ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – Strong indications emerged Monday that the long awaited second Niger Bridge that was completed and handed over to the government recently will not be operative unless two Bypasses in Asaba and Onitsha are constructed.
The Federal Government has raised the alarm that the contractors handling its projects were bent on frustrating its determination to discourage the use of asphalt for roads construction.
Speaking in Abuja while defending his ministry’s 2024 budget proposal before the joint National Assembly Committee on Works, chaired by Senator Mpigi Barinada, PDP, Rivers South East, the Minister of Works, Mr. David Umahi said that the bridge was today faced by serious challenges of constructing the Approach roads 2A and 2B which were awarded by the Federal Executive Council, but have funding challenges to take-off.
According to him, the remaining two Bypasses in Asaba (2A) and Onitsha (2B) awarded to Julius Berger Nigeria Plc and Reynods Construction Company Nigeria Limited respectively, during the last Administration was initially estimated at about N200billion but now with inflation, the cost may be up to N260billion.
Umahi who appealed for the cooperation of the National Assembly to ensure the full implementation of the policy from next year because there was not existing law that had hindered it from doing so, said that apart from being too expensive to import with foreign currency, the use of asphalt has been counter productive because it doesn’t last or roads compared to those constructed with concrete.
The Minister who noted that while the concrete roads could last up 50 years, asphalt ones had a lifespan of about 10 to 15 years stressed that embracing concrete roads would save the country a lot of foreign exchange because it would prevent frequent upward review of road projects.
Umahi said, “We have received a lot attacks concerning our policy to make concrete roads construction mandatory for our contractors. Some people were saying that it is illegal for us to insist on concrete for road construction.
“However, Article 2 of all contracts and clause 51 of all conditions forming the contracts allow the ministry to change the scope, quality and quantity of every contracts that is ongoing. We have right to change from asphalt to concrete without defiling the contract.
“All the contractors know this. The major reason we want to change from Asphalt to concrete is because we have many ongoing projects that needed to be reviewed.
“If the contract must be increased the President of Nigeria must know. After his approval, we would head to BPP which would evaluate and give approval.
“It will then go to the Federal Executive Council. It is a lot of rigours and this brings out a lot of delays in projects execution. The more the projects delay, the more inflation sets in.
“That’s why we then said the use of concrete apart from the fact that it would last longer is better.
“While the rise in the prices of asphalt is on geometric progression that of the concrete is all about local contents and the rise of it’s price is on arithmetic progression.
“At the moment, we are being frustrated by contractors who are giving us a very high cost of N350,000 per metre cubic. I think it’s unreasonable. We have allowed it in a number of critical roads like Lokoja-Benin and the entire East-West roads.
“We have told the contractors handling those critical roads with asphalt that the new lanes would be built with concrete.
“The first 40 kilometres on the Abuja-Kaduna road is critical and we are doing it with concrete.
“Generally, we have moved back to concrete. Starting from 2024, roads projects apart from palliatives and emergency repairs, would be built on concrete so that we can maintain steady stability in the course of our projects. The basis of the 2024 projects is to look at critical ones and their funding and to keep all projects alive.
“We have bitumen deposit in Ondo State. It should be developed. From the research we made, we discovered that the importation of bitumen that represents about 30 per cent of the cost. We are discussing with the Minister of Steel on how we can partner with him on how to get the steel content.
“He has assured us that before March next year, the production line that would produce the rods we needed would begin full operation.
“We have got those that would finance it and we had guaranteed it. That is the reinforcement. The cement is produced here. The chippings are produced here. The sand is produced here. The labour is here.
“Therefore the local content law as passed by the National Assembly is brought to the front burner.”
Umahi further told the lawmakers that without any presidential pronouncement, some parastatals which were hitherto under the Ministry of Works had been provided for in the Budget proposal of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.
He listed them to include, Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation (OSGoF); Federal School of Surveying, Oyo (FSS); Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN); and the Surveyors’ Council of Nigeria (SURCON), adding, “it will be good that these Committees do get these Parastatals back to the Federal Ministry of Works,”
Umahi explained that the total sum of N657,228,251,596 was proposed for the Federal Ministry of Works and its parastatals for capital, personnel and overhead estimates in the 2024 Appropriation Bill.
He said the main ministry got allocation of N566,466,977,361; Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA got N 51, 282,456,911; while the African Regional Institute for Geo-Spacial Information Science and Technology AFRIGIST (RECTAS) got N104,039,920 making a grand total of N617,853,474,192
Umahi who underscored the importance of road infrastructure to the over all development of the country said the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) Funded Projects in two phases.
“The NNPC joined the Road Infrastructure Development & Refurbishment Tax Credit Scheme programme by undertaking to finance 21 roads in the sum of N621bn with total length of roads of about 1,804.6km under the NNPC Phase I.
According to him, these roads were identified by key stakeholders such as the NNPC, Petroleum Tanker Drivers Association (PTD) and the Ministry etc. as being crucial for the efficient distribution of petroleum products across the nation.
As at date, the total drawdown forwarded to the NNPC Limited is in the sum of N247.729 bn out of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved sum of N621,237 bn representing 39.88% performance.
He explained that the funding gap here due to inflation is estimated at over N250 bn. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) Funded Projects Phase II
“The NNPC Phase II Funded Projects were approved by the Federal Executive Council in the sum of N1.969 trillion for the execution of 44 No. roads with total length of 4,554.19km while the initial Contract Sum was about N3.969trillion.
“This leaves a funding gap of over N2 trillion at the time of starting the projects and presently, with inflation, the funding gap to have the NNPC Phases I & II completed shall stand at about N3.56 trillion (Inflation about N1.5trillion) for two years from now.
The minister explained that this funding gap is neither appropriated for nor has any source of funding, which means that without the “kind intervention of this Distinguished and Honourable Joint Committees of Works, these projects will not go on mostly from March 2024 when the NNPC funding would have been exhausted”.
“Your kind intervention and advice are highly, highly and urgently solicited. As at date, the total drawdown forwarded to the NNPC Limited is in the sum of N752.093 billion representing 38.18% performance”, adding “the level of drawdown seems low because most of the projects needed to be reviewed due to the inflation”.
On Abuja-Lokoja road , which Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, PDP, Kogi Central complained about because the project has been on for almost two decades, Umahi who noted that the ministry has spent about N72 billion on it, said that the project was divided into 3 sections, each executed by Mother Cat, RCC and Dantata.
Umahi lamented that several reasons are responsible for failure of Nigerian roads, which include the way the contractors execute the works, burning of tires on roads, parking of heavy vehicles on the roads, etc.
