Nigeria's Deplorable Highways
I am a regular traveller. In the course of my work I make several trips across the length and breadth of this country. Each time I embark on any journey by road, it's as if am being punished for some sins I or my forebears have committed. The Nigerian roads are just simply impassable. They are deathtraps. It's as if there is no government in place or top government officials never use the roads. Perhaps, because they have government vehicles at their disposal and are also mostly chauffer driven, they do not feel as much discomfort as ordinary commuters feel while using the roads.
Road is on the concurrent legislative list, thus the responsibilities for building and maintenance are shared by the three tiers of government. Federal government is in charge of Trunk 'A' roads better known as interstate roads. Trunk 'B' roads are intra-state roads and are therefore to be taken care of by the 36 state governments. The 774 Local Government Areas are in charge Trunk 'C' roads which are majorly within their local government territories. In total Nigeria has an estimated 193,200km of roads and the federal government is in charge of about 34,000km.
As The Guardian noted in its editorial of November 8, 2015, "unfortunately, no tier of government can be said to have acquitted itself creditably on matters of roads construction and maintenance. Scores of innocent people are killed daily in avoidable accidents on account of the bad roads. Man-hours are lost in traffic. And the national economy suffers incalculable losses." The editorial observed further that "since 1999, a whopping N1.4 trillion ($8.5 billion) has reportedly been spent on road construction or maintenance with very little evidence of the money spent. The system is rotten and merely serves as a veritable platform for corruption." I couldn't agree less!
Some of the worst highways include the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Sagamu-Ore, Onitsha-Enugu–Port Harcourt road, Ikorodu-Shagamu road, Okene-Lokoja-Abuja and Rijau -Kontagora road in Niger State. The South East governors met last Tuesday, November 17, 2015 in Enugu and they simply declared the state of emergency on the federal roads in their zone. According to Governor Rochas Okorocha while briefing the press, the most worrisome to them are the Enugu-Onitsha express road, Aba-Ikot Ekpene, Owerri-Port Harcourt and Enugu-Port Harcourt roads. I'm in agreement with the South East governors but will like to ask them to tell the public what the condition of state and local government roads in their geo-political zone look like. Are they any better than the federal roads they are condemning?
There is no gainsaying that corruption, lack of adequate funding, policy inconsistence, and over-reliance on foreign construction companies, are some of the malaise responsible for this parlous state of Nigerian roads. On corruption, the aforementioned The Guardian editorial has this to say: "Whereas, the World Bank's benchmark for building a kilometre of road is N238 million, the same is built for about N1 billion in Nigeria."
In the good old days, states have the Public Works Department popularly known as PWDs in their State Ministry of Work. PWDs were well resourced to regularly maintain state roads. Not anymore, everything is being outsourced to private contractors so that those awarding the contracts can get their percentage kickbacks. Oftentimes road contracts are starved of funds and as such when the contractors find it unbearable to continue work, they abandon the sites. Unfortunately, when government may want to complete them, the contractors will ask for upward review of the contract due to inflation. Recently, several thousands of construction workers in Nigeria were laid off due to government's heavy indebtedness to these companies. That has further compounded the unemployment situation in the country and concomitantly insecurity.
It is a shame that Nigeria lacks requisite skilled construction workers. This revelation was made at a recent meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and the Board of Directors of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc. They told the President that because of shortage of competent construction workers and artisans, construction companies were forced to bring in skilled expatriates. This is in spite of the plethora of Nigerian monotechnics, polytechnics and universities annually graduating thousands of Engineers, Architects, Builders, Quantity Surveyors, Technicians, and Estate Managers, to mention but a few. This is heart rending! However, federal government should not totally fall for this line of argument as the foreign construction companies may actually be justifying their abuse of expatriate quota.
The way out of the present quagmire and albatross is for government to look more towards the BOT (Build, Operate and Transfer) option whereby private companies are allowed to build the roads through their own funds which they recoup through tolling over a period of time and thereafter transfer the ownership back to government. Alternatively, government can also go into joint venture with private enterprises to build roads and jointly manage it. Similarly, government can engage private companies to manage its road networks. In any of these options, there is no way we can do without tolling. To continue to wish that we will use all roads free is to live in delusion. Yes, not all roads should be tolled particularly Trunk B and C roads. However key federal roads cannot escape the privatisation and commercialisation option. Our new Minister of Transport, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Ameachi, you have your job cut out for you. Do something!
•Jide is the Executive Director of OJA Development Consult, Abuja. Follow me on twitter @jideojong
Road is on the concurrent legislative list, thus the responsibilities for building and maintenance are shared by the three tiers of government. Federal government is in charge of Trunk 'A' roads better known as interstate roads. Trunk 'B' roads are intra-state roads and are therefore to be taken care of by the 36 state governments. The 774 Local Government Areas are in charge Trunk 'C' roads which are majorly within their local government territories. In total Nigeria has an estimated 193,200km of roads and the federal government is in charge of about 34,000km.
As The Guardian noted in its editorial of November 8, 2015, "unfortunately, no tier of government can be said to have acquitted itself creditably on matters of roads construction and maintenance. Scores of innocent people are killed daily in avoidable accidents on account of the bad roads. Man-hours are lost in traffic. And the national economy suffers incalculable losses." The editorial observed further that "since 1999, a whopping N1.4 trillion ($8.5 billion) has reportedly been spent on road construction or maintenance with very little evidence of the money spent. The system is rotten and merely serves as a veritable platform for corruption." I couldn't agree less!
Some of the worst highways include the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Sagamu-Ore, Onitsha-Enugu–Port Harcourt road, Ikorodu-Shagamu road, Okene-Lokoja-Abuja and Rijau -Kontagora road in Niger State. The South East governors met last Tuesday, November 17, 2015 in Enugu and they simply declared the state of emergency on the federal roads in their zone. According to Governor Rochas Okorocha while briefing the press, the most worrisome to them are the Enugu-Onitsha express road, Aba-Ikot Ekpene, Owerri-Port Harcourt and Enugu-Port Harcourt roads. I'm in agreement with the South East governors but will like to ask them to tell the public what the condition of state and local government roads in their geo-political zone look like. Are they any better than the federal roads they are condemning?
There is no gainsaying that corruption, lack of adequate funding, policy inconsistence, and over-reliance on foreign construction companies, are some of the malaise responsible for this parlous state of Nigerian roads. On corruption, the aforementioned The Guardian editorial has this to say: "Whereas, the World Bank's benchmark for building a kilometre of road is N238 million, the same is built for about N1 billion in Nigeria."
In the good old days, states have the Public Works Department popularly known as PWDs in their State Ministry of Work. PWDs were well resourced to regularly maintain state roads. Not anymore, everything is being outsourced to private contractors so that those awarding the contracts can get their percentage kickbacks. Oftentimes road contracts are starved of funds and as such when the contractors find it unbearable to continue work, they abandon the sites. Unfortunately, when government may want to complete them, the contractors will ask for upward review of the contract due to inflation. Recently, several thousands of construction workers in Nigeria were laid off due to government's heavy indebtedness to these companies. That has further compounded the unemployment situation in the country and concomitantly insecurity.
It is a shame that Nigeria lacks requisite skilled construction workers. This revelation was made at a recent meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and the Board of Directors of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc. They told the President that because of shortage of competent construction workers and artisans, construction companies were forced to bring in skilled expatriates. This is in spite of the plethora of Nigerian monotechnics, polytechnics and universities annually graduating thousands of Engineers, Architects, Builders, Quantity Surveyors, Technicians, and Estate Managers, to mention but a few. This is heart rending! However, federal government should not totally fall for this line of argument as the foreign construction companies may actually be justifying their abuse of expatriate quota.
The way out of the present quagmire and albatross is for government to look more towards the BOT (Build, Operate and Transfer) option whereby private companies are allowed to build the roads through their own funds which they recoup through tolling over a period of time and thereafter transfer the ownership back to government. Alternatively, government can also go into joint venture with private enterprises to build roads and jointly manage it. Similarly, government can engage private companies to manage its road networks. In any of these options, there is no way we can do without tolling. To continue to wish that we will use all roads free is to live in delusion. Yes, not all roads should be tolled particularly Trunk B and C roads. However key federal roads cannot escape the privatisation and commercialisation option. Our new Minister of Transport, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Ameachi, you have your job cut out for you. Do something!
•Jide is the Executive Director of OJA Development Consult, Abuja. Follow me on twitter @jideojong
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