The Nation Newspaper

Tag: road

  • Fashola and road contractors

    SIR: That above was an appeal made by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) at a meeting with contractors handling federal road projects preparatory to their remobilisation to their respective sites for the completion of the various abandoned road construction/rehabilitation projects that dot the nation’s landscape. This report was monitored on the 9pm NTA news on Monday May 16. This appeal by Fashola to contractors calls for serious concern from Nigerians. If this has been the practice with road construction prior to the government of CHANGE, it should be changed forthwith.

    It is not the duty of contractors to ensure standards. It is the duty of contractors to make maximum profits and any means, including underhand dealings, is fair to them in the attainment of this aim. It is however the duty of the project owner – the federal government in this case – to ensure that infrastructure projects are executed in compliance with approved design and standards. This is done by the appointment of competent owner’s engineers to be the federal government’s eyes and ears on the projects. In making a case for the appointment of owner’s engineers, we emphasise that utmost stock should be placed on competence and professionalism.

    The federal government plans to spend N220Billion on roads in 2016. It is suggested that capacity development for young Nigerians engineers be derived from such a huge expenditure. This can be achieved by attaching civil engineering graduates and interns to these projects. This, apart from providing practical skills for otherwise unemployed engineers, is also an avenue for providing employment even if on an ad-hoc basis pending the delivery of the projects.

    President Muhammadu Buhari promised us a country that we shall be proud of. He also enjoined that we should buy Nigeria to grow our economy. However, there were more foreigners, as contractors, in the meeting with Fashola than there were Nigerians. The Federal Government is well advised to walk the talk by being proud of Nigerian professionals and to buy Nigeria in the procurement of infrastructural projects. If indigenous engineers are not challenged, it is unfair to accuse us of non-performance. Bishop David Oyedepo of the Faith Tabernacle challenged the Nigerian engineers in the design of Winner’s Chapel auditorium and the Nigerian engineers rose to the challenge and delivered the project with only Made-in-Nigeria materials in record 12 months.

    We make bold to state that the foreign engineers practicing in Nigeria are not even among the best in their countries. The best foreign engineers do not ply their trade abroad. In most countries, foreign professionals are not allowed to practice without obtaining the local certification. Why is it that in Nigeria, all sorts of foreign technicians are allowed wears the toga of chief engineers without having local certification? Instances abound where the so-called foreign experts deployed to Nigeria at huge cost are unable to achieve the aim of their deployment without the inputs of their Nigerian counterparts.

    The ministry of power, works and housing should also enforce the defect liability clauses in the various contracts to ensure that upon the completion of the various projects, any portion of the respective roads that fails within the defect liability period is fixed by the contractor at no cost to the government.

    The Nigerian Society of Engineers has more than the adequate technical resources and competences and is ever ready to partner the federal government in the delivery of durable infrastructural projects. The NSE is also hereby urged to be unrelenting in advocating for a better deal for the Nigerians engineers while not sparing any effort to sanction practitioners that compromise competence and professionalism.

     

    • Lateef Salami,

    Lagos.

  • Dangote to build Lokoja, Obajana-Ilorin road

    Dangote to build Lokoja, Obajana-Ilorin road

    • Govt grants 30% tax incentive

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) yesterday approved the proposal for business man, Aliko Dangote to construct Lokoja-Obajana-Ilorin road.

    The Obajana factory of Dangote Cement is situated along that axis.

    In return, Dangote will hold back 30 per cent of his company’s income tax for years.

    The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola who spoke to State House correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari said a memo was presented to Council for consideration to that effect.

    He was accompanied by the ministers of Information, Lai Mohammed; Labour, Chris Ngige and Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.

    Fashola said: “We presented a memo to council for consideration. The memo seeks to take benefits of the existing policy and regulation. It seeks to take benefits of tax policies, tax laws for the purpose of using them to drive infrastructure development renewal.

    “So we presented a proposal by one of the subsidiary of Dangote Group, a construction company, for the construction of a section of Lokoja-Obajana-Kabba-Ilorin,specifically the section between Obajana-Kabba Road using cement as demonstrative of how perhaps we should continue to build going forward in order to reduce maintenance on the road and the company proposing to fund the construction of that section of the road in exchange for some tax remissions.

    “Companies are ordinarily supposed to pay income tax, there are existing policies in our laws which enable government to consider and give tax incentives.

    “So  Council considered and approved the proposal for Dangote Construction Company to build that section of the road because the tonnage of cement being produced from the factory has increased and the traffic in that area has increased, there has been unfortunate accidents also.

    “So it is a total economic policy which Council considered and approved because it gives support to industry; it enables us take benefit of our tax law to renew infrastructure at a time where we are really challenged for resources to finance all our roads. It also enables us to save lives by quickly and urgently rebuilding that road so that other commuters who also depend on the road for their livelihood would also benefit from the road.”

    Explaining that the policy is not a Dangote issue, he said there is an existing tax policy which allows corporate or individuals to make investment on the infrastructure of a public nature and later claim remission on its income tax obligation.

    “Even as an individual, you are entitled to make this claim if the infrastructure goes through this type of process and is approved by government. So it is not a Dangote issue but an economic policy that is to stimulate investment in infrastructure renewal or in any other area that government feels it needs private sector to complement it’s efforts in such area,”he added.

  • Concrete pavement recommended for Wharf-Apapa Road

    Stakeholders have recommended the use of concrete pavement to rehabilitate the dilapidated Wharf-Apapa road in Lagos.

    The recommendation was made by a delegation from the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing as well as the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), which was on inspection tour of the 25km Ibese-Itori concrete paved road in Yewa, Ogun State, built by AG Dangote Construction Nigeria Limited.

    The officials said they observed that concrete roads are more durable.

    The delegation’s leader and General Manager Western Ports, Chief Mike Ajayi, said concrete roads would be a viable alternative for Nigeria, in terms of quality and durability.

    ”I will strongly recommend to states to adopt paved concrete for road construction because of the strength of concrete pavement and durability. This will save the nation huge resources deployed for unending rehabilitation of roads.”

    Ajayi said his delegation would recommend concrete paved road for the Wharf -Apapa Road, which has been a source of worry and economic waste to the government.

    The Chief Executive Officer of AG Dangote Construction Limited, Ashif Juma, told the delegation that his company  built the hitherto deplorable 25km Ibese-Itori Road as its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project.

  • Fulani herdsmen: Road not taken

    SIR: The title of this piece “Road Not Taken” was the name of Robert Frost’s poem written in 1916. The narrator regrets not following a particular branch to his destination, after choosing another road, the narrator tells himself that he would come back to this branch one day in order to try the other road. However, he realizes that it is unlikely that he will ever have the opportunity to come back to this specific point in time because his choice of path will simply lead to other branches in the road (and other decisions). The narrator ends on a nostalgic note, wondering how different things would have been had he chosen the other path.

    Same way the writer ended on a nostalgic end for the road not taken is the way Nigerians who underestimated the savagery of the Fulani herdsmen are living in regrets for granting them access to their communities. The Fulani herdsmen have been a pain in our communities. There’s no state or region that would say they have not had their own bitter tales with the Fulani herdsmen bothering on land dispute and grazing issues. On every of their murderous appearance, they have been leaving tears and blood behind. From the North-central states of Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa, Niger and Taraba to North-west, South-west and South-south zones, the story remains the same. Their latest casualty is Enugu State and the once peaceful community of Uzo Uwani LGA woke up Monday morning to behold the gory sight perpetrated by the nomads with graceful impunity. The attack was so bloody that the Governor of Enugu State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, on his visit to the community broke down in tears as he watched helplessly the lifeless bodies of innocent people that were massacred in their sleep by the Fulani herdsmen.

    It’s painful what these pastoralists do to their host communities; they are not acting in isolation, our security agencies are yet to tell us the mission of these murderous errands in human form.

    The federal government’s complicity on these utmost savageries also validates this quote by Martin Luther king Jnr, “The deepest part of hell is reserved for those leaders who kept silent in the face of evil”. This is the time for the government to break their undignified silence and act preemptively to ensure the safety of the public from this ethnic cleansing that is threatening our nation.

    For how long are we going to continue to suffer these killings from outsiders in our communities? For how long are we going to leave in regret for “the road not taken”? Yesterday it was Benue, today its Enugu, who knows whose turn it might be tomorrow?

    There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people – Howard Zinn.

     

    • Joe Onwukeme,

    Enugu.

  • Residents hail military for reopening road

    Residents of Buni Yadi and Buratai have hailed the military for reopening the 135-kilometre Biu-Damaturu Road.

    They spoke yesterday in interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

    The residents said the reopening of the 132-kilometre road, three years after it was closed, following insurgency, would revive socio-economic activities.

    One of them, Alhaji Abdullahi Yaro, who fled the area at the peak of the insurgency, expressed joy.

    He said residents of Buni Yadi, Buni Gari and neighbouring communities in Gujba Local Government of Yobe State would return. “We are happy with this development. We can now return to our areas.

    “I travelled to Buni Yadi with my family, relations and friends to witness this historic event.

    “Some of us will stay back and clean our homes so that we can bring back our wives and children,” Yaro told NAN.

    Mallam Ado Salisu praised  the military in displacing Boko Haram insurgents and restoring peace.

    He said he would revive his transport business and bring back his family to Buni Yadi after two years of living in an Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs’) camp in Damaturu.

    At Buratai town in Biu Council, Alhaji Abubakar, an auto mechanic and Hajiya Fatima Mohammed, a food vendor, expressed delight at the reopening of the road.

    Abubakar told NAN that it would revive his auto mechanic business.

    He said for the first time in three years, customers patronised his workshop on the Biu axis.

  • On the road to Cannes 2016

    On the road to Cannes 2016

    The race for Cannes Lion, a global advertising and creativity festival, has begun. With plans by the Nigerian creative egg-heads to hold the local 2016 Lions Night and Awards, in preparation for the event holding in France in June, this year’s is expected to produce world best creative and innovative ideas in the marketing communication industry.

    But for Nigeria, the Lions Night and Awards is expected to produce  in three cateogries young professionals who have displayed creative wizardry. The winners will represent Nigeria in the Cannes Lion festival.

    One of the categories is the Roger Hatchuel Academy awards which is dedicated to identifying and nurturing gifted students in tertiary institutions who intend to practise advertising. The second  is the Young Lions Competition, which aims to find, promote and reward the efforts of some of the most brilliant professionals in the industry who are below 30.

    The third category is designed to enable highly talented Nigerians to study on scholarship in Miami Ad School campuses around the world.

    The local organiser, CHINI Production, said this year’s scholarships would be offered for portfolio programmes, Bachelor degree programmes and Master’s programmes.

    “The Roger Hatchuel Academy awards will recognise the best student, who will win an all-expense paid trip to attend the international Roger Hatchuel Academy event in France, the first runner-up will win a sponsored trip to attend the Lynx Academy in Dubai. The Roger Hatchuel Academy awards will also recognise the best teacher and the best performing school or department,” the company stated.

    Meanwhile, the Young Lions Competition will award the best teams in media, film, print, cyber and design categories. The winning teams from each category will represent Nigeria at the Cannes Lions Festival.

    Activities for the Lions Night and Awards began with training for competitors in the media category which began last Friday. It was handled by a resource person from Coca Cola Nigeria, Dozie Okafor. He was a member of the team that won the first Young Lions Media Competition, and represented Nigeria in Cannes.

    A similar training for the creative competitors was held on April 2 and was led by Abolaji Alausa, Executive Creative Director, Noah’s Ark, whose team won the Young Lions film competition and represented Nigeria in Cannes eight years ago.

    The week-long activities will end at the Lions Night and Awards at the MUSON Centre tomorrow.

  • Nursing mother, four others die in road crash

    •Seven injured

    Five persons, including a nursing mother, were yesterday killed when a commercial bus collided with a truck in Abule Osun on the Badagry Expressway in Lagos.

    It was learnt that seven persons were injured in the crash allegedly caused by the driver of the Volkswagen bus marked FST652XF.

    The Nation gathered that the bus was driving against traffic when he rammed into an oncoming truck with registration number AA188SR.

    Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Hyginus Omejo said 11 men and two women were involved in the accident.

    He said: “Five persons died on the spot while seven others sustained severe injuries. Both injured and deceased were rushed to the hospital.”

    Omeje attributed the cause of the accident to the bus driver’s recklessness.

    The driver, who was moving against traffic, he said, wrongly overtook another vehicle on the expressway before crashing into the moving truck.

    Police spokesperson Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent (SP), said investigation was ongoing.

  • Help complete our road, community pleads

    Help complete our road, community pleads

    Adalemo, a community in Ado/Odo-Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State has called on the state government to assist them in the rehabilitation of drainage system on the community road.

    The road, which should be a major link to other communities, has been abandoned by motorists and motorcyclists because it is not in good condition during rainy seasons.

    While speaking to reporters, Mr Sanyaolu Oguntoyinbo, one of the landlords in the community described the road as death trap due to its bad condition.

    He said the road had become a major concern to the residents as many activities within the community have been negatively affected.

    Motorcycle operators charge abnormal fares because that is the only means of transportation in the area as some vehicle owners had abandoned them in their homes due to the bad state of the road.

    “Driving cars, especially small cars on this road is not encouraging. It is like punishing and damaging the car’’, even as he noted that this is affecting businesses in the area.

    Most amenities such as road, drainage systems and electricity which the residents enjoy currently were through self-help efforts of the Community Development Associations (CDAs).

    Most of the affected roads he said, are Oladiran Ojo Street, Church Street, Iloye Road under Ilupeju Iloye Community Development Association. He said the residents contribute money yearly to grade the road. Oguntoyinbo appealed to Governor Ibikunle Amosun to come to their aid and construct drainage on both sides of the road before the rains come heavily.

    He said the community has sent representatives to government on several occasions, all to no avail.

    Mr Adekunle Akeem, a resident and an okada rider in the area said the road had been in a state of disrepair for many years, thus exposing people of the area to danger.

    “The road needs large drainage system on both sides and it will be difficult for the low income people living in the community to contribute money to do this. Definitely, we need government’s help”.

    He said riding okada in the road is not an easy task, saying they are just managing it since there is no other means of livelihood.

     

  • Lawmakers to rehabilitate Obajana-Kabba Road

    Three members of the House of Representatives from Kogi West have taken up the rehabilitation of the 45- kilometre Obajana-Kabba Road.

    They are Karimi Sunday, representing Yagba Federal Constituency; Tajudeen Ayo Yussuf, representing Ijumu/Kabba-Bunu Federal Constituency and James Abiodun Faleke representing Ikeja/Ojodu Federal Constituency in Lagos State, but an indigene of Kogi State.

    Sunday, who disclosed their resolve to give the road a facelift, noted that they were moved by the deplorable condition of the road and the plight of the residents.

    He said there was no doubt that motorists, who plied the road, experienced hardships.

    The lawmaker said they have no option but to mobilise resources to rehabilitate the road, especially as the rainy season is near.

    He said commercial activities have been paralysed, as farmers can no longer transport their produce to the market.

    Sunday said: “We have taken the pains to study the situation since we daily receive complaints from our people that if the Obajana Road is repaired, it will improve the lives of the people.

    “We understand that if the road is put into a proper shape, there will be less pressure on the Okene Road and movement will be quicker and easier for the people. The advantage is that it will improve the economic activities of the communities.

    “We decided to make this sacrifice to ensure that life is made easier for our people.”

  • Road expansion: Uselu residents lament non-payment of compensation

    Some persons whose buildings were demolished to pave way for the construction of additional service lanes on the Ugbowo-Lagos Road in Benin City yesterday protested non-payment of compensation by the Edo State Government.

    The protesters sat in front of the Assembly complex and carried placards with inscriptions such as “You have made us homeless, pay our compensation.” “Demolition without compensation is unjust, oppressive.”

    One of the protesters who gave his name as Harrison Uwangue said other affected were already bedridden

    Uwangue explained that the peaceful protest was to draw attention of the state government to their four years old plight.

    He said no compensation has been paid to them since the their buildings were pulled down.

    According to him, “As I speak to you, among the 24 of the affected persons, two are dead and some are bedridden. That is why the number has reduced.

    “We are dying and getting frustrated by the day. We are suffering untold hardship, homeless and financially emasculated. You can’t feed well and you can’t even clothe yourself. Besides, we cannot even pay our children school fees.

    Another affected landlord, Andy Olotu, said the additional service lanes have brought pains and hardship to them.

    Olotu said, “I did not build on the right of way This is the third time we have witnessed expansion of Uselu/ Ugbowo Lagos Road in Benin City. In 1965, the there was an expansion and there was another expansion of the Road in 1975 by the then Brig. Samuel Ogbemudia regime. The last expansion which affected our houses, came with walkway and service lanes”.