PUNCH
In January 2023, as time wound down on the Muhammadu Buhari administration, it approved a project plan under which, it said, nine roads totaling 1,347km nationwide would be commissioned for 25 years.
The plan was described as the first phase of a Public-Partnership-Project scheme under the Highway Development and Maintenance Initiative (HDMI).
Remember: January 2023. But the HDMI scheme began much earlier, in 2020, with a call for bids. The preferred bidders were announced in April 2022, with the government approving nine of the 12 highways in January 2023.
The nine included the 195km Abuja-Lokoja highway. (The Lokoja-Benin, about which I have written substantially, was deferred along with a few others for the second phase of the HDMI Project process.)
Keep in mind that in January 2023, the government approvedan application of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to invest N1.9 trillion in the reconstruction of 44 federal roadsunder the NNPCL tax scheme.
The list of roads included at least the Abuja-Lokoja segment of the A2 highway. The contractors involved were listed as CGC Nigeria, Mother Cat, Dantata and Sawoe, and RCC.In May 2023, the government signed commercial contracts with the concessionaires.
In January 2024, under the new government, Mr. Umahi set a March 2024 deadline for the roads to be handed over to the concessionaires.According to the HDMI project profile of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), the concessionaire for the Abuja-Lokoja Road is Avia Infrastructure Services Limited (AISL).
Last week, in a meeting with the four construction contractors, Works Minister David Umahi threatened to terminate their contracts.
He sounded like a very angry man, describing a scandal without admitting there is a scandal: of contractors receiving contracts for which they lack capacity, and staying on a single project for 17 years, seeking contract variations.
Mr. Umahiobserved of the Abuja-LokojaRoad that the initial project cost was N121bn, before the administration of President Bola Tinubu, but had been reviewed to about N870bn.
“We demanded from the contractors to approve that they can do the job and they did but the arrogance of contractors in this country is very insulting. A country where the contractors are dictating what happens; in the Ministry of Works, many contractors have over 17 projects but they have no personnel and equipment to do it. They are just playing politics. Staying on jobs for 17 years and that is what is playing out.”
CGC Nigeria, Mother Cat, Dantata and Sawoe, and RCC have been involved with the Abuja-Benin City Road in various respects for most of the past two decades. I have cited them in previous interventions on this subject.
If they are involved in any projects under the NNPCL tax scheme, it seems to be to be too soon for threats, given that the scheme is just one year old. If the threats involve their work on the Abuja-Benin City segment in the past two decades, justice—not threats—is what is required.
The contract alleged to have been awarded during the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency has subsequently seen the succeeding governments of Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, none of which recognized it. Instead, as I explored here in ‘Does Dave Umahi Know Nigeria I,”they have awarded at least 10 separatecontracts since then.
