Some four weeks ago, this writer was privileged to be a participant at a two-day engagement with the broadcast media on the electoral process. It was organised by the Centre for Media and Society (CEMESO), at the Valencia Hotel, Wuse II, Abuja.
This writer was riveted by a conversation involving two participants who had plied the Abuja-Kaduna Highway on their way to the said engagement. Their experiences, which were recounted on the sidelines of the engagement, were harrowing and traumatic. In addition, both spoke of having spent at least five hours for a journey that ought to take a maximum of one and a half hours if the highway was in fine fettle.
Daily Trust of July 15, 2024, which beamed its searchlight on this crucially important highway, further provided illumination on the nightmare the aforementioned participants, and indeed thousands of commuters, face on a daily basis on the Abuja-Kaduna Highway.
The Trust’s team of reporters plied the road from Zuba, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), to Gonin Gora, a surburb, 14 kilometers from Kaduna. By its account, the team recorded 78 minor potholes and 47 major ones on this highway. This is not to mention the many craters that dot the highway. These potholes compel vehicles to drive at snail speed or to swerve to avoid them. In the cause of swerving, head-on collisions occur, resulting in deaths and injuries.
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This highway leads to seven states in the North West (Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Zamfara, Kebbi and Sokoto) and Borno and Yobe in the North East. Commuters who ply it frequently have reportedly complained of suffering from back pain, posture-related and spinal challenges. Commercial activities and the haulage of goods and foodstuffs are slowed or impeded by the terrible state of the highway.
In addition to the nightmare commuters face on this highway, bandits and kidnappers take advantage of the bad stretches of the road to abduct innocent travelers.
The reconstruction of the Abuja-Kano Road was awarded six years ago by President Muhammadu Buhari. It had an initial completion period of three years. The Kaduna-Zaria and Zaria-Kano sections of the road are said to be nearly completed. It is the Abuja-Kaduna section that is in abeyance.
After a number of upward reviews, the contractor, Messrs Julius Berger Plc, had requested for a further upward review to N1.35 trillion in January this year. The Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, is reported to have said the government could not afford the said sum. Consequently, the contractor has demobilised from the site.
The parlours state of the Abuja-Kaduna Highway can be extrapolated to other important roads in the country which are yet to be completed. The 413-kilometer East-West Road and the Lagos Ibadan Expressway face similar challenges. Even though they are said to be 80 per cent and 94 per cent completed respectively, there are portions that are not passable.
At a recent stakeholders’ summit in Port Harcourt, the Bayelsa State governor, Douye Diri, declared that the East-West Road had collapsed. Governor Diri’s justification for this declaration was premised on the fact that he had plied a section of the road from Yenagoa to Port Harcourt on his way to the said summit. He said his convoy took four hours for a journey that ought to have taken one. The East-West Road, which was awarded 14 years ago, spans four states. It starts from Warri, in Delta State and terminates at Oron in Akwa Ibom State.
The Lagos Ibadan Expressway is another road notorious for accidents and traffic gridlocks. Motorists are also lamenting the deplorable state of the roads in Sango-Ota, especially along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, in Ogun State. The social media were recently awash with pictures of vehicles meandering through flooded portions of the road. As I write, the Sabongida-Auchi Road, which links Edo State with the South West has been cut off.
It is a matter of profound regret that while these pivotal roads continue to atrophy and to constitute death traps, the government continues to award contracts which are likely to suffer the same fate as previous ones. It is noteworthy that while the contractor of the Abuja-Kaduna Highway is being shunned and discountenanced for asking for an upward review to the tune of N1.35 trillion, the government has proceeded to award the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road at the cost of N15 trillion. And it did so with fanfare.
Furthermore, the Minister of Works, Senator Umahi, recently announced that the federal government planned to construct a 477-kilometer, six-lane superhighway to traverse five states and end in the FCT. The minister, who made the disclosure at a stakeholders’ engagement on the alignment of the superhighway, said states to be traversed by the superhighway are: Cross River, Ebonyi, Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa and thence to Abuja. He said the superhighway was a “spur of the coastal highway that runs from Lagos to Calabar and was designed by the colonial masters to integrate the South East states”.
One is not averse to a profusion of road networks which traverse the country. After all, such roads will facilitate the movement of goods, thus boosting the economy and engendering development and prosperity. But priority should be given to those that have been awarded and which are critical to our growth.
Also, the government should always see itself as a continuum. A worthy project commenced on the watch of a predecessor, once it is adjudged to be strategic, should be completed without delay. This will eschew the upward reviews that have defined these contracts and cut down on costs.
Besides, where government continues to award contracts on a shoestring budget further constrains it financially. It also means that such contracts, awarded at whim or informed by the desire to massage the frail egos of those at the helm of affairs, are liable to being abandoned. They are also liable to constituting needless white elephants in the future.
The way to go, in the circumstances, is to focus on completing ongoing projects. Thereafter, and funds permitting, others can be awarded. The colonial masters, according to Senator Umahi, designed the Lagos-Costal Road long ago. They may have decided not to construct it either on account of cost or that it did not agree with their intentions.
We should learn not to be masters of abandoned projects. Instead, we should excel at completing the ones we started – and on time!
Nick Dazang is a former director at the Independent National Electoral Commission
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