by Yahaya Kana Ismaila
Dave Umahi, the erstwhile governor of Ebonyi state and current Minister of Works Development, recently declared, rather conclusively, that the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has decided to switch lanes in road policy and adopt concrete technology where asphalt used to be the standard.
The former governor has told anyone who cared to listen that switching to concrete makes the most sense both in financial and durability measurements. He insists that it is easier to undermine standards under the asphalt regime than it is with concrete. It doesn’t matter that pictures of failed portions of concrete, his signature technology from Ebonyi state, have made it to the internet. But he still refers those who doubt the suitability of the technology to the Lagos ports. The contractor there is doing wonders with concrete, he said.
Not even the push back from Nigeria’s road contractors have been able to shake the man’s resolve. He has told them blatantly to desist from trying to call him out on the matter, insisting that misita prez has signed off on the Babangida-ish command and no one should even attempt to disobey a field Marshall’s marching orders. They had either fall in line or throw in the towel. So, the browbeaten contractors tuck their tails between their legs, but continue to lament, albeit for lamentation sake.
Yé, the cost of importing machinery to power the concrete technology will be too much. Ah, consider the amount of Forex required to import these machines in a Forex scarce economy. Oh, the breach of contract arising from misita minista’s command that even contractors whose work has achieved up to 70% completion rate must also switch. This is of course with no concern to the materials that they may have imported in anticipation of delivering on their contracts. The contractors can either sell them at a giveaway price to private individuals looking to build asphalt roads in their backyards or even watch them take up valuable storage space at no value at all for all Umahi cares. Whatever they do, they must defer to the all-knowing minister of Works Development.
After all, the failure of Nigeria’s asphalt roads is known to be a collaboration between ermmmm, government elements and less than saintly contractors. Perhaps misita minista will bring in foreigners to serve as uncompromising consultants that’ll ensure concrete never gets sabotaged. If you didn’t know Nigeria, you would think Mr. Minista already had all the money for this almighty road in the kitty from the way he has been talking.
So, imagine my surprise when David the king Umahi told Nigerians that he’ll need over $35 billion to begin the switch to concrete; just to begin. So how much will it cost to conclude? Let me put it in a Nigerian perspective because I hate it when people mask funds in American or British to shadow the real cost. So, to start concrete, Umahi will need N276 trillion or more in the prevailing exchange rate of N789 plus. To bring it closer home, that’s way more than Nigeria’s current budget as submitted by President Tinubu.
I believe it was perhaps because of this revelation that the National Assembly invited contractors and extended the courtesy to Nigeria’s body of engineers, the Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, for what it called public hearing on concrete roads. A Premium Times headline captioned the drama that ensued in the hearing as “Reps, engineers bicker over concrete technology for roads”. At the hearing, the chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Highway and Transportation Engineers, Saidu Hassan, told the lawmakers that to adopt the proposed concrete roads, “ample time is required for the importation of new equipment and training of relevant manpower”. This appears to be one of the arguments that the contractors presented to Mr. Umahi ab initio. But he was in his high horse and perhaps couldn’t see beyond his nose at the time.
The greatest shocker from that public hearing was the concession by a representative of the ministry of works, one Adedamola Kuti, who said “the use of concrete must be reconsidered in view of the harsh economic environment arising from fluctuation in the exchange rate”. Could this Adedamola truly be from Umahi’s ministry? Or could he be one of those that the minister claimed have been in cahoots with the contractors in a bid to sabotage him?
It just doesn’t make any sense that someone from the same ministry, representing the same minister who insisted that switching from asphaltic roads to concrete technology was non negotiable will even waver in his conviction that the economy may not be able to cater for the roads. But isn’t this what the contractors warned will be the fate of that knee jerk decision to superimpose a largely untested technology on something already working both in concept and cost?
Oh, I get it. Umahi avoided the “I told you so” scenario with contractors, and perhaps that’s why he opted to send Mr. Adedamola to spare his blushes. I think under these circumstances, it is very honourable minister-ish for Mr. Umahi to deploy the same vigour he used in demonising the contractors for daring to respectfully ask him to consider the cost of the switch to also acknowledge that they were, ermmmm, well, right all along.
Nigeria’s budget is to be financed almost halfway by borrowings. It therefore makes no sense that we should even be contemplating a start up road fund that trumps our entire annual budget. Exactly how do we hope to raise the money? These are some of the things that you will expect an honourable minister of works to consider before waving away something that has been around for so long.
Minister Umahi claims the asphaltic roads in foreign countries are better than Nigeria’s, and that contractors have been delivering below regulation roads in connivance with consultants paid for, with government funds or monitors from his ministry. If abroad quality roads are what Umahi is after and not an ejaculation of his superior expertise in road technology, shouldn’t he be devising means of ensuring compliance with road contract specifications?
In a country where monies for contracts attracted by members of the National Assembly under the banner of constituency projects are paid into their accounts, one wonders why we are surprised that Nigeria’s brand of honesty is shining through in such -what did erstwhile President Muhammadu Buhari refer to them again – badly conceptualised projects that begin to fail even before the jobs are done.
Someone should please tell Misita Umahi that although Nigeria can do with very good roads be it asphalt or concrete, the only thing that will guarantee that we get these roads is not a knee jerk switch in policy, but a new template that exerts compliance from contractors and other stakeholders cheating the system. This is for me, a very tall order considering even the legislature performing that public show of scrutiny has many members on the taking table of contract reviewers. I don’t know about Misita Umahi, but I think that makes his job rather most herculean.
I must confess I do like the man’s energy. But to scratch even the surface of the monumental corruption that often times originate from his office, he may need to be present at every road site with his testing equipment to ensure that the right layers have been laid and the concrete or asphalt to be laid is of the specified quality and quantity. Anything short of this will make him a victim of his public utterances. If he has any doubts, he should inquire from his predecessors in office, especially Raji Fashola, who Nigerians thought and referred to as super minister, and how his bold claims blew up in his face.
Yahaya Kana Ismaila writes from Abuja.