By Obas Esiedesa / Senior Reporter, Abuja
All through last year, former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godsday Orubebe at various times declared that the 338km dual carriage East-West road project would be completed by the end of this year. But new “realities” have shown that the road that has so far cost about N250 billion would not be ready until next year at least.
The road that runs through the heart of the oil-rich Niger Delta begins from Effurun in Delta State, through Bayelsa and Rivers states, and terminates at Oron in Akwa Ibom State.
Divided into four sections, the road when completed is expected to boost economic activities in the region thereby creating the much-needed jobs for millions of unemployed youth.
Section 1 is (87.4km) from Effurun to Kaiama, section 2.1 is (101km) from Ahoada to Kaiama, Section2.2 is (99km) from Ahoada to Eket and section 4 is (51km) from Eket to Oron.
The designs of the road shows that 42 bridges ranging from 30m to 850m in length while about 756 culverts are needed for the road.
The project, which was first awarded in 2006 under the Federal Ministry of Works, was in 2009 transferred to the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs following its creation in 2008 by late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
Since then work on the project has faced serious challenges ranging from the difficult terrain of the region, to militancy by the youth of the area which resulted in several cases of kidnap of expatriate and local engineers, to community issues, and most of all paucity of funds.
With most of the other challenges taken care off in the past one year, inadequate funding is said to have been the reason the project would not be completed this year.
But Supervising Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Dickson Darius Ishaka, has in Abuja expressed optimism that the financial plan by the government would ensure availability of the remaining N100 billion needed to complete the project.
With this in mind, Ishaku assured that the road project that has become the flagship of the ministry would be completed before the end of the first quarter of next year.
He pointed out that with about $150 million coming from the African Development Bank (ADB) and additional funding from the SURE-P and Infrastructural Bank, government hopes to complete the critical road running through the heart of the region.
According to him, “From the ADB we have had a loan of $300 million of which $150 million have been accessed and we are hoping to access the balance this year. The SURE-P has allocated between 2012 and 2014 N93.9 billion and we have accessed that of 2012 and 2013; we are waiting to access that of 2014.
“The cost of the project is about N350 billion and so far over N250 billion has been disbursed and we have over N100 billion outstanding on the road.”
On the completion rate for the five sections of the road, the Minister explained that “dualisation of section 1, Warri – Kaiama, is 79 percent completed; section 2.2 Port Harcourt-Ahoada is 42 percent completed; section 2.1 which is Ahoada Kaima is 42 percent completed. All three sections are being handled by Setraco Ltd. The Port Harcourt-Eket being handled by RCC is 85 percent completed and people are already enjoying that section. Section 4, Eket to Oron handled by Gitto Construction Company is 68 percent completed.
“The date of completion of the road which we had earlier last year consistently said we would complete by December this year is not realistic. The reason is the funding, so we are looking at other areas of raising fund to bridge the funding gap.”
He stressed that the timing of fund release for the project was critical to its completion, noting that “you get the fund just before the setting of the dry season, you do a lot more work particularly in the Niger Delta area where you have almost nine months of rainy season. But if we get the funds during or at the onset of rainy season, then it means you have to wait for nine months before work can continue.
“We are hoping we will be able to access funds much earlier this year to be able to use the dry season and try to do a lot of the work. So to be optimistic the new completion date should be late in the first quarter of next year. We should be able to meet that, funding permitting. We are also looking into raising fund from the Infrastructural Development Bank. If we get additional funding, it will augment the funding gap that we have,” he added.
He explained that as at the time the ministry took over the project in 2009 it was barely 10 percent completed “but today, in spite of the major constraints of funding, and insecurity, the project has reached overall completion in the level of about 70 percent. Furthermore, it must be stressed that some of the sections of the road are already completed and the people of the region are already enjoying their usage.”
Ishaku stressed that besides the East-West Road, the ministry also has two other major projects in the nine states of the region: 40-unit housing scheme and the skills acquisition centres.
The housing scheme was originally designed to resettle persons displaced from crisis in the region especially in Bakassi in Cross River, Gbaramatu, Delta State and Odi in Bayelsa State.
The minister while giving update on the project which would cost the government about N405 million, said over all about 70.8 percent of the projects have been completed.
A breakdown indicated that the completion levels are as follows: Abia – 79.8%, Akwa-Ibom – 60.9%, Bayelsa – 66.5%, Cross River – 67.5%, Delta – 84.0%, Edo – 83.5%, Imo – 86.8%, Ondo – 65.0%, and Rivers – 43.8%.
Ishaku explained that government was yet to allocate the houses, noting that the intention of the ministry is to allocate the houses according to the needs of the communities.
“The first persons are the displaced members of the community; secondly we have widows and widowers; third priority are the disabled and aged persons in the communities; fourth we have married youth and those in difficulty; fifth we have members of the adjourning communities because we thought that for cordial relationship between the communities we should be to allocate some of these houses to neighbouring communities; and lastly the discretional allotment list that will enable the government to meet peculiar needs of the communities.
“The discretional list is also to correct any imbalance in the first five categories. The forms have been given out and none of the communities apart from Bakassi has complained about the process. And we are working on it.”
He assured that government would not allocate the houses until it is satisfied that the process meets the demands and aspirations of every stakeholder including the government that built the houses.
On the skills acquisition centres, he explained that works were going on at reasonable pace with the exception of the Edo State skills centre where the contract was revoked in 2012 due to non-performance.
According to him, the process of re-awarding the contract to another company has been completed and was awaiting the approval of the federal executive council.
He gave a breakdown of the projects as: “Abia – 55.2%, Akwa-Ibom – 62.3%, Bayelsa – 81.7%, Cross River – 60.2%, Delta – 63.7%, Edo – 0.0% (contract revoked), Imo – 53.5%, Ondo – 43.3%, Rivers – 45.0%.”
Speaking during a recent inspection of the project, some community leaders urged the federal government to make money available to complete the project given the economic importance of the road.
They noted that the terrain of the project meant most parts of the projects were in swampy areas, and risked being washed away by water.
They assured the government that they were working hard to check the activities of militant youth to ensure that the contractors have freedom to work and complete the projects.
According to Johnson Abiye, “the Ministry of Niger Delta is underfunded, practically speaking because what it takes to construct 100km of road in other parts of Nigeria will not be enough to construct 10km of road in the Niger Delta, if you know the terrain of what is called the Niger Delta. First of all, you have to evacuate to a reasonable extent, take away those areas and sand fill. The quantity of sand that is needed for piling, before you can now prime and lay asphalt is much.
“So if it takes two to three months to construct 100km of roads in other parts of the country, it will take you a much longer period to do a project of such magnitude in the Niger Delta. That is what I want people to understand but I want to tell you that a company like Setraco has the equipment to do this project. The problem is the funding, so the ministry needs to be properly funded.
“If the ministry was properly funded the road would have been completed by now. You remember it was supposed to have been completed in 2010 but we are now in 2014 and only about 70 percent of the project has been completed. So I urge those responsible for bringing out the money for the project to do so without further delay. This is because delaying the project would only increase the cost of completing it,” he stressed.