Last Tuesday, the infamous Lagos-Ibadan expressway, which I refer to as Route One, was again shut down. A petrol tanker had upturned on the highway, reports said, and some motorists began to drive the wrong way.
Thousands of motor vehicles were stranded, and tens of thousands of people were unable to complete personal and business trips. It inflicted another severe economic loss upon the nation, although that doesn’t normally bother those in charge.
We have been building this highway for 50 years; that is, since it was first completed. Contracting, re-contracting and sub-contracting for it has become a national sport. And yes, there is always a reason for postponements and delays…until the next contract, Minister or government.
Of the thousands and thousands stranded on the highway on Tuesday, there was no food, no security and no toilets. As is often the case, if you happened to be there, you were on your own and as much at the mercy of natural elements as you were of every Nigerian element, including absentee-governments and the police.
If you were lucky, over the next 24 hours, your child didn’t develop diarrhea. If you were lucky, no AK47-wielding kidnappers, robbers, herdsmen or policemen arrived demanding your money and your life.
The problem is that constructing the road, our roads, is an end. As for Route One, nobody really knows how much the project has cost, or will cost. In December, four months ago, Adedamola Kuti, a federal controller of works, said that just one section of the project, from Lagos to Sagamu, will now cost N134billion.
And when will the work be completed, exactly? In November, Thamm Olaf, the Operations Manager of Julius Berger, the contractor, told the Senate Committee on Works that will now be 2021.
But it all really depends on what government you are talking about or what contract you are tracking. Remember that the Goodluck Jonathan government terminated the contract with Wale Babalakin’s Bi-Courtney in 2012, because it wanted the project completed “quickly.” Bi-Courtney had been on the job since 2009.
The Jonathan government split the job between Julius Berger, for Lagos-Sagamu; and R.C.C Nigeria, for Sagamu-Ibadan. Predictably, the work was not completed by that government, and sadly, is no nearer completion today, seven years later.
Remember also that the Lagos-Ibadan rail, which is expected to bring some relief when put into use, was supposed to have been completed last December. It wasn’t; nor was Lagos-Sagamu completed ahead of the election although the government arranged a stunt for the cameras of running a train over part of the completed distance.
We now know that the rail will now be completed “in 2020,” according to the contractor.
Meanwhile, and one day after Route One was shut down last week, the federal cabinet announced the approval of N1.4 billion for the design of a new 12-storey head office for the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in Abuja.
N1.4bn: about $US4m. For just the design, as authored by a government which claims to be combating corruption and waste. I know many top-flight architects, including in the US and UK, who would undertake the job for considerably less.
N1.4bn. But everyone knows, of course, that it is a shameless ruse. Most of that money is for sharing.
And think about this: one day after the government made that announcement, President Muhammadu Buhari himself expressed regret that Nigeria loses over N400 billion annually to medical tourism.
Strangely, it is the same Nigeria leader who, when campaigning for the 2015 election, had condemned the use of Nigerian resources on international medical tourism.
Indeed, in April 2016 he specifically said his administration “will certainly not encourage expending Nigerian hard-earned resources on any government official seeking medical care abroad, when such can be handled in Nigeria.”
But weeks later, he flew to London at public expense to be treated for an ear infection. Federal, state and party officials have traveled abroad in droves since then to enjoy excellent medical service while leaving local hospitals to rot.
In May 2018, Buhari himself arrived in London on his fifth medical trip. Since taking office in 2015, he has now spent over 170 days taking care of himself even when a strike of nearly 100,000 medical personnel crippled medical services nationwide.
One of the medical facilities left to rot in Nigeria when he has looked after his own health abroad is the State House Medical Centre (SHMC), which he decided last week would now revert to the original Aso Rock Clinic.
What does that mean?
“What does that mean?” are also the exact words First Lady Aisha Buhari used in 2017 after disclosing she had had to go to a hospital in Abuja owed by foreigners when she needed x-rays but found the SHMC had no functioning machine.
The brouhaha had arisen when her daughter, Zahra, dragged Jalal Arabi, the Permanent Secretary at State House, out on Instagram writing, “More than N3billion budgeted for the State House clinic and workers there don’t have the equipment to work with? Why? Where is the money going to? Medication only stocked once since the beginning of the year? Why?”
In 2016, the Nigerian government infamously allocated N3.219bn for capital projects at the SHMC that was several hundred million more than it allocated to its 16 teaching hospitals combined.
And yet it had no equipment and no drugs. What does that mean? Why?
Mr. Arabi never answered the questions, perhaps because blaming the PDP would have been inappropriate. Instead, he pompously announced that the government seek the “commercialization” of the centre.
Aso Rock was going to be selling to the public the government medical care it could not manage for a handful of families! At the time, it sounded preposterous, almost thoughtless.
Clearly, it was. Mr. Arabi told a Senate Committee last Monday Buhari has [re]decided that the clinic revert to its “original purpose” of serving only his family and a few others.
Again, this circumvents, but does not answer the question. Two years ago, SHMC (for which N15.47bn was appropriated in 2018 and has a proposal of N14.3 billion in 2019) said it received only N1.2 of the vast billions approved for it between 2015 to 2017.
Why? What does this mean?
Where are these funds? Where is accountability? If neither funds nor performance can be found outside Buhari’s bedroom window, where can they?
The truth is not just that the Lagos-Ibadan expressway is still sadly and unsuccessfully being refurbished as a couple of lanes rather than being rebuilt as a futuristic, multi-lane major highway incorporating interchanges, drainage, security facilities, and stop areas with restaurants, stores and service stations.
But we cannot even complete a resurfacing contract before that resurfacing needs to be resurfaced. In our cynical and haphazard governance culture that travels on incompetence and double standards, we have no shame budgeting $4m for a design job with no bids whatsoever.
And yes, this week Buhari returns to the UAE tomorrow where he signed agreements in 2016 for the repatriation of Nigeria’s stolen assets and looters.
Three years later, Nigerian looters, previous and current, continue to party in Dubai’s its best resorts.
• @SonalaOlumhense
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