Why Enugu-Onitsha Dual-Carriage Road Construction Is ‘Wayo’

Late President Umaru Yar’adua in response to the request by some South East leaders who visited him in Aso Rock, Abuja, awarded the contract for the rehabilitation of the busy Onitsha-Enugu Expressway to Consolidated Construction Company (CCC) in 2009.

Of course the rehabilitation of the road could not be completed before Yar’adua’s demise in 2010 and his successor, President Goodluck Jonathan, was said to have sustained the contract.

But several years later, the road is yet unfinished and has remained a death trap for many users of the road. The road has claimed many lives through several fatal auto-accidents that have occurred and continue to occur on the highway. The route has until recently been termed a death trap by motorists.

In one of such fatal mishaps in October 2009 which took place at the Umunya portion of the road, about 70 people were killed when several commercial vehicles conveying them got burnt beyond recognition with the passengers when a tanker carrying fuel fell and went up in flames.

Public outcry due to these carnages on the road and monumental losses of lives forced the Yar’adua administration to award the contract for the reconstruction of the road which was initially given to the Niger Cat Construction Company  from Bridgehead to Uga Junction as well as the Upper Iweka and Upper Iweka to Zik’s Roundabout, while the remaining part of the Anambra portion of  the road — from Zik’s Roundabout to Amansea was awarded to the Consolidated Construction Company (CCC).

The Amansea end joining the 9th Mile Corner at Ngwo, in Enugu State, was awarded to the Niger Cat Company Limited, while the 9th Mile Corner with a spur to Enugu capital city was also given to the CCC. This all-important road is one out of 45 Federal roads which the Federal Government claimed it was doing in the Southeast zone totaling 1,196.1 kilometres at a total cost of N243.2billion.

For several years, there has been no improvement on the road as the contractors could not reconstruct the road. Many people including the construction companies have blamed the Federal Government for her inability to release necessary funds for the project.

However, some blame the companies for not being competent to handle such sensitive projects and that even when money is released to them, some of their executives immediately siphon the larger chunk of it to their home country, leaving paltry sums to do the work.

Even when these companies do the work, they are poorly done as they do not meet the quality standard required, hence the failure of some portions of the road as soon as they are done.

The Federal Government is also blamed for contracting out such important roads to companies that do not have the capacity to do it and at the same time does not provide adequate monitoring/supervision of the level and quality of their performance.

But succour came to the users of the road with  an inter-state and Federal Government’s  arrangement called “reconstruct, fund, handover and  be refunded,” which made the Anambra state government to negotiate with the Federal Government to take over the funding of the reconstruction its own portion of the road with minor re-adjustments in its original design.

The contract was re-awarded with the introduction of more construction companies and segmentation for speedy work delivery. As a result, the reconstruction of service lanes was given to the IDC Construction Limited, while the main lanes were awarded to the CCC Limited.

The state government also divided the road into segments as follows — Niger Bridgehead to Uga Junction; Uga Junction to Upper Iweka; Upper Iweka to Borrowmeo/Zik’s Roundabout; Borrowmeo/Zik’s Roundabout to old Onitsha/Umunya Toll-Gate; old Onitsha/Umunya Toll-Gate to Awkuzu; Awkuzu to Amawbia Roundabout; and Amawbia Roundabout to Amansea Border Bridge. The Obi government paid more attention to reconstructing the portions that are densely populated or heavily congested, which are Niger Bridgehead to Upper Iweka, Upper Iweka to Borrowmeo/Zik’s Roundabout, Borrowmeo/Zik’s Roundabout to old Onitsha/Umunya Toll-Gate and Amawbia to Amansea Border Bridge. The reconstruction of Umunya to Awkuzu and Awkuzu to Amawbia portions was retained by the Federal Ministry of Works.

The work completion levels on these portions have significantly improved with the exception of the Federal Ministry of Works, the Umunya Toll-Gate to Awkuzu, Awkuzu to Amawbia Roundabout, where work has not started at all and Amawbia to Amansea Border Bridge.

Unfortunately, the state of work and its quality on the Enugu portion of the road is nothing to write home about. Presently, the work on the site appears to have stopped and totally abandoned. This is a direct contrast to what is happening in the Anambra portion of the road. The worst is that some of the portions that appeared to have been rehabilitated have collapsed so soon. It is unfortunate that there is nothing concrete on the ground that can be seen at the Enugu portion of the road except “cut and join” and snail-speed sort of work going on at the Oji River axis.

Irked by this abysmal lack of performance at the Enugu portion of the road, the International Society for Civil Liberty and the Rule of Law, through its chairman, Board of Trustees, Nze Emeka Umeagbalasi, said: “Yet the contracts for the reconstruction of the two inter-state portions were awarded same day, date and time in 2009.” While the Anambra portion is about 60% completed, the Enugu portion is still struggling at 10% completed. Up to N20billion or more is believed to have been expended so far on the Anambra portions by the Anambra state government.

Ordinarily, the Federal Government of Nigeria has no business in asking or allowing the federating states to undertake the responsibility of reconstructing any federal road whether it is “Express Way, Dual Carriage or Single Carriage”. This is because it amounts to abdication of its constitutional responsibilities and a gross violation of its social contract obligation. But owing to the fact that federating states are closer to the people as well as the strategic importance of such federal roads to the affected states and their peoples; the reasons for the involvement of some states in the provision of such important social services becomes pronounced.”

They argued that though a state government like that of Enugu deserves the right to insist that it will not take over the constitutional functions of another tier of government, that is the Federal Government, by embarking on the reconstruction of Federal roads such as its own portion of the Onitsha-Enugu Dual Carriage Way, the exercise of such rights may not always be in the overall interest of the citizens who make use of the road.

“For instance, it is a well known fact that federal roads are located at strategic parts of some affected states like their capital cities, exits and entrances. In Anambra, the Onitsha-Enugu Dual Carriage Way is located at an important part of the state including Onitsha Niger Bridgehead, which is the major entrance into the state and the southeast zone. Others are its major commercial city of Onitsha and its capital city of Awka. The road remains the state’s major access road to its two biggest cities of Onitsha and Awka as well as its major link to Enugu state. Until recently, the road has rubbished all the development projects executed by the former Peter Obi administration in Anambra State due to its horrible state.

These explains why it is no longer fashionable for a state to fold its hands and watch major federal and state roads getting decayed and causing its people untold hardships including traffic fatalities. This is more so when such a state can get a refund from the Federal Government under a signed agreement provided such state does not embark upon unilateral reconstruction or rehabilitation of any failed Federal road. In the case of Anambra for instance, the “reconstruct, fund, complete, handover and be refunded” agreement negotiated with the Federal Government was done in pieces or segments with approval obtained one after the other. The state government further initiated “segmental reconstruction and completion arrangement” whereby it awards a contract for a segment of the road, completes it before awarding another one,” said Umeagbalasi.

He, however, pointed out that it is very obvious  the snail pace and poor quality of work going on at Enugu portion of the road is as a result of poor funding and supervision of the Federal Government because the project is being funded directly by the Federal Government through its Ministry of Works. These are the reasons that forced the Anambra government in addition to public outcry, to seek permission to take over the reconstruction and direct supervision of the execution of the contract especially the congested portions of the road, which was granted in 2011.

The Federal Ministry of Works should as matter of urgency reverse the slow pace and poor quality of work done by some of these contractors by funding them adequately and equally ensure adequate monitoring.

Inter-society insists that the Senate and the House of Representatives Committees on Works should immediately investigate the deep gap that exists in the pace of work and its quality on the part of the Federal Government contractors and that of Anambra state.

“What is the state of funding of the contractors? Is appropriate funding being provided but diverted? How much funds have been provided to the contracting firms handling the roads and have the work and its quality delivered in commensuration with the funds released? Are the contracting firms handling the various portions of the roads being starved of funds by the Federal Ministry of Works?

 These are the important questions that the Works committees under reference as well as other interested bodies will seek immediate and concrete answers to in the course of their investigations. The flood control and indiscriminate digging of artificial gullies by contracting firms in place of proper drainage system and flood management should also be checkmated,” they demanded.

Reported by Alphonsus Eze of the Daily News Watch