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• Umahi, Works Minister, rises to occasion, accuses governor of playing politics with people’s lives
• FG does not like Edo –Obaseki
From Tony Osauzo and Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
For sometime now, there has been altercations between officials of Edo State and the Federal Government over the bad conditions of Federal Roads connecting Edo with other states of the country.
The roads that have formed the talking point are the Okene-Auchi-Benin highway, which construction has taken eternity without completion, the Benin-Warri road and the Benin-Agbor road. Indeed, to describe the conditions of these roads as terrible is an understatement.
For several years now, commuters plying these roads have had to endure many lost man hours and incalculable damage to goods on account of the deplorable conditions of the roads without much concern and consideration from the government, whether at the state or federal level.
The dispute about whose responsibility it is to fix the roads came to the front burner when the Edo State governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, had interaction with members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State Council on July 19, 2023.
At the event, the governor bemoaned the state of the roads, lamenting that the strategic location of Edo State as the gateway to the North, Southwest, Southeast and South-south, has become a blessing and a curse.
Specifically, Obaseki while citing the Auchi-Ibillo Road, said that the Federal Government policy relating to roads was “very confusing” hence his inability to carry out maintenance of Federal Roads in the state.
He talked about the efforts he made to draw the federal authorities to take action on the roads, but to no avail, making him to conclude that the Federal Government does not like Edo State.
But in a swift reaction, the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, accused Obaseki of playing politics with people’s lives, pointing out that if the governor was genuinely interested in carrying out maintenance works, he should contact him (Minister) and he would give approval within minutes and the details could be worked between the state and the Federal Government later.
What followed the Minister’s comment was a barrage of caustic comments from officials of the Edo State government, who alluded to earlier maintenance of federal roads in the state by the administration of ex-Governor Adams Oshiomhole for which the Federal Government later refunded N16 billion to the Obaseki government which succeeded the Oshiomhole’s administration.
The government officials pointedly accused Oshiomhole of expending state funds on federal projects at a time the School of Nursing and other infrastructure were begging for attention in the state.
In a bid save the Edo State government from embarrassing comments from commuters travelling through the bad roads in Benin City, the government erected giant signboards along the federal roads, apologising to travellers by absolving itself from any blame.
As the ding dong affair between the state and the Federal Government continued, Obaseki announced that his administration had constructed over 1,500 kilometres of raods across the state as part of his democracy dividends to the people. This notwithstanding, a viral video seen last week showed that the state still lacks good roads.
The video vividly showed trucks conveying cows and other vehicles stuck on a muddy road, with other goods, including yams discharged on the road, following the inability of the vehicles to continue their journey.
“I beg, see road. People who say every road in the state is a Federal Government road, you should ask Obaseki; the 40 buses he brought, which road will they pass? There is no road in Edo State.
“Edo North has no road, Sabongida blocked, Eme-Ora blocked, Ifon blocked. All those roads, are they federal roads? Obaseki, wake up from your slumber”, the commentators in the video were heard saying.
Similarly, Mr Philip Uduriase, lamented over the state of roads in his area, Oba Erediauwa in Ikpob-Okha Local Government Area of the state, saying that the road leads to about 11 communities, but has been rendered impassable for years.
Mr Uduriase, a tricycle rider, said that the road is not only causing untold hardship to them, but also to other road users and residents in the area, lamenting that farm produce are left to rot away in the farms, a situation that has led to high cost of farm produce.
He frowned at the situation during elections when politicians will come up with promises of dividends of democracy, insisting that they want to see those promises fulfilled now.
“All that we are pleading for is that those in authorities should come to our help because the dry season will soon set in and if they can’t tar it, they should come and make the road motorable so that we can heave a sigh of relief because if the rains continue like this, in the next rainy season, I can’t guarantee people accessing here anymore.
“We have Uteh Ikoko , Orioh, Azura and other communities even this road is leading to bypass”, Uduriase said.
Also speaking, Mr Cyril Eze, said that they are now regular customers to the mechanic workshops, pointing out that the money they should have used for other purposes have been expended on their tricycles because of the bad roads.
He said that they are in serious need of the government’s attention on their roads so that life can be more meaningful for them.
Another respondent, Owobu Usigbe, while x-raying the roads in the state said that the government should wake up to its responsibility and fix up the roads so that those spending man hours on the roads will not have to do that again.
He urged the state government to capitalize on the forthcoming dry season to fix the roads so that there can be respite in the state, lamenting that the hardship is getting out of hand.
Respite, however, appears to be in the horizon for commuters who ply federal roads that transverse Edo State, as the Minister of Works, Umahi, last Tuesday, gave directive for immediate maintenance of the roads.
“I have directed them to immediately maintain the road. We are redesigning the road irrespective that we have gotten an advance payment, we are redesigning the road on concrete pavements. I have agreed with the Commissioner for Works, Edo State, the young man that is standing near me, they will open the drains immediately so that the water will all go out and so that the contractors will maintain the road while he starts his construction, but in the meantime, I have given him seven days to come out with a new design and we will now look at it together.
“I have looked at the road projects, the intention of the past administration all the way from Abuja to Benin City, very wonderful intention, I commend the initiative, but Nigerians do not have value for all the money spent on the roads. I was on the roads for 14 hours with all the security agencies attached to me and if I could be on the road for 14 hours, then imagine what ordinary Nigerians are passing through , how many hours? We came to a point, when we have trucks parked on the pavement over five kilometers, continuous parking, in fact, they blocked us. Without security, we would not have been able to get to Benin.
“So, this is not acceptable. And the contractors are not on site because their papers are with BPP, some for three months, some for six months, they have not been released so that the contractors can get their re-election and no ejection and we will start. I have sent text to the DG of BPP on the next step and unless we change our bureaucracy, we change our procurement process, this country can’t move forward and I am happy that the man that God sent, Mr President, Bola Tinubu, is a man of infrastructure, is a man that knows how every aspect of this country will be reset. I am very happy about that and I will do everything within my power and as for the contractors, they have no good intentions, most of the contractors, they don’t have enough personnel that are qualified.
“I have just directed that every project, I don’t mind if is a black man or if he is a white man, he must be a COREN registered engineer to be a project manager for that contractor from that company with 15 years experience on road constructions. I have also directed that we shall no more do surface dressing on our shoulders. I have directed that all projects must stop and be redesigned on concrete. The truth is that, there is none of these roads built from Abuja to Benin that will last within the next five years and that is the truth and that is very, very unfortunate and they are going to do this, and contractors do not expose the soft base, the base course to traffic compaction.
“Most times we don’t do compaction test, what we call penetration test. These are the reasons our roads are falling. If you do a road and the soft base and the base course to be exposed to traffic movement, then, you get the required consolidation before you put your pavements. These are the problems. We also have an adulterated bitumen. If the bitumen people want to be importing into this country, if they want to continue in this business, they should go to Ogun and Ondo states and develop our abundant bitumen deposit there. This is very important so that we are not putting anybody out of business but we want to develop our economy, we want to build businesses, this is very important.
“I have also directed that consultants should henceforth supervisor our projects and we should implore our engineers, technical engineers, materials engineers, surveyors and structural engineers and road engineers. Every project should not have less than seven engineers, supervising from the ministry of works. No more comptroller of states being supervisors. They should supervise the contractors and the consultants”, he said.
With the visit of the Minister of Works to Edo State, it is hoped that both the state and Federal Government will work in synergy to deliver good roads to Nigerians and end the buck-passing over which authority has the responsibility to fix the roads.
