Described severally as ‘failed federal roads’, the deplorable state of many inter-state highways across the country provided enough materials for electoral promises in 2011. President Goodluck recognised this and took advantage of it.
During his campaign for election as president and while he traversed from one part of the country to another, he promised to repair major federal roads in each of the geopolitical zones. During his campaign tour in the South-East, President Jonathan sang a tune that was lovely to the ears of South-East leaders – a promise to build a Second Niger Bridge before the expiration of his tenure. If the promise is kept, it would ease the tension and stress on the current bridge between Onitsha and Asaba.
Niger Bridge is of economic importance because it is the route that the people of the South-East use in order to link the business capital of Nigeria – Lagos. Also, while in the North-West, the president touched the hearts of the people with a promise. Here, it was to give ‘unfettered attention to Sokoto-Kontagora Road. This road has been in such a state of disrepair that, apart from the discomfort travellers suffer on it, Sokoto-Kontagora Road is a nest of armed robbers. Every second on it was tension soaked, to the point that community leaders began to send Save Our Soul (SOS) messages to government.
The road from Kano to Maiduguri, which stretches to the North-West and North-East, had suffered neglect from previous Nigerian Heads of State, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo. With so many failed promises, the people may have given up on the hope of putting it in a motorable state. During his campaign in 2011, President Jonathan promised to repair the vital road. Then there is the perennially deplorable Benin-Ore Road, and the Lagos-Ibadan Road, which had been given out on concession to Bi-Courtney. In Damaturu, the capital of Yobe State, President Jonathan further promised to intervene in providing road networks within and outside state capital. In essence, he promised to transform all the major routes within the capital to federal roads.
As a way of keeping his promises, road projects are ongoing. Some of the project sites include the following: Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja Expressway; Kano-Maiduguri road; Lokoja – Okene – Benin road; Loko-Oweto Bridge over River Benue; Suleja-Minna road in Niger State; Benin – Ore – Shagamu Expressway, Sokoto-Jega-Kontagora-Makera Road; Ilorin – Kabba – Obajana Road; Enugu – Abakiliki Road; Lagos – Ibadan Road; Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Road; East – West Road; Second Niger Bridge; Enugu-Port Harcourt ; Mokwa – Bida Road; and Owerri – Umuahia. (See table of the cost put at N1.163 trillion on page 9)
The president has only one year left to complete his tenure. In what state are these projects? Our reporter who plied Suleija – Minna – Kontagora – Birnin Kebbi, reported that there is apparently no respite for travellers on the roads. A journey of from Suleija to Kontagora, which used to be a three-hour journey is now about six hours. Also, the second leg of the journey – Kontagora to Birnin Kebbi used to be a three-hour journey, now it takes five hours to cover the journey. For this reason, some travellers prefer to take a longer route from Birnin Kebbi to Bunza, close to Niger Republic, before embarking on another journey to Kontagora. This journey would take about six hours to cover, but travellers prefer it because the Sokoto – Kontagora route is so bad that it could leave them will ailments after spending over 12 hours on them.
However, the situation on Kano-Maiduguri Road is different. Our reporter, who plied the road recently, acclaimed that it is now seventy percent completed. In 2011, before work commenced on this route, it took, on the average, nine hours to travel from Kano to Maiduguri. But at present, it takes about six hours. Work is still ongoing on this route.
The situation in Damaturu is totally different. Sunday Trust gathered that in this state capital, which still has a single lane asphalt township road dissecting the town to Maiduguri, did not receive the attention of the federal government. The town used to be flooded with water during the rainy season, due to the lack of drainages. It took the intervention of the state government before the roads were constructed only recently. Apart from dualising Maiduguri Road, which is the major road of Damaturu, many roads were intersecting were constructed to give motorists easy access to different locations in the town.
Alhaji Sani Katarat, 65 year-old, told this reporter that before Damaturu became the state capital there existed one asphalt road. “You would spend six to seven hours waiting for a commercial vehicle that would convey you to Maiduguri, but now, the town possesses dual-carriage township roads that branches out and intersect in all directions, and in all nooks and crannies of the ancient city.”
Yobe State commissioner of works, Alhaji Lawan Shettima said that he was not aware of any attempt by the federal government to execute roads projects in Damaturu. But this is thanks to the state government.
He said that despite the restrictive conditions of insecurity in the past, all the existing road networks in the state capital were financed and constructed by the state government without any intervention from Federal government. The commissioner further revealed that considering the hardship faced by several communities along some major federal roads linking to Damaturu, Governor Gaidam had taken over some neglected projects costing the state government over N10 billion
“There is Federal Government road that linking Damaturu – Yadi – Magza, a border town of Borno State. This road has been abandoned for many year and it has serious economic advantages, transporting goods and services. It is almost the heart that linked Yobe, Borno, Gombe and even Adamawa. So the governor awarded it at the cost of N6billion and the project is ongoing.”
Most federal roads in Yobe State were built in the 70’s and early 80’s. Carved from the old Bono State, Yobe is served and linked by many federal roads including the Damaturu-Dapchi-Gaidam road which branches to Gashu’a town from Bayamari; the Gashu’a-Nguru road which links out to Jigawa State; the Damaturu-Buni-Yadi road which stretches out to Borno State through Magza town and the Potiskum-Jakusko-Garin Alkali road, which links Potiskum with local government areas in northern Yobe State. Others include the Gashu’a – Yusufari road, which was earlier awarded for reconstruction by the federal government but revoked and handed over to the state government.
However, since the 80’s reports have indicated that none of these major federal highways had ever undergone any major rehabilitation or reconstruction, and over these years, almost all of them had deteriorated into a deplorable state of disrepair.
Given the state of these federal roads, the Geidam administration in Yobe State has stepped in to rehabilitate and reconstruct them to make public transport easier for the people. Governor Geidam had said that since the federal government was unwilling or unable to rehabilitate the roads, it behooves the state government and benefit the people to use state government resources to rehabilitate and reconstruct them.
To date, the Yobe State Government is working on around400 kilometers of federal roads. These include the Potiskum-Jakusko-Garin Alkali road which is 155 kilometers. Work on this road cost the Yobe State Government nearly six billion and reconstruction is now nearly completed. The Yobe State Government has also totally rebuilt the Kaliyari-Bayamari-Geidam road, which has a stretch of 109 kilometers.
Last week, the State Government also flagged off the reconstruction of the 77-kilometer Damaturu – Buni Yadi-Magza road at the cost of around six billion naira.
Reacting to the state of Noth-East roads, the Minister of Works, Architect Mike Onelememen, in an interview with journalists last week, said, “First, let me say it is not true that we are not working on Damaturu Road. If you recall, one of the major flagship project of the ministry is the dualisation of the Kano-Maiduguri Road, which traverses Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Yobe and Borno States. The Section 4 of that road is entirely in Yobe, from Potiskum to Damaturu, while the Section 5 is from Damaturu to Maiduguri. In fact, it was one of the projects I happened to have visited when the President came to Borno State. One of the major challenges we have had on that project is the insurgency in that part of the country.
Recently, I was going through our end of year report to see the progress we have recorded on most of the sections. The percentage of progress we recorded on the Abuja-Lokoja Road ought to be about the same percentage we should have recorded on the Kano-Maiduguri road, but if you go there, you will see that we have recorded appreciable progress in the first three sections; that is sections one, two and three. But sections four and five, which borders on Yobe and Borno States have not been able to record as much success because of the level of insurgent activities in those particular alignment.
“In fact, even for section two, we have had a case in which one of our contractors, Setraco Nigeria Limited lost about eight foreign workers in Section Two. They were abducted, not even from the project site, but the insurgents broke into their camp office and residence, and abducted from their flats. They have even shown video clips of two of them that have been murdered. The remaining six, we don’t even know what has happened to them up till now.
It was quite demoralizing because the company was making the most progress on that alignment had to stop. It took some time to sit them down, and talk to them before they eventually went back to site towards the end of last year and commenced construction work again. True, we are working on the Nguru Road. It is, however, not true that we are not working on the Damaturu Road. They have since resumed work on both sections, both from Potiskum to Damaturu and from Damaturu to Maiduguri. Once the security situation improves in that part of the country, we would be able to ramp up construction activities on those sections.”
Speaking on why roads in the country get damaged easily, the minister blamed the lack of dedicated funds for road projects in Nigeria. He said, “If you look at the design for the Kano-Kaduna Road, it was to last for 25 years, and after those 25 years, major rehabilitation ought to have taken place. But what has happened in our system is that we have not had enough budgetary provision for us to maintain that road the way it ought to have been maintained because at that point, we are supposed to remove the entire wearing course, stabilize the base course and do complete asphalt overlay on the entire stretch. Ask yourself, how much is being budgeted for road works in Nigeria? For a road network of 35,000km, sometimes we receive as little N60 to N70 billion. For years, the military did not even appropriate up to N10 billion for those roads.
You can compare our situation with little countries like Zambia, which has a total road network of 7000km. But if you go to Zambia, you will find out that they spend on the average, about $1billion USD yearly on their road. But here we are with about 35,000km, which is five times the road network of Zambia, and we are not able to spend 50 percent of what the Zambians are spending on their roads. So if you look at that, it gives you a graphic picture of why we are where we are.”
According to him, the most of the major projects being executed at the moment are by the grace of SURE-P interventions. “But for the SURE P enhanced funding, that road would have been still far from the level we have achieved. On the average, we have achieved about 65 percent completion on Kano-Maiduguri Road, as at date, and we believe that if that momentum is sustained, the road has been penciled for completion by the end of 2015, just like Abuja to Lokoja, which has been slated for completion before June this year.”
Documents obtained from the ministry indicated that apart from the major roads under construction, it has completed several federal roads in parts of the country. The statement said, “By June, 2013, the Federal Ministry of Works had completed 32 road projects covering a distance of over 2,000km. These include the dualization of Ibadan-Ilorin road section I (Ibadan – Oyo) in Oyo State, reconstruction of Vom-Manchok road in Plateau State, dualization of Onitsha-Owerri Road (Section I) and Onitsha Eastern Bypass, in Anambra State, completion of the rehabilitation of Funtua – Gusau – Sokoto road (section II: Gusau-Talata Mafara) in Zamfara and Sokoto States; completion of the rehabilitation of Katsina-Daura road in Katsina State, as well as completion of the rehabilitation of Ijebu Igbo – Ajegunle – Araromi – Ife – Sekona road (Section II) in Ogun State.”
As Nigerians march toward 2015, it will not be surprising if the presidents showcase some of these major achievements in the road sector as points of reference if he would seek re-election.
Source: Sunday Trust.
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