The Federal Government has promised to address all obstacles hindering delivery of uncompleted section of the Abuja-Kaduna road to ensure actualisation of the project for the benefit of Nigerians before the end of 2024.
Work Minister, David Umahi who made the promised during his meeting with Directors in Abuja on Thursday urged them to be on their toe in working to ensure that vision for sustainable road infrastructure development in the country by the President Bola Tinubu’s administration is achieved.
The Minister proposed a review of agreements, cost, geo-technical evaluation among others of existing contracts with a view to addressing the bottlenecks that have delayed or hindered execution of road projects across the country in the past.
Speaking further on the Abuja-Kaduna road project, he said the contractors requested a review of the price to N1.35 trillion to finance the project.
“We have about 1.7 kilometers left of Abuja-Kaduna in two sections. We’ve some supervision work to be done on that road and we will be advised on the real designs of the two sections”, Umahi said.
He revealed that funding is the major issue, adding that because this particular project is under the presidential development fund initiative gotten from looted funds, he would need to discuss with the President about the importance of the road for all users.
According to him, “But I won’t be able to go back to him until we re-scope it because the project was N165 billion before and a review brought the cost to N655 billion but today the contractor is asking for N1.35 trillion and the government cannot afford it.
“What they are asking for is very wrong. We are looking at existing sub-grade and see what we can do about it.
“We are also looking at the first 40km to be constructed by Dangote under the Tax credit scheme to do it on concrete pavement but I am very committed to completing that road this year. No matter what happens, that road will be done this year,” he said.
Reiterating his commitment to the welfare of the workers, Umahi said what matters most is how much of roads were constructed or made motorable to ease the sufferings of Nigerians when it comes to mobility, adding that irrespective of position or social status, any worker who is found wanting in terms of performance risks being kept aside or outright replacement.
The Minister told directors that there is a difference between his ministry and other ministries, departments, and agencies, MDAs, due to the fact that the Works Ministry is measured in terms of the how much and the impact of the roads constructed.
“The difference between us and other MDAs is that ours is what you can achieve in terms of roads, not speech. And our office is not the normal civil service office where you spend eight hours and close, at times you need to even work a weekends,” he assured that anyone who works would be appreciated.
Umahi appealed to directors to be God fearing in handling the assignment of the ministry, while disclosed that the President had made available the needed funds for execution of road contracts, but that there was need for review of the contract terms due to previous experiences.
The Minister tasked the directors and contractors on integrity, identifing bad construction method, poor supervision, substandard materials as the foremost challenges of road contract execution in Nigeria. “18 retired security personnel are to be engaged in supervision and monitoring for each of the six geopolitical zones of the country”, he said.