The Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) has been criticised for abandoning work on the Third Mainland Bridge and other adjoining roads.
Last month, the agency began repairs on both carriage ways, scrapping asphalt on some sections, but vacated site for over two weeks.
Motorists attributed several accidents on the bridge in recent times to the uncoordinated method in which FERMA was carrying out the repair.
Investigations showed that though N10billion was voted for FERMA in the 2016 Budget of the Federal Ministry of Works, the contractor was yet to be mobilised.
With the March 31 deadline for the implementation of the 2017 budget fast approaching, FERMA hurriedly moved the contractor to site. But its failure to mobilise led to work being stalled.
Some motorists are calling on Minister of Works Babatunde Fashola to rise up to the challenge and ensure that the agency completes the repair.
A motorist, Babajide Kasali, who plies the axis daily, decried the long hours of traffic occasioned by the slow pace of work, saying it was gradually taking a toll on his health and productivity.
Another motorist, Mrs. Abidemi Otegbola, said FERMA’s inability to carry out its duties was due to lack of proper monitoring by the parent ministry.
Residents of Otuoke in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State have appealed to the state government to repair the Otuoke-Onuebum road, which has been in a deplorable condition.
The residents spoke yesterday in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Otuoke.
Mr Ologi Damiete told NAN that the road had worsened since the last rainy season started as vehicles found it difficult to pass through.
Damiete, a worker at the Federal University at Otuoke (FUO), urged the state government to fix the road.
He added: “The condition of this road has worsened since the flood submerged the community. There has not been any preventive measure to forestall a future occurrence.
“We expect the government to put necessary measures in place to guard against future occurrence.
“Students of FUO have resumed for a new semester and they have been finding it difficult to move in and out of the community.
“I am calling on all the relevant authorities to look into the matter because we have become unbearable. Our vehicles have been damaged because of the road.”
Another resident, Mr Oweifa Debekeme, urged the state government to accelerate the efforts to check flooding in the state.
He said floods had destroyed many roads in the state.
Debekeme said the people were suffering, adding that government had the responsibility to provide roads and other infrastructure.
A taxi driver plying the road, Mr Babatunde Adeola, said the road was in a bad shape before the flood destroyed it.
Adeola urged the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to repair the road to reduce the suffering of the people.
He implored the Bayelsa State Government to come to the aid of the people of Otuoke and Onuebum communities as well as students and workers of the university.
He said the youths sand-filled the bad portions, adding: “Commercial drivers now pay them for that.”
Minister of State for Aviation Hadi Sirika yesterday said the Federal Government was not interested in financing the establishment of aircraft Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) facility as a result of the current economic realities.
He said government will rather be favourably disposed to creating a condusive environment for private sector investors interested in setting up such facilities.
Sirika said such facilities have become imperative to create jobs for local aviation professionals as well as contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in addition to curbing capital flight.
Represented by the Director of Operations, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Abdullahi Sidi at the Aviation Round Table (ART) meeting in Lagos said the government will only provide conducive environment for the project to thrive.
“Federal Government will not get involved in the setting up of MRO but will provide conducive environment for stakeholders to build MRO and thrive,” he said.
In his presentation, the Chief Executive Officer of Bi- Courtney Aviation Services Limited , Capt Jari Williams, said Nigeria cannot have airlines without a maintenance base, adding that the biggest problem with setting up an MRO is lack of government policy.
He said: “Setting up an MRO require government incentives, tax waivers on spare parts importation, low interest rates, free trade zones, pioneer status and security.”
The rehabilitation of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and other federal roads in Lagos will begin soon, Federal Controller of Works Godwin Eke said yesterday.
Eke told reporters while inspecting the highway that construction giant Julius Berger had submitted cost estimates for the repair of the Ilasamaja/Berliet/Iyana Itire sections of the expressway.
He, however, said the Federal Ministry of Works was waiting for approval of the 2016 budget, to begin the exercise.
Eke said that the site inspection became necessary “to assess the current situation of the highway”.
The controller expressed sadness over the failed portions and apologised to road users, promising that all failed sections will receive priority attention.
He appealed to users of the expressway to be patient, adding that the government is pained by the hardship faced by motorists because of the bad portions.
Eke said “The Ilasamaja/Berliet/Iyana Itire sections of this Apapa-Oshodi expressway are in deplorable condition.
“We have made some proposals and designs on how to fix the highway and other federal roads in Lagos, but it is tied to the 2016, 2017 and the 2018 budgets.
“The Minister, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has given his word that the Apapa/Oshodi expressway and all other federal roads in Lagos and throughout the federation will be fixed soon.
“We are assuring the public that as soon as the budget is passed, we will mobilise the contractors to site to begin repairs on these critical sections, that is, the Ilasamaja/Berliet/Iyana Itire sections,” he said.
The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) yesterday urged the Federal Government to rehabilitate federal roads to ease transportation of petroleum products.
Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, NUPENG’s Southwest Chairman made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
Korodo said the rehabilitation would reduce unnecessary delay of tanker drivers, who lose much time before getting products to their final destinations.
“Most federal roads have become death traps and this is causing accidents to our tanker drivers;
Oshodi-Apapa Express Road, Okene-Lokoja and Owo-Akoko roads are in deplorable conditions.
“Government should ensure that these roads are repaired this year to ease movement of vehicles plying the roads,” he said.
The chairman urged the Federal Government to protect NNPC pipelines from vandals.
He said this would return normal loading activities at abandoned NNPC depots nationwide.
Korodo also sought a reduction in contract staffing and job security for workers in the oil and gas industry.
The chairman said the union would help the government in making Nigerians smile.
He urged the Department of Petroleum Resources to withdraw or cancel the licence of independent marketers frustrating its efforts.
Over 12,000 Fistula cases are recorded yearly. Many are wrongly repaired, leaving the patients in a lifelong trauma. But the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its Fistula Care Plus project is advocating standardised treatment for patients. Oyeyemi Gbenga-Mustapha writes.
To ensure standard treatment for fistula, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is advocating that only specialists should handle patients. USAID is campaigning for expert treatment in the wake of many patients’s fistula being repaired wrongly, leaving them with more complications.
USAID Fistula Care Plus Project Manager, Dr Habibu Sadauki, said Vesico-Vagina Fistula (VVF) remains a condition with devastating physical and social consequences for the patient. “Its successful management poses a significant challenge. Quick and accurate diagnosis is essential. Timely repair by an experienced fistula surgeon, adhering to fastidious basic surgical principles, will improve outcomes and limit the clinical insult and distress that a patient is caused,” he said.
Sadauki added: “For instance, Vesicovaginal Fistula (VVF) formation represents a condition with devastating consequences for the patient and continues to pose a significant challenge to the surgeon. Quick and accurate diagnosis, followed by timely repair is essential to the successful management of these cases. A thorough understanding of the pathophysiology and anatomy of the fistula, potential factors that may compromise healing and experience in the fundamental principles of fistula repair are the vital tools of the fistula surgeon. Not many people are trained in this specialty. Many patients, we discovered, have been ‘repaired’ but they still end up on our tables, during ‘the Pool Effort’ we carry out in the geopolitical zones because they are unprofessionally repaired. It is like a waste of time and inflicting more injury to the Fistula patients.”
‘Pool Effort’, is done by Fistula Care Plus to bring together people living with Fistula, for professional repairs, provision of consumables, allowances as well as other theatre materials needed for the surgeries amongst others to collaborating hospitals, in the sites/centres, in the geo political zones.
A former Commissioner of Health in Zamfara State and certified doctors trainer on fistula repairs, Dr Sa’ad Idri, said the motion by the USAID Fistula Care Plus project to sponsor a bill that will ensure the passage of law forbidding non VVF repair specialists from carrying out any surgical repair for VVF patients nationwide is in order.
Idris said: “Regardless of the technique used and the timing of surgery, the principles that underpin Fistula repair remain the same. The repair should be tension-free, watertight and uninfected. The tissues at the site of the repair should be healthy and a well-vascularized interposition flap should be used if required. For instance, the first attempt at VVF repair has the highest chance of success, making it imperative that surgery is well planned and performed by a surgeon skilled in fistula repair. But for pecuniary gains, we find out that medics not trained in fistula repair carry out same on patient, leaving her more damaged.”
He said VVF repair can be approached transvaginally (through the vagina), transabdominally (across the abdominal wall), or in a combined approach if necessary.
“The transvaginal approach offers a lower complication rate and a shorter post-operative recovery. The transabdominal route is preferred when the fistula site cannot be visualised or easily accessed per vagina, or when the VVF is complex. But anybody that is not trained in same cannot be skilled in carrying these out.”
Meanwhile, the oldest Fistula Repair specialist in the country, Dr Ladan Hassan Warwickshire, with over five decades experience, expressed satisfaction that USAID Fistula Care Plus project is coming up with the proposal. Many patients have been discriminated at. They live perpetually in fear and self censorship. They are ostracised most of the time. Between 2007 to 2014, the USAID Fistula Care Plus project in Nigerian had supported 9, 203 fistula repairs at 10 facilities, in partnership with federal and states ministries of health as well as women affairs ministries.
Dr Warwickshire, a former Head at Geffe Fistula Centre, Birnin Kebbi said, “Fistula is common among young girls due to early marriage; prolong labour and harmful traditional practices. Consequences of fistula are life-shattering for the women who experience it and it leaves them with chronic incontinence, social isolation, ulcer, infections, possible paralysis or death. The Law is long overdue.”
The rehabilitation of facilities at the Federal University of Agriculture (UNIAGRIC) in Makurdi, the Benue State capital is seen by students as cosmetic. Reason: The job, they say, is being haphazardly done. DAMSA AHANGBA (300-Level Mathematics and Computer Science) reports.
It a thanksgiving last November to mark his second year in office, Prof Emmanuel Kucha, Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the Federal University of Agriculture (UNIAGRIC) in Makurdi, Benue State, unveiled his development plan for the school.
He declared a two-month break to enable the management embark on rehabilitation of facilities. The announcement was greeted with applause as students expressed hope that things would change for the better.
The VC told the gathering to judge him by his performance.
However, nine months after Prof Kucha made that promise, members of the university community have yet to feel the impact of the reform. The VC, some said, may have reneged on his pledge to make the campus conducive for learning.
The two months within which the VC promised to repair the infrastructure, was extended by a month, distorting the academic calendar. Students returned to meet their Halls of Residence almost the same way they left them. The school, they said, only painted the hostels.
Some students, who spoke to CAMPUSLIFE, described the renovation as cosmetic, saying things may become worse if the management did not fix the decrepit facilities.
Kehinde Ajibola, a 400-Level student, who is staying in Dalhatu Tafida Hall, said the hostel was only painted, adding: “There is no difference between what we left and what we see now.”
To Chia Denen, a 300-Level student, it is not enough for the management to carry out renovation on existing facilities. He said: “The school needs to build new hostels and lecture theatres to save students from problems of overcrowding and ill-health. Painting existing hostels and lecture rooms does not serve the interests of the students.”
As the school battled overstretching of its facilities, the management decided to relocate the College of Management Sciences to the main campus, thereby increasing the number of students on the campus.
Despite the rehabilitation embarked upon by the management, students said the Halls of Residence remained unfit to live in.
Such is the Block C Hostel extension, which was built in 2012 exclusively for Veterinary Medicine students. CAMPUSLIFE gathered that ceilings in most of the rooms have fallen off and the doors broken. Students also complained that there is no power supply to some rooms.
•One of the rooms without ceiling in the school hostel
Samuel Ahokegh, a Biological Science student, living in the Block C hostel lamented the poor conditions in the hall. He said: “In my room, there is no ceiling and we have not had power supply for months. We have made several complaints but there has been no response from the porters. The heat from the sun hits us directly, making the room uncomfortable. If our parents come to visit and see how we live on the campus, they will never be happy.”
Drivers of commercial tricycle, who ply the pothole-ridden road that links the south wing of the university to its entrance, are not also happy with the state of the road. They said the state of the road had become worsened during the raining season, with the school management not making any move to patch the ditches on the thoroughfare.
Gabriel Aondakaa, a commercial tricycle driver, said: “I visit mechanic workshop every week for repair on my Keke (a local parlance for tricycle) because of the bad road.”
Corroborating him, Henry Azeeka, another driver, said he spent his profit on repair of his Keke, adding: “I manage to survive because I spend almost everthing I have on the vehicle.”
A student, who did not want his name in print, said it was shameful to see a federal university in that “messy condition”. He said: “With this type of facilities, how do you expect the university to produce graduates that can stand shoulder high with his peers in other part of the world?”
With the university preparing to host the 25th Nigerian University Games (NUGA), students wonder how the sport event would be successful when the facilities to be used for the games remained under construction.
Peter Itodo, a 300-Level student, said the school management should do deploy resources to restore the condition of facilities on the campus.
Timothy Ibinyi, a 400-Level student, expressed a contrary opinion, saying the condition of the hostels was better compared to what it used to be.
Residents of Gloryland Community in Isheri-Olofin, Egbe-Idimu Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Alimosho in Lagos have appealed to the newly appointed Executive Secretary of the LCDA, Sanyaolu Olowoopejo, to urgently attend to the abandoned culvert project in the community to reduce their suffering.
The community said the immediate past administration headed by Waheed Bello left the project uncompleted despite several pleas by the residents through their representatives.
The Chairman, Gloryland Community Development Association, Olumide Adewale, made the call while speaking on the major request of the people of the community.
Adewale, who lamented the plight of motorists and residents as a result of the abandoned project, noted that the project was the only thing the community benefited from the Egbe-Idimu LCDA in the last six years under the immediate past administration.
He recalled that Bello embarked on the project a month before his exit from office when much pressure was brought to bear on him.
He said that the residents’ fears came to pass as the project later became abandoned and, therefore, called on the new council boss, to come to their aid.
There was jubilation at the Federal Polytechnic, Offa (OFFA) over the repair of buses which take students from the Offa Campus to the permanent site in Ojoku by the management. AFEEZ ADEYEMO (ND II Mass Communication) reports.
Initially, students of the Federal Polytechnic, Offa (OFFA POLY) in Kwara State, saw the institution’s shuttle service as a luxury. The transport scheme was introduced almost four years ago by the management to ease students’ movement from the Offa Campus to the permanent site in Ojoku town.
Two weeks ago, however, students knew the value of the service they had been enjoying when the two buses used for the scheme broke down. It was no more a smooth journey to the permanent site. The vehicles developed engine faults from lack of maintenances.
Ojoku is about six kilometres from Offa. Students pay N20 per trip to the permanent site, compared to the higher fare charged by commercial vehicle drivers.
The development resulted in hardship for the students, who receive lectures at the permanent site. Some, who attempted to stay with their colleagues in hostels at the permanent site, were not allowed by school security personnel, who reportedly told the squatters that management frowned at such act.
The alternative for students to meet morning lecture was to ride on commercial motorcycles known as Okada, whose riders, students said, carried three passengers, thereby endangering their lives.
The development made the Students’ Union Government (SUG), led by Festus Adedeji, to plead with the management to repair the buses to reduce students’ stress.
There was jubilation on the campus when the buses started operation last week. It was gathered that the management ordered that the buses be repaired. A source told our correspondent that the management chided the buses’ drivers for lack of maintenance and failure to attend to the mechanical fault observed in the vehicle.
Students praised the management and the union for responding to their plight. They described the Rector, Dr Mufutau Olatinwo, as a caring father.
An official at the Works and Transport Department, who refused to give his name, said the management had ordered periodic maintenance work on the buses.
Festus cautioned students against misusing the buses, urging them to always be orderly whenever they want to use the vehicles.
He said: “The management will not hesitate to deal with any student that violates the rules or attempts to vandalise the school property.”
Opeyemi Amao, an ND II Marketing student, hailed the management and the union for responding quickly. He said no student valued the service until the buses broke down. “We realised the importance of the buses. If the management had not provided the buses, no one would have been able to predict what could happen to students receiving lecture at the permanent site. We cannot afford to be paying N200 per day as fare in commercial buses,” he said.
Francis Akinjo, an ND II Business and Administration student, urged the management to release more buses to complement the existing ones. He said it was improper for students to queue for hours, waiting for the buses to return from the permanent site.
In his opinion, Olawale Kareem, ND 1 Accountancy student, believe the management and not the SUG deserved praises for bringing back the buses. He said: “Students’ Union cannot be the one that discussed with the management to repair the buses. All they know is to speak high-sounding grammar. Management did what was right.”
He urged the SUG leaders to always think about students’ welfare.
