The Minister of Works, Engr. David Nweze Umahi, no doubt has openly and inwardly shown commitment to turning around the parlous state of Nigerian roads occasioned by its constant failure perhaps because of design, technology and climate change. Rendering account of his stewardship in the last 365 days in a chat with Reporters covering the Ministry, he amplified his determination to bring to bear, President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda mantra and make the roads last for 50 years with the help of God. DELE OGBODO, captures the exciting interaction for EXRAORDINAIRE.COM…Excerpt:
QTN: Sir, kindly update us on your promise to fix Abuja-Mararaba-Keffi road axis in North-central Nigeria, on your assumption of office last year?
ANS: On Abuja to Mararaba, we already have good roads, what you probably inferring is to Keffi, if I get you right. Now, the design right now is on 4 lanes on each side and nobody is going to stop the federal government on this work, there is no road infrastructure being put in place by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu road infrastructure roll out that will stop as far as road infrastructure is concerned.
For your information, China Habour is the company doing the job and the total kilometres from this point to Makurdi is 43km and one carriageway since 2017 and we had a meeting yesterday with them and the directive to them is that they should maintain a second carriageway and that they should continue until they finish one dual carriageway.
You will notice that the shoulders that were designed and we are using concrete stone to do it and the moment the concrete and there and the asphalt is available on the carriage way you can be sure that the road will last up to 50 years.
On the traffic jam there, it is because we don’t have service lane. The project was initially designed without a service lane but by the time we introduce a service lane and we are through with the expansion of the road we will try to accommodate service especially within those service areas and then put the overhead bridge and pedestrian bridge to take you from one point of the road to the other.
And that is what we are going phase out with concrete on the entire market so that the carriageway and from Abuja you can drive to Keffi without any interruption by the side.
We know the challenges and problems on that road and we are committed to solving them. Nobody is stopping that project from moving on and under our watch unless we have counter instructions from President Tinubu and the fear of God.
QTN: There are concerns that the court case on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway (LCCH) will be setback to that project?
ANS: Well that is the beauty of democracy, however, under the guise of democracy we have some fraudulent individuals who want to reap where they did not sow we don’t just have one court case we have over 6.
But we are equal to the task, they want to showcase their pipes. Federal government through the Ministry of Works is paying compensation and following the inter-section that is the Right of Way (RoW). We are following the corridor that is legally allowed for the federal government and we don’t why they are in court.
Some people actually doubted the procurement, I have had to make known even the cost of the projects at N4bilion per KM and I heard what the former President Vice President, Atiku Abubakar was talking about and was talking against the backdrop of comparison. And yet people still come to say yes the number of lanes in Egypt is N1.8 billion and that it is 300km. In this circumstance, people are talking without knowledge. You should be able to say something that is as white as white and be sure of what you are saying. Already we have an ESIE certificate secondly they also find out whether the project was listed in appropriation?
The project is in 2023 supplementary appropriation. Now the budget is an estimate and what is in the budget is different from the cost of the project.
We cannot cancel the project but we can section the project.
Ask me how the project was procured? Under the procurement Act and fortunately our Permanent Secretary here is a procurement expert and I as an engineer and I have very good PPP and Directors in the ministry. The project was approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) under restrictive procurement.
It is also in the law that when you have a specialized project to undertake, when you have very limited people that can be involved in such a project you can use restrictive procurement.
The Only place where you will find that concrete was done and successful was in Ebonyi State and that was under my watch as Governor and it was Hi-Tech and Dangote that initiated concrete pavement and taken to the next level because what President Bola Tinubu did when he was governor was an introductory part of the concrete road and that is by the introductory part of the use of interlocking-concrete-tiles to build the roads there and it is still sustainable and that is where we picked our courage and bearing.
So, that is the procurement and you want to see what this company has done, please go and see Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonshoki road project that hitherto it was never a success before the introduction of the concrete pavement that was used and there you will see vehicles and trucks that were packed there for several days but right now under this kind of concrete pavement arrangement you can now see very wonderful roads that will stand the test of time of between 50 to 100 years.
And therefore if it is about the procurement process and ESIA and don’t bother that the project was appropriated and ESIA and so they will come to nought.
I’m also equal to the task, I have fought many battles as governor of Ebonyi State and so my name is David. Let them know that they cannot undo these projects by going to court; they are only wasting their time.
The projects are ongoing, the more you take us to court the more we will increase the pace of work.
QTN: What is the Ministry doing on the recent protest on the East-west road and Night-mile road construction?
ANS: The good thing is that there is no more traffic jam on the East-west road and people are happy with what we are doing and on the Night-mile, it is true that we have a bad section and it is part of the stretch from Makurdi to Night-Mile and we are engaging them to start the project in 5 locations which they have done and with time you will see very serious improvement
QTN: On the lingering concerns on the 4 legacy roads projects?
ANS: On the legacy project yes, the project timeline is 8 years from May 2023 and it is a divine time. On the cost, each time we award projects because we are allowed to award in sections because the cost of project from Lagos to Calabar is not the same cost from Sokoto to Badagry, so the cost for the 4 legacy projects cannot be the same but be rest assured that with the transparency of the Minister of Works is such that before we send our documents to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), we will always invite the NGOs/CSOs and the press and then we read out the bidding documents of all the bidders and so you will be carried along very seriously in the transparency procurement of these 4 legacy projects.
INTERJECTION…Let me say that what we are doing in 2023 projects, I want us to hear this: We are listing 4 projects per zone. We have some of the recommendations here already. And we want to give very serious budgetary attention to these 4 projects so that they can be completed in 2025 and have them commissioned by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
We may not allow these projects into our 2025 budget unless otherwise directed by the President and FEC and secondly we are directing that each Controller should look at 5 intervention projects that are not more than N500 million per state.
And like I said that the chain is as strong as its weakest link and if a road is so beautiful and is cut into two (2) we need to fix it immediately and this is the same thing that we are doing with FERMA too.
Thirdly, we want to suggest and put an amount to recommend to Mr. President that out of these N1.6 trillion, can we do some debts servicing and put some amount there and also there are some judgment debts that we inherited, we also want to put it and of course the 4 legacy projects should be funded under the four (4) models and PRIP projects that are all parts of the funding models.The other projects funding mechanism like NNPC tax credit funding mechanism and the Sukkuk which have also been listed.
And this is the focus for the 2025 budget for the Ministry of Works and also we are also insisting with the National Assembly that we don’t want new projects. We should put money in the ones that have been listed before, so that we can have them completed because we don’t want multiplicity of projects. Today we have over 4000 projects in the ministry of Works and by law they are to be procured and so we want to ensure that ongoing projects are completed.
QTN: What is the Ministry doing creatively to stop vandalisation of road infrastructure across the country?
ANS: Yes, we are injecting new strategies to avert this wanton destruction and vandalisation of our road infrastructure, but we want to be strategic and not make it too public, however, we have CCTV that we are installing them I want to thank the general public because each time it happened we saw what happened in FESTAC, where people are destroying the pavement reinforcement. The labour and energy that they are putting there if they put in meaningful endeavors they will be able to make more money. But it is lack of patriotism and criminality. Look at the Second (2ND)Nigerbridge where these vandals went and remove some infrastructure there look at the Abuja to Kano they destroyed the median casing that we used for reinforcement. We have also employed 2 General (SSAs) security who are also helping us to use vigilantes on surveillance over these critical infrastructure but with the assistance of patriotic Nigerians we are sure to overcome these challenges.
QTN: What is the actual current gap to fund federal roads nationwide since it was N13 trillion in 2023?
ANS: Today the current gap is projected at N16 trillion because if you look at some of the projects inherited by President Tinubu some have lasted for about 18 years and as that time it was probably $1 to N150 and AGO was N150 per litre and then you compare it to what you have today because it is very embarrassing when you take such project such project to FEC and say a project was N11 billion 18 years ago but that it is now N180 billion now. Who will believe our story and so the safest is to have an agreement with the contractor and have the contract terminated. Such a project has to be re-procured in bits based on the availability of funds.
And so availability of funding and budgetary provisions are our guidelines now in any procurement or review of projects that we are doing. Therefore, some projects will be stepped down due to poor budgetary provisions but they are not terminated and when there is funding, we will resurrect them and then go ahead to work.