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By Peter Anosike
When in 2002, the National Assembly enacted the law establishing the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, it placed on its shoulders the responsibility, among others, to monitor and administer the maintenance of all federal roads in the country, and particularly ensure that they are always in good and safe conditions.
Since then, so many helmsmen have come to the agency to carry out the assignments as prescribed by the Act as amended in 2007. While some had found the task daunting, some others had tackled the agency’s challenges headlong.
However, many believe that after over two decades of the establishment of FERMA, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has finally found a round peg to put in the agency’s round hole by appointing Engr. (Dr) Emeka Agbasi, a man with so parts, intimidating academic records and field experience to be on the driving seat of FERMA as Managing Director.
Approving the appointment of the new Governing Board and Management of FERMA, President Tinubu had admonished the new appointees to achieve integrous and competent service delivery needed by his government in the central role FERMA will play in sustaining health and growth-enabling infrastructure nationwide.
Already, Nigerians are excited over the appointment of Agbasi, as they know his pedigree and antecedents with most of them saying that with him a smooth ride during the Christmas is assured.
For these Nigerians, Agbasi will combine the experience he has garnered at FERMA with his academic, as well as vast field knowledge acquired over the years, locally and internationally, to deliver the goods in a short time.
Dr Agbasi, who is currently the Director and Head, PPP, Multilateral and Special Duties Department of FERMA, is leading and pioneering development work on mainstreaming asset management, as well as deploying new strategies for road network maintenance and integrating climate change resilience.
He is also overseeing and managing the interface of the Agency’s programmes with DFID/FCDO, USAID, ECOWAS, JICA, Government of Japan, World Bank, AfDB, among others.
Prior to joining FERMA, Agbasi was a Senior Structures Advisor and Project Sponsor at the Highways Agency (HA), an executive agency of the UK Department of Transport. His other engineering roles in the UK-built environment and construction sector were with Kvaerner Technology (part of Kvaerner Construction Group, now Skanska Construction), and WhitbyBird (now part of Ramboll Group).
He was also engaged as a research associate at the Imperial College London and Loughborough University, where he executed fixed-term commercial research contracts.
Back home, he worked as a civil/structural engineer in a consulting engineering practice, as well as a Researcher/Lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in his early years career path.
Today, Dr Agbasi has over 30 years local and international engineering and management (consulting and contracting) and applied research experience spanning design and construction, structural investigation, condition survey and assessment, on-site troubleshooting, materials testing at macro and micro levels, product development, and project management.
He has equally developed and implemented strategies and methodologies for repair and
maintenance regimes for civil infrastructure and advised on serviceability issues to ensure adequate in-service performance, particularly for structures procured under Private Finance Initiative/Design Build Finance Operate
route with long-term concession period.
He has also maintained an interest in whole life management of structures, including IT tools for asset management and integrated project delivery processes just as he has authored several technical reports/papers and presented papers at international conferences in Africa, America, Asia, and Europe.
He has served on several local and international committees and working groups on construction excellence, project delivery, transport and trade facilitation, national development plan, highway structures, road infrastructure and sub-sector reforms, among others. Some of the committees and working groups, he participated in include the Project Advisory Group, TRL UK Overseas Road Note 31, Anambra State Transition Committee, Anambra State Vision 2070 (Economic Transformation Sub-Committee), Transport Technical Working Group (TTWG), Nigeria Medium Term National Development Plan (2021-25), Project Delivery Team FMWH Highways Development and Management Initiative (HDMI), US Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committees, Advisory Panel, Annual Africa Road Infrastructure Investment Congress, FGN Nigerian Road Safety Strategy (2019 – 2023) TWG, Federal Government Inter-Ministerial Committee of Stakeholders on Road Haulage, African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement Technical Committee, Federal Government Senate Technical Advisory Committee on Federal Roads Authority, Consultation Committee (Nigeria), Abidjan Lagos Corridor Management Authority (ALCoMA), Focal Point Public Works (Nigeria), Abidjan–Lagos Corridor, LAKAJI Corridor Management Group (LCMG), National Facilitation Committee for Trade and Transport, HMW Committee on Road Sector Reform, HMW Highways Specification Review Committee, NSE National Infrastructure Scorecard and Cost Indices Committee, NSE Codes and Standards Committee & Bureau Services Board, and NSE Presidential Task Force on Road Sector Reform.
Others include Second Benue River Crossing PPP Advisory/Feasibility Study Team, UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC) Gateway Reviewer, Construction Ambassador, UK Construction Industry Training Board, Technical Project Board for UK DMRB Standard BD02 and BA55, and Highways Agency Eurocodes Implementation.
Indeed, Dr Agbasi is a Civil Engineer of repute with outstanding academic records.
He holds an MSc/DIC (Concrete Structures) and PhD (Civil Engineering) degrees from Imperial College, London and University of London
respectively, a post-graduate certificate in Engineering Management from the University of Bath Management School, UK. He equally obtained a BEng (Civil Engineering) and MEng (Materials & Construction) degrees from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Dr Agbasi is also a UK-certified PRINCE 2 practitioner, APMG-certified PPP Professional, and has attended several courses, including management and leadership course at Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA.
These are the ingredients many see in his pot as he ascends the position of FERMA as the agency’s managing director after passing through the screening at the National Assembly.
