The Abuja-Kano road

It is accepted shibboleth and practice in public discourse to revisit issues that have not been satisfactorily resolved or attended to. Thus, such unconsummated issues are resurrected, reiterated, and sometimes they are made to assume the status of a refrain if necessary action by those concerned is not taken or if a matter, in spite of its importance or weightiness, is not accorded the due consideration it deserves.

One of these issues, and which calls for immediate attention, is the matter of the Abuja-Kano Road (AKR). It is being constructed by Messrs Julius Berger Plc, which has a well-known pedigree, running into decades, for delivering solid and enduring projects.

It is trite knowledge that this road was awarded some six years ago on the watch of former President Muhammadu Buhari. Originally, the scope of work was said to be to reconstruct only various parts of the road. In that context, only a third of the overall 370 kilometers of the length of the Abuja-Kano Road (AKR) would have been constructed.

After a diligent survey, it became crystal clear that a full and muscular reconstruction was required as the road had virtually exhausted its lifespan. The contractor proposed the use of the cold re-cycling method. The proposal was accepted by the government. Consequently, this was deployed for the first time in Nigeria. In spite of the fact that this required resources and imported machinery, it cut down substantially on cost and paved way for a more exquisite and enduring work.

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It is also trite knowledge that the Zaria-Kano and Kaduna-Zaria sections have since been completed. The section of the road which is yet to be completed is the Abuja-Kaduna one for which the construction giant, Messrs Julius Berger Plc, had earlier requested for an upward review of N1.35 trillion.

Furthermore, it is common knowledge that the uncompleted section of this road has been a source of anguish, suffering and death for commuters who ply it.

But more significant is that apart from the fact that this road links Abuja to seven states in the North West and two in the North East, the Kaduna-Abuja-Lokoja section of the highway links Niger and Kwara states via the Suleja by-pass. It also links Abuja to Kogi State, all the states in the South East, the South South and the South West. The road is pivotal and strategic in that it links and covers nearly the entirety of the country. It has prospects for facilitating massive logistics and engendering prosperity for the nation.

Unfortunately, and in spite of its huge significance and the outcry of critical stakeholders, the federal government has carried on with smugness and complacency.

It is true that the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, visited the construction site a few weeks ago and ordered the immediate resumption of work on the said Abuja-Kaduna section of the road.  While on the site, the minister had commended the contractor for resuming work. He gave the contractor a deadline of May 29, 2025 to complete the project. Permit me to quote him: “The federal government expected the entire project to be completed and delivered by May 2025…This is important because we don’t want to stay here beyond May 29, 2025”.

This should sound reassuring. It should also assuage the frustration and pains of all stakeholders. But Senator Umahi is famous for contradictions, flip flops and not putting the government’s money where its mouth is. In the same breath that he commended the contractor, he nonetheless threatened it menacingly, in the event that it didn’t finish the work. Said he: “We would also have to take it over and give it to Dangote under Tax Credit and for reinforced concrete pavement”.

It should be noted that under his predecessor, Babatunde Fashola, the Kano-Zaria and Kaduna-Zaria sections of the road were prioritised and expeditiously constructed. On Fashola’s watch, these two aforementioned sections presented the lines of least resistance: they were more tranquil than the Abuja-Kaduna section which was wantonly menaced by bandits and kidnappers. Besides, Fashola unobtrusively ensured steady funding of the project. He drew from the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF). This facilitated the seamless work of the contractor.

It is instructive that in spite of Senator Umahi’s bravura and pyrotechnics, such displays have not translated into robust funding. This writer’s findings suggest that in spite of the revenues accruing to government from the withdrawal of fuel subsidy, the purse of the PIDF, which hitherto funded the construction work on the Abuja-Kano Highway and others, is reportedly depleted.

It is as a consequence of irregular or outright non-funding, on Umahi’s watch, that work has slowed down on the Abuja-Kaduna section of the highway. This has in turn compelled the contractor, until the recent resumption, to declare force majeure and to withdraw from the site.

If Senator Umahi, and by extrapolation this government, is not dilly-dallying on this section of the road, what are we to infer by his threatening to outsource it to Messrs Dangote, which has little experience in construction and which involvement on this highway is, at best, marginal?

Compare also the senator’s near obsession with the construction of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road and the lip-service he continuously pays to the completion of the Abuja-Kano Road. Surely, and by whatever objective criteria deployed, the former pales into insignificance when compared with the Abuja-Kaduna Highway in terms of urgency and impact on the lives of Nigerians. This is not to add to the fact that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road is alleged to be constructed at the mouth-watering cost of N4 billion per kilometer.

These facts, and the current dilapidated state of the Abuja-Kaduna section of the Abuja-Kano Road, undermine the completion of the other two sections: this is because any journey embarked upon from Kano to Kaduna and thence to Abuja will be frustrated at the Kaduna-Abuja end. By the same token, any vehicular traffic emanating from Abuja, Lokoja and Suleja and making its way up  to the North West and North East will terminate, if not be  stranded, at the Abuja-Kaduna section.

We must thus hold Senator Umahi’s feet, and by extension the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to the fire. The government must demonstrate seriousness in completing the Abuja-Kaduna section of the Abuja-Kano Road. And it must do so, not by vacuous publicity stunts, but by providing funds forthwith and as a matter of national urgency. To do otherwise is to compel the contractor to abandon the site again and to put commuters into further anguish. We must avert such a possibility.

The government must act immediately to avert needless suffering and deaths on this highway. It must find ways and means to fund the construction of this section of the Abuja-Kano Highway.

Dazang is a former director at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)