Mike Onolememen, a
professional architect, the current federal minister of Works of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria was made a cabinet level member by President Good luck
Jonathan soon after the current administration coasted home to victory in the
year 2011 general elections.
He immediately came into
the general consciousness of the Nigerian reading public when he toed similar
line of media showmanship that was created by one of his predecessors who is
the current minister of Petroleum [Mrs. Deziani Alison-Maduekwe] when she was
made a minister of Works and she drove to the then deteriorated
Lagos/Benin/Onitsha Federal Highway and was photographed/videoed in most local
electronic and print media while she shaded tears [crocodile or genuine]
regarding the bad state of road and promised to fix that road.
She left without doing
anything to improve the condition of that terrible road alongside others across
the country and especially in the South East and South South geo-political
zones thus making most rational thinkers who watched her shed tears to conclude
those were mere crocodile tears displayed for purposes of propaganda to score
cheap popularity from a largely gullible crowd.
But unlike his female
counterpart in the current cabinet, the current minister of woks [stoutly
built] did not betray emotion when he visited the seemingly unending
construction site at the Abuja/Lokoja federal High way awarded over a decade
and several tons of public funds released in their billions without any
remarkable progress.
The current minister of
works rather than cry like a baby, mustered ‘masculine’ [pardon my use of this
word since I am not a male chauvinist] courage and pledged that before long,
that bad road alongside many others including those in the South East and the
South South geopolitical zones will be fixed.
He also promised equity in
the construction of key federal roads to all zones of the country. One year
after this public media show which was done during the peak travelling
Christmas period of last for maximum publicity, the Federal Government has not
only failed to deliver some of these vital and critical road infrastructure but
to the chagrin of most Nigerians many more Federal Highways are also abandoned
even when the funds required for such roads have either been released to these
contractors and these fees required to complete these critical roads like the
Arondizuogu Federal Highway abandoned since three decades are much less than a
hundred million Naira. At the last count, the media reported that during the
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo-led administration, over N300 billion released for
construction of federal roads disappeared into private pockets.
Sadly, members of the
National Assembly’s committees on Works are either sleeping on their duty or
have connived with these dare-devil failed contractors to corner Nigeria’s
commonwealth. Sadly, still, the organized civil society is sleeping on their
advocacy duty of shouting to high heavens and keeping these failed contractors
on their toes until the anti-graft agencies bring them to face the full weight
of the law.
Last weekend, I was going
through the Nigerian media and one story attracted my attention regarding the
comments credited to the current minister of Works on the recently conducted
local council election in Edo state whereby the minister who hails from that
state was quoted as criticizing the governor Comrade Adams Oshiomhole for
working against democracy by frustrating smooth conduct of that election.
I then asked myself what in
this word is the business of a federal cabinet minister in charge of a serious
beat like the works ministry be doing with the local council election even when
the jobs he ought to be doing as a constitutionally assigned federal minister
of Nigeria are either half done or left abandoned like the major road I just
cited which was abandoned a whole thirty years back and yet these people from
Arondizuogu and other densely populated communities voted actively for the
current government?
Same last Week, it was
therefore with pleasant surprise that I read a thoroughly investigated story on
this Arondizuogu federal High way done by one of Nigeria’s finest national
newspapers. I said pleasantly shocked because Nigeria’s newspapers hardly cover
activities taking place in Nigeria’s seriously marginalized rural communities.
Mr. Mathias Okwe, an
assistant editor [business] of The Guardian newspapers who is originally from
Cross River state and works in the Abuja bureau of The Guardian visited
Arondizuogu community [my place of birth] and saw for himself the incredible
situation of this abandoned federal road and reported that although some
releases have been made to the contractors but the said contractor and the
federal ministry of works have more or less left the people [including yours
faithfully] to their fate and the economy of these once vibrant communities are
suffering. Nigerians who have followed my media advocacy over the years would
have noticed that I deliberately avoided writing about my neglected community
of Arondizuogu just so as not to be accused of parochialism but now that an
outsider so to say has focused on the obvious regarding my hometown, charity
which ought to begin at home demands that I add my little voice to call on the
minister of works to do the needful to salvage the waning image of this
government by ensuring that transparent and qualitative job is done on this
road.
Mathias Okwe expertly
reported thus; "ABANDONED for more than 30 years, the
Oba-Nnewi-Arondizuogu-Okigwe federal road has become a nightmare for commuters
and a source of concern to the people of Arondizuogu in Ideato North Local
Council of Imo State, whose economy has been rendered prostrate due to the poor
state of the road".
The road played a key role
during the civil war, as illustrated by relics of the Biafra war like the Uga
Airstrip and Ojukwu Bunker, which at a time served as the Biafra operational
headquarters.
Arondizuogu town, known for
its industry, is equally home to some of the brightest brains the South East
has produced such as Chief Mbonu, Chief K.O Mbadiwe, Lady Onyeka Onwenu, and
the author of the iconic Igbo novel OMENUKO among several other industrialists.
The town is now dotted with
relics of a once virile cottage industry and hotels that have wound up due to
poor sales attributed to lack of good access roads. Commuters prefer to take
alternative routes to adjoining cities like Okigwe down to Cross River and
Rivers, though it is a longer route.
Some of the companies that
have closed down as a result of the bad road include: Jolly Jones Vegetable
Oil, Safari Vegetable Oil, Safari Hotel, Arondizuogu Rice Mill, LNO Obioha
Motel and Chimon Hotel Limited.
For a trip that would
normally last about 40 minutes, commuters spend over three harrowing hours
navigating through broken down vehicles. There is also the fear of attacks by
armed robbers and kidnappers, who have suddenly turned the spot into their
favourite place to attack hapless citizens. At some spots, passengers have to
disembark to allow the vehicle snarl through the deep mud-filled
potholes.
On a recent trip through
the route, Mathias Okwe of The Guardian ran into a protest staged by the
Arondizougu people to demonstrate against the marginalization of the town by
the Federal Government, who they accuse of abandoning the road since construction
began in 1982.
They carried placards with
several inscriptions, some of which read: Nnewi-Oba-Akokwa-Arondiozogu-Okigwe
is now a death trap; Okigwe-Onitsha Road, a blessing or curse? Help us, our
industries are dying; Arondiozogu, are we part of Nigeria? And we
cannot convey our rice to the market, among others.
Leader of the group, the
traditional ruler of Ihieme Izuogu community, Dr. Kosmann Ndubuisi Kanu, said:
“We have suffered so much on this road. For over 15 years, this project has
been ongoing and nothing is being done about it. What we hear is that the
president has approved that the project should be completed. We don’t know why
the contractor has not moved to site or what is delaying his mobilization”.
“This road is very
important as far as Nigeria is concerned. It connects
Cross River, Rivers, Abia,
Ebonyi and Anambra states. The president should monitor the project so that the
contractor would not vanish into thin air after payment has been made. Five
months ago, a trailer load of cement plunged into this place, killing everybody
involved due to the bad road.”
Investigation revealed that
for 2012, N49 million was appropriated for the project, while this year, a
provision of N20 million for engineering design for the same project is contained
in the budget.
The Budget Office and the
Federal Ministry of Works in Abuja were visited by the reporter to know the
status of releases to the contractor, officials were not forthcoming.
Director, Fiscal at the
Budget Office, Barrister Etuk explained that the Budget Office does not deal
with contractors as it only releases money to the line ministry, in this case
the Federal Ministry of Works for disbursement to contractors upon satisfactory
completion of projects.
He explained that the lean provision
for projects monitoring was deterring his office from visiting every project.
He, however, promised to ensure that the specific project would be monitored in
the next quarter monitoring exercise.
At the Federal Ministry of
Works Headquarters, Mabushi, Abuja, the Director, Highways, in charge of the
South East, Mr. Godwin Eghieyu, gave insight to the delay of the project but
declined to disclose how much had been released to the contractor.
“The project is about 14
kilometre. They have repaired about 4.5 kilometres on one side, on the
other side. The work was not very good and the contractor was told to stop work
during the rainy season, because the quality of any work done during the rainy
season might not be guaranteed.
The contract was awarded
to a firm that was not handling the project to our satisfaction. Due
to queries, another firm was brought in to complete the project,” he clarified.
As a son of Arondizuogu I
can testify that most rural dwellers are into farming but these bad roads have
compounded their economic adversity as they are usually unable to convey their
farm produce to the nearest markets and if this current government is
particular about agricultural transformation agenda then the Government must as
a matter of national urgency attend to these roads.
Can someone please advise
the government especially Mr. President to ask his minister of works to face
his national assignment and stop his frequent local trips to Edo state to play
local politics at the cost of huge public fund. This brings us to the critical
question of why the President will use political affiliations rather than merit
and competence to determine who emerges as cabinet level ministers. If we ever
hope to create a better society, then the President must appoint only statesmen
and women into his cabinet and must stop appointing politicians who would milk
Nigeria dry and use public fund to pursue their parochial and pedestrian
political interest.
+ Emmanuel Onwubiko is
Head Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria and blogs @www.huriwa.blogspot.com; http://www.huriwa.org
28/10/2013
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