Abuja-Lokoja road: Shame of a nation

The dualisation of the Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja federal highway project has spent up to 15 years without completion. TOPE SUNDAY writes.

The dualisation of the Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja federal highway project seems to have taken too much time for its completion since the contract was awarded in 2006. The project, which is a 196-kilometre stretch, was given an initial 30-month time-line for completion, but 15 years on, it is still at the infancy stage.

The latest turn of the event, aside from the many accidents the route had recorded within the time under review, Blueprint Weekend can report that the Gbwagbwada axis of the project had made life extremely difficult for the residents and motorists plying the route.

The recall

The Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja federal highway is a road that links the South-west, South-east and South-south to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The project, which was valued at a total cost of N42.3 billion at the inception, this medium gathered, was awarded on July 18, 2006, by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

According to the brief of the project sighted by this reporter, the project was awarded in four sections. The four sections are broken into Zuba junction to Sheda (42 kilometres), Sheda to Abaji (57 kilometres), Abaji to Kotonkarfe, and Kotonkarfe to Lokoja.

Also, this reporter learnt that the first and second sections of the project were awarded to Dantata &Sawoe Construction Company and Reynolds Construction Company (RCC Nigeria), respectively.

It was further learnt that the third and fourth sections were awarded to Bulletine Construction Limited and Gitto Costruzioni Generali Nigeria Ltd.

A brief on the section 1 of the project (Zuba junction to Sheda junction), also sighted by this reporter, was re-awarded on September 18, 2018, with an initial completion date of June 30, 2019. However, the completion date was extended to 30th of June, 2021.

Nigerians’ angst

For those who ply the route, the road is a big problem to the country and its leaders. Lending a voice against the development, the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Samson Ayokunle, said the project “is a shame to the nation.”

Ayokunle, who spoke recently in Lokoja at the official inauguration of the Government House chapel for Christian worshippers built by the present administration of Governor Yahaya Bello, said the indifference of the government towards the construction of the Abuja-Lokoja highway remains a sore thumb for various leaderships at the federal level.

“Lokoja-Abuja highway is a shame of the country. Do something and remove this shame, 15 years constructing a 200km road is a shame,” he said.

Also, an Abuja-based journalist, Marcus Fatunmole, while narrating his experience on the Gwagwalada axis of the project, said it was akin to sailing through the Atlantic with a wooden boat. Fatunmole in a facebook post said a commuter could spend up to 12 hours on the road because of the gridlock caused by the ongoing work in one of the sections of the road.

“Driving past Gwagwalada is like attempting to sail through the Atlantic with a wooden boat. And, somebody sits there screaming that everyone should go back to their region; that Nigeria should break.

“This is even different from the threat that the Murtala Bridge in Lokoja would be blown off, if there is war. Yesterday, I kept screaming ‘this is hell’ ‘this is hell’ in Gwagwalada while I drove past. To summarise my experience, you may spend 12 hours in Gwagwalada, depending on how long the queue is when you get there.

The road has been under construction and gridlock in that part of the country “Is not small.

“Nigeria needs peace. Let’s pray we continue to live in peace wherever we are. There are many Gwagwaladas in Nigeria that won’t allow millions to return home if there is war,” he said.

An Abuja resident, Akin Joshua, told this reporter that he once spent up to six hours in gridlock at the Gwagwalada axis of the road and called on the government to hasten work on the project. Though he commended the current administration for the commitment to complete the project, he called on the contractors handing it to start a night and a day work on the road to hasten its delivery.

He said, “I learnt that the project for the dualisation of Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja federal highway was awarded 15 years ago. It is appalling that it is yet to be completed. Almost three administrations abandoned the project, it is very shameful. But despite the hardship we are encountering on the route, we should give the present government a pass mark for its commitment to complete it.

“However, we need to ask some questions. For how long will people continue to suffer on that road? In other climes, the contractor will work during the night. It’s hellish when you are caught up in the Gwagwalada gridlock. About three weeks ago, I spent over six hours in the gridlock and I got home around 2:00 am.

“What we are experiencing on the route is not palatable and the authorities concerned should act fast to save those of us who are plying the route the unnecessary stress that we are being subjected to.”

A highway director’s assurances

The director of Highway, Construction and Rehabilitation, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Engr. Funsho Adebiyi, who spoke with Blueprint Weekend, gave the assurance that the project “will soon be completed,” adding that the Gwagbwalada axis of the project “will be open to traffic in two weeks’ time.”

He identified funding and soil texture as the two major factors that slowed the space of work on the project and clarified that they had been addressed.

Adebiyi also clarified that the present government had moved the funding of the project to under Sukuk intervention and disclosed that one of the contractors whose one was not satisfactory had been disengaged.

“Work is going on in the remaining sections of the road and it will be completed soon. We want to give the road users comfort on the route and I appeal to them to bear with us, we will soon be through. The contract of one of the contractors whose work was not satisfactory had been terminated. This is done to ensure that quality work is done and delivered for the usage of Nigerians.

“Funding was one of the factors responsible for the slow space of work. Before the life of this administration, the project experienced funding challenges. But now we are using Sukuk to bridge the funding gap.

“There are four contractors on that road, and the challenges of soil problems forced us to do a lot of self re-modification there. In a nutshell, funding and soil problems were what we were addressing and now that we are through, very soon, the project will be completed.

“The Gwagwalada exit point of the project is being fixed. And it will be ready in two weeks’ time and will be open to traffic,” he said.

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