STATE OF OUR ROADS: PAUCITY OF FUNDS OR MISAPPLICATION OF PRIORITIES.
 |
| BABATUNDE FASHOLA |
The pace of work on the nation’s highways, in terms of
rehabilitation, repairs and maintenance, has been described by Nigerians, as
abysmally low, and this has further worsened the state of the roads across the
country.
What could be responsible for the pathetic state of roads in Nigeria?
While this question has become very pertinent, the answers either from
government directly or, its agencies, have not been convincing enough. Some say
the paucity of adequate funding by the Federal government is attributable to
the poor responses and approach by the relevant agencies of government but,
this school of thought has been knocked down by some segments of the society.
With this new administration, there are reports that some
agencies which had hitherto, been saddled with the responsibility of
maintaining and rehabilitating the nation’s roads, are being sidelined while
things grow from bad to worse.
The supervisory Minister in charge of the Ministry for Power,
Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has explained how the federal
government has prioritized its projects, with particular reference to highway
projects across the country in the various order of economic importance to the
nation.
The Minister, Mr. Fashola who appeared recently before the
Senate Committee on Works to defend his ministry’s budget in the 2017
Appropriation Budget Proposal, the sum N564.2 billion was presented for the
three sectors and from this sum, Works alone had the sum of N311.5 billion
allocated to it and this represents the highest vote for capital expenditure in
the 2017 budget.
Highway projects, according to Fashola in his defence, were
grouped into categories in order of priority and importance of the projects.
“National priority projects on critical economic routes on
the federal road network are highly trafficked routes in the North-South and
East-West routes used for the distribution of goods and services across the
country and major river-crossing bridges and these have been penciled as
National Priority 1”.
“The sum of N150, 470,553,292, which represents 62.22 per
cent, is proposed to execute “National Priority 1” projects in 2017.
“Some of the projects are the construction of Second Niger
Bridge at Onitsha; construction of the dual carriageway of Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja
(Sections I-IV) in FCT/Kogi State; construction of the Kano-Maiduguri dual
carriage Road (Sections I-V) in Kano/Bauchi/Yobe/Borno states; and the
rehabilitation of Enugu-Port Harcourt Dual Carriageway (Sections I-IV) in
Enugu/Abia/Rivers states.”
“(Others are) Rehabilitation/reconstruction of the
Lagos-Shagamu-Ibadan Expressway in Lagos/Oyo states; construction of Loko-Oweto
Bridge in Nasarawa/Benue states; reconstruction of outstanding sections of
Benin-Ofosu-Ore-Sagamu Road in Edo/Ondo/Ogun states; rehabilitation of
Odukpani-Itu-Ikot Ekpene Road section I: Odukpani-Itu Bridgehead; and
rehabilitation of Ilorin-J’ebba-Mokwa Road.”
Explaining the term; “National Priority 2”, Fashola disclosed
that these are projects along the branch routes from the critical economic
routes on the federal road network which serve as links between the major
routes and agricultural producing hubs, factories and mining deposits for the
evacuation of agricultural produce, manufactured goods and raw materials to
markets and ports across the country. The sum of N43, 143,299,357, which
represents 17.84 per cent, is proposed to execute “National Priority 2”
projects in 2017”, he said.
Fashola other projects such as the dualization of Sapele-Eku
Road in Delta/Edo states; dualisation of Lagos-Otta-Abeokuta Road in Lagos/Ogun
states; rehabilitation of Hadejia-Nguru-Gashua-Bayamari road in Jigawa/Yobe
states; and the rehabilitation of Ilorin-Kabba-Obajana Road in Kwara/Kogi
states”.
Others, according to the Minister are; the rehabilitation of some
other roads in Yola, Adamawa state, Owerri in Imo and the dualisation of the
Yenagoa Road Junction-Kolo-Otuoke-Bayelsa in Bayelsa State including the
rehabilitation of Damaturu-Biu Road, in Yobe state”.
On “National Priority 3” projects, the Honourable Minister
had listed them as projects that are specifically targeted at routes leading to
the nation’s refineries, petroleum depots, major ports and mineral producing
areas in the country to ease the movement of petroleum products and imported
goods from the ports and depots to other parts of the country. For these
projects, the sum of N25, 508,708,266, which represents 10.55 per cent, was
proposed to execute national priority 3 projects in 2017”.
“Some of these projects include the rehabilitation of the Apapa-Oshodi
Expressway in Lagos Phase I & II; dualisation of Suleja-Minna Road;
construction of Bodo-Bonny Road with a bridge across the Opobo channel in
Rivers State; access road to Apapa/Tin Can Port, NNPC Depot (Atlas Cove) to
Mile 2; and the construction of Agaie-Katcha-Baro Road”, he further explained.
In his conclusion of his Ministry’s Budget defense before the
Senate Committee on Works, Fashola equally listed what he described as “National
Priority 4” projects.
According to him, Road projects in “key agricultural states
producing cash crops like yam, rice, maize, cassava, fruits, etc.” were
categorized under “national priority 4” with objective of boosting “the
production of these crops and ease their movement to markets. This is to
enhance food sufficiency in the country and minimize losses”, he said.
He disclosed that N8.9 billion, representing 3.68 per cent,
was proposed to construct and rehabilitate roads in this category.
Projects under this category include the rehabilitation of
Sokoto-TambuwaI-Jega-
In his conclusion, the former Lagos state governor, now a Super
Minister in this administration says inadequacy of budgetary votes to sustain
annual cash-flow requirements hinders timely completion of projects in Nigeria.
But, all of this defense and expository have neither impacted
on the delivery of contacts awarded nor have they any significance in their
execution.
Under the Works Ministry where you have the Federal Roads Maintenance
Agency, FERMA, the pace of work of contracts awarded to contractors have either
not been commenced or completed due to various issues raised by many
contracting firms spoken with.
NAIJNEWSALERT investigations reveals that the Engr. Odeh Ibu
leadership of FERMA is facing some herculean challenges which includes finance
but not excluding capability to perform as the helmsman of the intervention
agency.
Sources at the national headquarters have accused the Peter
Ibu led management team of not being proactive enough in their approach to the
task ahead.
According to the sources, across the country, contracts for
jobs have been awarded but due to unresolved issues, many of these contractors
have either not reported to site or, in many instances, refused to commence
work citing the high cost of materials such as Diesel, Bitumen and many other needed
materials for the proper execution of work.
The non approval of appraisals for contract variations has
also been a contentious issue between FERMA and contractors as, the intervention
agency reportedly cancelled reappraisal for pricing variations even with the
glaring current price dictates and the high exchange rates involving the nation’s
currency and the dollar.
Contractors have therefore stated that there was no need executing
a job which has no potentials for marginal profits, describing it as completely
suicidal to undertake such projects and incur financial ruin.
However, it must be noted that the cancellation of these
appraisals, reappraisals and pricing variations were the result of constant
abuses by contractors in connivance with staff of the agency in the past but then,
it is expected that any capable Chief Executive of any outfit, agency or parastatal,
should be able to put in place, monitoring checks and be able to plug loopholes
that encourages such negative acts and practices.
The Engr. Peter Odeh Ibu management is believed to be stifling
the successes and growth of the intervention agency (FERMA) thereby culminating
in a very slow operations described as not proactive enough for an agency that
works effectively on proper time and execution.
Most of the contracts so far awarded which have a time frame of
six (6) months for their completion, according to the sources in Abuja, have
not attained 5% grading despite the fact that the contracts will expire in the
next three(3) months.
According to findings, majority of these contracts were
awarded in the last quarter of 2016 (November) and expectedly would expire in
May, 2017 and many have not even commenced work.
Who takes the blame for this? Will FERMA be allowed to
perform its statutory roles as an intervention agency considering the huge capital
and human investment in the rehabilitation and maintenance of our roads, with
leaders who are proactive to their responsibilities and duties?
Again, it all boils down to who is saddled with the
leadership of these agencies but it is must be noted that the staff of FERMA are
willing to carry out their assigned duties if allowed to perform their duties
and mandate.
No comments:
Drop Comment