/Media partners to reproduce this material to reach every school.

    The UN could embark on this UN Ignorance Elimination Programme to raise a 3 billion student army of young UN Ambassadors with knowledge against social ignorance, and preventable disease to get behavioural change worldwide quickly. The UN must insist that education is more than the three Rs of Reading WRiting and ARithmetic.  [Education needs the R in PosteR.] Each poster will summarise topics for teacher empowerment.

    Yours, In the elimination of World Life-skill Ignorance through worldwide UN-led teacher/student empowerment – Dr Tony Marinho, Sec, Educare Trust. I got no reply.

    Also in 2007 I wrote to the UN Country Rep, no reply either.

    Good idea 2007 : The world’s ignorant youth in schools are an army thirsty for knowledge and Weapons for Mass Development [or Destruction if neglected], the UN should print a 50-100 page UN-ANTI IGNORANCE BOOK reprinted by Public-Private Partnership for all teachers with one page taught at assembly daily. Each page for a LIFE-SKILL THEME from Abortion, AIDS, Alcohol, Addiction, Bullying, Beating, Cheating, Child Labour and Rights, Democracy, Drugs, Dangerous Driving, Environment, Exercise, Food, Gender Issues, Hand washing, Healthy Living, Immunisation, Infant Mortality, Malaria, Maternal Mortality, Road Safety, River Safety,  Sanitation, Sex, Smoking, Sickle Cell, Toilets, Tuberculosis, Violence against Women to Zebra Crossings et cetera. This way, every child worldwide will have similar access to Life-skill knowledge to ‘empower’ the family.

    Additionally, Educare Trust Recommends UN Things To Change The World -UN 2007.

    1. Problem 1 Worldwide IGNORANCE of LIFE-SKILL MESSAGES. Solution: ADVERTISING at commercial volumes.
    2. PROBLEM 2: Private sector has billions for advertising but public -life-skill- sector has little. Solution: Partnership to eliminate ignorance. Every commercial advert- carton, container, wrapping, poster, picture, audio or visual- should carry an additional visual/audio social message [as ‘Corporate Social Responsibility-CSR’].
    3. UN Recommended widening of the UN/Private/Public frontier to involve the Advertising Media ADVERTISING GURUS like WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell in Global Fund Meetings. This will bring billions in funds from commercial advertising and cut cost of saving lives using a new UN SOCIAL ADVERTISING STRATEGY.  The Campaign would be called ‘The UN Dual/Add-On “Commercial/Social” Message Resolution’-a UN Revolution. It would involve UN Social Message Inserts in youth music programmes/videos like Channel O, radio and on News bar/runners under cartoons [and on social media platforms].
    4. Annually select the ‘100 UN, WHO and National and Local Life-skill Messages’.
    5. UN recommended ‘The UN Media 30 Minute Resolution’: Every media house should allocate ‘Life-skill Message’ time up to 60 or so 30-60 sec messages daily.
    6. Create one Youth Inspiration Centre/5000 youth. ‘A UN Youth Inspiration Centre Resolution’.
    7. Put Ten Books in Kiosks & Shops [Ten BooKs Mini-Library Programme] creating instant mini-libraries worldwide. Make this a UN Resolution to fight illiteracy.
    8. Create role model UN Youth Ambassador Healthy Living Programmes to fight disease and obesity ‘Meet Miss or Master UN who smokes clean air, no cigarettes, does no drugs, eats fruits and vegetables, takes few sugary drinks, exercises, reads widely, says ‘yes’ to virginity and ‘no’ to sex, avoids alcohol, and…does good deeds.’
    9. The UN Youth is UNique, UNconventional, UNusual, UNder no illusions, Undeterred.

    Today let me recommend that Ban Ki-Moon initiates a 2015 Oct/Nov Annual UN Advertising Media/Private Sector LIFE-SKILL IGNORANCE ELIMINATION MEETING for corporates to view and select from the 200 UN Life-Skill Messages for inclusion in 2016 advert calendars, campaigns, commercial cartons and product packaging. The UN must involve the Advert gurus with Recognition strategies to get the life-skill message into every home. Every dining table deserves a UN life-skill message on the Bread/Cornflakes packet like ‘Real Men do not beat their wives or children-UN Message’. A UN Poster is worth a 1,000,000 words. Forward this article to Ban Ki-Moon, please.

    PS: In four years, the non-corrupt Buhari can please give Nigerians the repeatedly overinflated ‘suspended’ 2nd Niger Bridge; and in one year, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

    ‘The UN’s wealth of preventive knowledge is not yet bridging the Ignorance Gap among the world’s people who suffer from ignorance while awaiting rare educational visits of NGOs or a UN team. Children, the Weapon of Mass Development, are in poor learning environments lacking life-skills… In four years, the non-corrupt Buhari can please give Nigerians the repeatedly overinflated ‘suspended’ 2nd Niger Bridge; and in one year, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.’ 

  • Jonathan and Second Niger Bridge

    SIR: “When the first bridge was built, it was during the presidency of Nnamdi Azikiwe; the second Niger bridge will be built under the presidency of Azikiwe Jonathan.” “I will go on exile on the completion

    of my term in office if I didn’t build the bridge by 2015“.

    President Goodluck “Azikiwe” Jonathan made that promise in his remarks at a Town Hall Meeting held on August 31, 2011 in the commercial city of Onitsha as part of activities marking his one-day visit to Anambra State. The issue of Second Niger Bridge naturally came up during the Town Hall Meeting since Jonathan had during his campaigns for the 2011 presidential ballot promised to construct the bridge if elected President.

    To convince his audience that serious efforts are being made to build the bridge, he invited Works Minister Mike Onolomemen and Finance Minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to brief the people on what was being done about the construction of the bridge. Typically, Onolomemen reeled out the technical details about the design of the bridge and the companies bidding to construct it, while Okonjo-Iweala unfolded the financial arrangements being made to construct the bridge.

    At the end of the meeting, some of the participants, among them, a businessman, Prince Arthur Eze were so thrilled that they urged President Jonathan to seriously consider seeking re-election in 2015.

    Prince Arthur would be less enthusiastic about President Jonathan’s re-election bid if he were to be interviewed on the subject today. If he exudes the same sentiments and excitements over Jonathan’s

    Presidency beyond 2015, it would be because of something else. And it would because of identity politics.

    A few days ago, the president was seen inspecting the “Second Niger Bridge map” on his campaign trip to Anambra State! This is an indication that no starting block has been signposted in a swathe of

    empty space where the bridge was supposedly “erected”! After four years of deceptive and hollow platitudes the president who chiefly identified himself with the Ndigbo couldn’t fulfil a simple electoral promise.

    Now, the basic presumption amongst majority of the Igbos is that President Jonathan is one of their own. But the more entrenched this politics of overt sentiment and identity surface, the more extreme and widespread poverty that plagues them under the same administration with severe intensity. Yet, the poverty visited on the Igbos by the PDP government is the same thing as the one witnessed amongst the Kanuri, Yoruba, Niger Delta or any other tribes.

    The most annoying aspect of next month’s election is not about President Jonathan’s 2011 broken promises which he repeated in 2015. It’s not entirely because of stunting virtually all the national institutions, namely, education, Military, Police, Judiciary, EFCC, ICPC, and the like. It’s the avowed threat of the President’s men to declare him the winner of the election before the election ever takes place.

    The PDP and its presidential candidate may wish to continue to persuade and manipulate the few who are unable to see beyond the facade and fascist enslavement inherent in the party for all  they

    care. The height of electoral impunity is when a political party or any government for that matter wishes to subvert the people’s mandate and interests and declare itself victorious in total negation and against the electoral aspiration of the electorate. Nigerians are looking up to that watershed, when they will determine their destiny at the polling booths, comes February 14.

     

    • Erasmus Ikhide,
  • Jonathan praised over Second Niger Bridge

    Jonathan praised over Second Niger Bridge

    Enugu Roots Initiative (ERI), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has praised President Goodluck Jonathan for the flag-off of the Second Niger Bridge. It said the project would accelerate economic activities in the South-east and Southsouth geo-political zones.

    The group also called on the President to compel the security agencies to unravel the identity and the mission of those who invaded Government House, Enugu, penultimate weekend, emphasising that a matter as serious as that should not be ignored.

    In a communiqué issued after its meeting in Enugu, the body also called on the Federal Government to revitalise the coal industry because of its vast potential as source of energy and foreign exchange earner.

    In the communiqué signed by Messrs Joni Icheka (Chairman), Emma Nwodo (Treasurer) and Malachy Uzendu (Public Relations Officer), ERI insisted that government should give the execution of the Second Niger Bridge the attention it deserves as against the slow pace of work on Enugu/Onitsha Expressway.

    They stated that the state of the road is deplorable, wondering whether rehabilitation of the road which contract was awarded over three years ago was being funded.

    On the Second Niger Bridge, they praised the President for the flag-off, even as they noted that it takes more than a flag-off to get the job done.

    “We need more than a symbolic flag-off of the Second Niger Bridge. What we need is execution of the bridge as we do not want to believe that what was done was just to lure the Southeast to vote for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the next Presidential election.

    “Former President Olusegun Obasanjo carried out ground-breaking ceremony of the same bridge before his tenure ended but it was abandoned.

    “The Second Niger Bridge will accelerate economic development of the country in general and the zone in particular.”

    ERI condemned the invasion of the Enugu Government House. It called on President Jonathan to probe into the matter in order to bring the perpetrators to justice.

    “What happened at Enugu Government House is most despicable and akin to mutiny. It should not be glossed over. The masterminds must be fished out for appropriate punishment,” ERI said.

    They also urged President Jonathan to find out why reconstruction of the Enugu/Onitsha and Enugu/Port Harcourt Expressways is on hold.

    “We note with sadness that the same company which speedily completed Kubwa/AYA Road expansion project in Abuja in record time is using shovel to mix bitumen and concrete and works at snail speed.

    “Even the Abakpa Junction to Onyeama Mine Section of the road which the company claimed it has finished has collapsed.

    “What is happening on the Enugu/Onitsha and Enugu/Port Harcourt roads is akin to what is going on along the Benin/Okene/Lokoja/Abuja Expressway.”

  • Work to begin on 2nd Niger bridge soon – Jonathan

    Work to begin on 2nd Niger bridge soon – Jonathan

    President Goodluck Jonathan pledged on Saturday that work would start on the second Niger Bridge not later than March 17, 2014 when Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State is due to leave office.
    This, he said, is to honour Obi for the passion he has shown for the execution of the project.
    The President spoke during a courtesy visit to the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe at his Ime Obi palace in Onitsha.

    The president who said he was on the way from the PDP rally in Owerri described Anambra State and its people as very lucky to have Peter Obi as their governor.
    He said that in an era when some other governors are owing banks and raising bonds, Obi remains an exception.
    He said that Obi would remain a member of the Presidential Economic Management Team even after ceasing to be governor.
    Igwe Achebe thanked the President for what he has done for the state and noted in particular, the ongoing work on the mausoleum of Nigeria’s first president, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe in Onitsha.
    “It will go down in history that it was your administration that had the determination and zeal to finally give our beloved, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Owelle-Osowa Onitsha, first President of Nigeria, and Zik of Africa, a befitting resting place,” he said.

  • ONICCIMA raises alarm over 2nd Niger Bridge

    Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ONICCIMA) yesterday at its 26th Annual General Meeting and conference raised the alarm over the politicisation of the 2nd Niger Bridge.  It said the existing Niger Bridge is in a bad situation and should not be burdened with the heavy traffic daily on top of it to avert collapse.

    President of the Chamber, Chief Tim Anosike, in his address  during the 26th Annual General Meeting and Conference at Top Rank Hotels Onitsha yesterday, wondered why the federal government should times without number announce that the contract had been awarded to Julius Berger PLC with adequate mobilisation, yet nothing has happened at the project site.

    On the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra State, the ONICCIMA President cautioned the players and candidates as well as their supporters to play according to the game and laid down rules and regulations.