Buhari turns over N974b in unfinished road projects

According to research, the Muhammadu Buhari administration left 38 unfinished road projects worth N979 billion to President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

The projects were found by analysing the 2023 budget and comparing it to the national monitoring and evaluation system, EYEMARK, which Buhari introduced in December of the previous year.

According to reports, despite the former President’s assurances that the roads would be finished before the end of his administration, several important road networks remained unfinished due to a lack of funding and other difficulties.

The dualization of the Keffi-Akwanga-Lafia-Makurdi road in Nasarawa State and the expansion of the Abuja-Keffi dual carriageway are two crucial projects.

Other significant projects that are still unfinished include Benue State Phase I, the Lafia Bypass, the 9th Mile (Enugu)-Otukpo-Makurdi Road in Enugu, and Phase II of Benue State, which is estimated to cost N32.5 billion.

Another project on the list is the N100 million rehabilitation of the Ikorodu-Shagamu Road in Lagos State, which also includes the access road to Mosimi, and the N54.95 billion full-scale development of Federal Capital Terriory Highway 105 (Kuje Road), which runs from the airport motorway to the outer Southern Motorway with a spur at Kyami District.

Ondo/Ekiti states’ dualization of Akure-Ado Ekiti Road was estimated to cost N90 billion.

The dualization of Obajana Junction to Benin phase 2: Section 11 (Okene to Auchi) costs N5 billion and is one of the other projects.

The construction of the roads in Bichi township, which cost N1.40 billion, the Dawakin Tofa-Gwarzo-Dayi Road in Kano, which cost N2, billion, the 5.4-kilometer Abuja-Keffi Motorway, and the 220-kilometer Keffi-Akwanga-Lafia-Makurdi Federal Roads, which were awarded for N166.36 billion, are all unfinished road projects.

Other projects include the N101.1 billion Keffi-Akwanga-Lafia road project, the N100 million Chanchangi bridge along the Takum-Wukari road in Taraba State, the dualization of the N100 million Jattu-Fugar-Agenebode road, and the N250 million reconstruction of the Irekpa-Fugar-Agenebode road in Edo State.

Another project is the Lagos-Ibadan Motorway, which is currently being managed by RCC and Julius Berger Nigeria Plc and is said to cost about N315 billion.

The 126.6 km road is reportedly 85 percent complete, but the protracted construction has put commuters and drivers through unspeakable hardship, with many of them spending hours in traffic every day.

Additionally, N400m was allotted for the building of the Bidda-Sacci-Nupeko road and the Nupeko/Patigi bridge that spans the River Niger in the Niger/Kwara States and connects Nupeko and Patigi.

FG calms concerns

The Director of Highways South-West, Adedamola Kuti, promised in an interview on Sunday that all unfinished projects would be finished.

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The federal civil service operates in a very different manner, he observed.

If the new administration has taken over the unfinished tasks, we will make sure that those projects are finished. You would probably agree that the previous government inherited unfinished road projects and they completed some of them even as they started new ones. We are making great progress, and no project will be shelved.

According to information obtained by our correspondent on Sunday, the Federal Government has set aside N25 billion to pay off local contractors this year.

The budget for 2023 included the sum.

The amount is, however, a far cry from the N11 trillion that succeeding administrations owe to local contractors.

The contractors who finished building numerous highways and other infrastructure projects across the nation and received certificates of completion have protested the government’s failure to pay them for contracts that were completed up to 12 years ago.

Dandy Rowland, the president of the Local Contractors Association of Nigeria, said in an interview from last year that the association’s members were owed N28 billion by the government.

Additionally, Babatunde Fashola, the former minister of works and housing, admitted during his defence of the ministry’s 2023 budget that the government still owes ongoing highway contractors N10.4 trillion worth of unpaid completion certificates, totaling N765 billion.

However, when our correspondent asked for an update on the situation, a senior ministry source claimed that the reason for the payment delay was the synchronisation of the amounts with the finance ministry.

The source further stated that there is no deadline for paying the contractors.

We are still matching our numbers to those of the finance ministry, the source stated. There has not yet been a payment made, and the completion date for the harmonisation is unknown.

It has been learned that payments to contractors engaged in the ongoing construction of roads have continued despite the current administration’s freeze on the financial transactions of the ministries, departments, and agencies.
Contractor payments continue even though recurrent spending has been halted, according to a source, because they fall under the capital vote and are made by the federal government directly.

“All recurring expenses in the ministry have been delayed, even our duty tour allowance has not been paid, due to the recent ban on MDA accounts. All payments have been halted because TSA (Treasury Single Account) has been compromised. Only urgent payments, such as for the purchase of the new president’s portrait, can be handled by the ministry.

“Contractors are still being paid, though, as a result of the fact that their budget falls under the federal government’s capital vote. As long as payments are made without interruption to all of our contractors, the country’s development will continue.

Calls to Mrs. Blessing Adams-Lere, the ministry’s spokeswoman, went unanswered because she did not pick up. As of the time of publication, she had not responded to a text message.