Five major road projects awarded by the federal government havestalled for 19 years as their cost rose from initial N461.3 billion to N2.316trillion, findings by 21st CENTURY CHRONICLE have shown.
Four of the projects were awarded by President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2002 and 2006, while the remaining one was awarded by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2017.
Despite guzzling billions,the projects are still ongoing with their cost and completion deadline changing many times.
The meteoric rise inthe cost of these projects was due to various reviews, skyrocketing inflation, freefall of naira value, change of scope of work, and above all outright lack of funding by successive administrations.
Findings by this newspaper revealed that the road projects are trying to outlive four presidents- Obasanjo (1999 – 2007), late Umaru Yar’adua (2007- 2010), Goodluck Jonathan(2010 – 2015), and Buhari (2015 to date).
Almost all the projects have a completion period between three to four years, but they are still pending almost 20 years after.
The projects are the Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja Road(42.3km), Kano-Maiduguri Road (560km), Kaduna Eastern Bypass (48km), East-WestCoast Road (704km), and Abuja- Kaduna – Kano Highway (375km). The mega projects are:
Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja Road
The rehabilitation contract of the 196 kilometre Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja Highway was awarded on July 18, 2006 by the Obasanjo administration at the initial cost of N42.3 billion.
It, however, rose to N116 billion without being completed.The contract was awarded to four contractors; Dantata& Sawoe Construction Company, Reynolds Construction Company (RCC Nigeria), Bulletine Construction Limited, and Gitto Costruzioni Generali Nigeria Ltd. who were all expected to complete in 30 months.
21st CENTURY CHRONICLE reports that the initial of section 1 was N11.2bn to be handled by Dantata & Sawoe; Section2, N9.6bn by Reynold Construction Company while Bulletine Construction Limited was allocated Section 3 at N9.6bn as well as Section 4 which gulped N11.9bn is for Giotto Costruzioni Generali Nigeria Limited.
However, the 30-month deadline for the completion of the road could not be achieved as the federal government did not make budgetary provision for the project in 2008 and 2009, thereby leading to upward review of the total cost of the road project.
In five financial years (2006 –2010), the total budgetary provisions for the Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja road project was N26.63 billion, representing 62.6 percent of the total contract sumof N42.55 billion.
In November 2010, the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) reviewed the cost of the project upward and issued a ‘Certificateof No Objection’ for the new cost,which totalled N116 billion.
The Federal Executive Council approved the contract on September 28,2011, and November 23, 2011.
Kaduna Eastern Bypass
Another road contract that has not been completed is the 48 kilometre Kaduna Eastern Bypass, stretching from Kakau village in Kaduna east to Zaria road.
The project was awarded by Obasanjo at N16 billion to Eksiogulari Construction (Nig) Ltd on November 24, 2002.
The cost has risen to N36 billion without being completed.The contract was reviewed on December 31, 2007, which is two years later than the first completion deadline.
The deadline was shifted to July 31, 2012. Again, the value of the project was reviewed upward in 2015 to the tune of N24 billion and in 2017 to N38 billion due to modifications and cost of materials.
Buhari has again extended the deadline to 2021, yet the project is yet to be delivered.
East-West Coast Road
A couple of reasons were responsible for the delay in completing the 675 kilometer- East-West Coast road project whose initial cost was put at N211 billion when Obasanjo awarded its contract in 2006.
Jonathan created an additional 23.9km to link Calabar with the oceanic town of Oron in Akwa Ibom State in 2011 and jerked up the cost of the contract to N726 billion.
The dilly dallying on the project continued with its adjustments by over 100 percent increase after award of contract makes experts wonder if a feasibility study was done at all before commencing on contract execution.
There were over 10 upward reviews of the entire stretch of the road in piecemeal over many years.
Buhari, in June 2020, approved the immediate release of N19.67 billion to ramp up efforts in completing sections I-IV of the East-West Road project by 2021.
Kano-Maiduguri Road
The 560 kilometre -Kano-Maiduguri Road contract was awarded by Obasanjo in 2006 at an initial cost of N37 billion.
But the cost has snowballed to N67 billion.
The road was to be dualized to make it an expressway to aid free flow of people and goods, especially agricultural products.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the award of the contract at the sum of N37bn before it was reviewed to N63.137bn and the completion period extended from February 11, 2010 to December 30, 2021.
Insecurity majorly caused the delay for the completion of the road project.
Specifically, Boko Haram insurgents were severely attacking and kidnapping both local labourers and expatriates working for the contractors including Mother Cat, SETRACO, CCECC, CGC, and Dantata & Sawoe.
Work did not resume on the road project until after 10 years, that was 2016, when Minister of State for Works and Power, Alhaji Mustapha Baba Shehuri, expressed displeasure over the slow pace of work and gave the contractor till 2017 to complete the project.
The Section lll of the road linking Yobe to Bauchi state was completed and commissioned by President Buhari on December 10, 2021.
The entire project was nearing completion with the exception of the Auno-Maiduguri portion which was being delayed by constant attacks by insurgents.
Abuja- Kaduna- Kano Highway
The rehabilitation of the 375 kilometre highway was awarded in 2017 by President Buhari at the cost of N155 billion, with a completion period of 36 months.
The project was awarded to Julius Berger Nigeria.
Four years later, the Federal Executive Council presided by President Muhammadu Buhari on March 4, 2021 changed the scope of the project from “renovation”to “reconstruction” and jerked up the cost from N155 billion to N797.2 billion.
By this, the federal government would build the Abuja – Kaduna – Kano road at a cost of N12.12 billion per kilometer.
Instead of the initial 36 months, the completion period has been dragged to the end of 2023.
The project would start from the FCT through Niger, Kaduna and Kano states.
Minister of works and housing Babatunde Fashola said the project would be done in phases with the first phase being the 74km Kaduna-Zaria section, which is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2022 (Q42022).
He said that the second phase, which is the 137Km Zaria-Kano section, will be completed in the first quarter of 2023 (Q1 2023); while the last phase, the Abuja-Kaduna section, should be completed in the second quarter of 2023 (Q2 2023).
