Federal Minister of Information under the General Yakubu Gowon regime and Elder States Man, Chief E. K. Clark has writen President Bola Tinubu on the Dangerous State of Federal Roads in the South South.
In a letter written by the South South leader and made available to Crossfire Reports, he told President Tinubu that fellow citizens lost their lives and vehicles and other properties when they were burnt down at Koko Junction on the Warri-Benin highway. The Elder Statesman said this was due to the dilapidated state of the road and this speaks volumes of the calamity which the people of the South-South region continue to face daily due to the most inhuman situation of the federal roads in the region.
Below is the full text of the letter:
HE Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR
President,
Federal Republic of Nigeria,
The Presidency,
Abuja.
Dear Mr. President,
PLEASE DO SOMETHING URGENT ON THE DANGEROUS STATE OF FEDERAL ROADS IN THE SOUTH-SOUTH REGION
First, I wish to congratulate you on your successful outing at the United Nations General Assembly where your inaugural address was well applauded by Nigerians as well as the foreign audience.
Unfortunately, your return to Nigeria from that meeting at the world body and all your other activities while in the USA which had been well reported and we hope will help revamp the national economy which had come to be greeted with the unfortunate state of affairs in our part of the country that is the South-South region. This is because, as raised on the floor of the House of Representatives on 5th October 2023 by the member representing Warri Federal Constituency, Hon. Thomas Ereyitomi, and other members of the house from the South-South on Sunday, 1st October, 2023, at least 20 lives of our fellow citizens were lost and vehicles and other properties were burnt down at Koko Junction on the Warri-Benin highway. This was due to the dilapidated state of the road and this speaks volumes of the calamity which the people of the South-South region continue to face daily due to the most inhuman situation of the federal roads in the region.
2. Although this region singularly produces the bulk of the wealth of this country and we see the impact of the natural resource that is daily taken out of our soil here in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and almost every other part of the country, we are left to wallow in this total neglect, marginalisation and deprivation. This recent accident at the Koko junction could have been averted if particularly in the past 8 years of President Muhammadu Buhari government, efforts had been made to look into the state of our roads. Indeed, I will like to re-produce one of my farewell messages to President Muhammadu Buhari on 28th of May, 2023 in order to avoid repetition in this matter. I stated in my paragraph 16 as follows:
“The state of roads and other critical infrastructure in the Niger Delta region equally leaves a sour taste in our mouths. The East-West Road remains an ugly stain on Nigeria political administrative logic, especially for something considered as signature project, because of its economic significance. No substantial inch of construction work has been added in the eight years of the Buhari Administration. Sections of the road supposedly constructed were washed away like whitewash on walls by the 2022 floods, obviously due to the poor standard of work done”.
3. As you would expect, that road is right now, especially at the time of this 2023 rainy season,in total disrepair and a death trap where there is daily carnage. The connection between Calabar and Itu, i.e. in the section between Cross River and AkwaIbom remains one of the most dangerous roads in the world, even though the NNPC Ltd is supposed to have taken it over. Coming further down, under your government, you have gratefully awarded the section around the Refinery by Eleme Junction. For this, we are grateful.
4. However, the connection between Rivers State and Bayelsa State has four major sections that collapsed due to the 2022 floods and has remained unrepaired; such that a normal journey that would have taken one and half hours between the two states now take three hours and more. If you continue to the axis between Patani and Warri, there are at least four major spots again where the road has totally collapsed and can no longer be passed; with commuters having to go through bush paths in order to continue their journey. Between Warri and Sapele, there are so many bad spots, also washed away by floods and this continues from Sapele to Benin which led to the mammoth death in numbers at Koko junction. It will be remembered that for sometime now for three consecutive months, women and youths have been demonstrating on the road, blocking passer-by, urging the Federal Government to rehabilitate the road. The road from Benin to Asaba is equally in terrible state beyond description, as well as the road from Benin to Auchi which has repeatedly come up in the National Assembly. Yet, nothing has been done to redress the situation. I am reaching out to you, as I said before, because I reminded President Buhari that he was leaving us in a terrible state. That is why in other areas of my communication to him I again reminded as follows:
“And if one may ask, what is the status of the US $333m Bodo-Bonny Road, a project expected to open up opportunities for rapid socio-economic development of the areas, even with a reported contribution of US $167m by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Limited?
Meanwhile, four years ago, the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, while addressing the House of Representatives Committee on Works, disclosed that 524 road projects were ongoing in the six geopolitical zones of the country. Fashola said there were four multilateral-funded road projects, 81 under the Presidential Infrastructural Development Fund and 45 others being funded under the Sukuk bond.
Mr. Babatunde Fashola, again, on 3rd November 2021, advanced a list of major roads that had been completed by the Federal Government which were ready for commissioning nationwide. The minister reeled out the names of the roads when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Works to defend his ministry’s 2022 budget proposal in Abuja.
Certainly, billions of naira, from the Niger Delta oil and gas resources have been approved and expended on the construction and rehabilitation of roads and bridges across the country, excluding roads and bridges in the South-South zone.
Some of the roads and bridges reportedly completed or being constructed/reconstructed include: the Kano-Maiduguri Road linking Kano-Jigawa-Bauchi-Yobe and Borno States Section II, covering over 177km, said to have been executed for N65.32 billion and another Section of 101.84 kilometers for N45.18 billion; the rehabilitation of Sokoto-TambuwaI-Jega-Kontagora-Makera Section in Sokoto and the Kebbi States, a length put at 155 kilometers executed for N30.45 billion; Nenwe-Oduma-Mpu (Enugu State) – Uburu (Ebonyi State), which is 40.27 kilometers long, at a contract sum of N12,598,151,083.54; the rehabilitation of Nguru-Gashua-Bayamari Road, Section II (Gashua-Bayamari), said to be 25 kilometers long, executed for N6,581,999,666.55; the rehabilitation of Vandeikya-Obudu-Obudu Cattle Ranch Road (Vandeikya-Obudu Section) in Benue for N6.69 billion.
Construction work has also been ongoing, day and night, on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway; the Second Niger Bridge has been completed and commissioned, likewise the Kano-Katsina road, the Ibadan-Ilesa-Ife road, and other roads across the country are completed or near completion, except roads in the South-South.
Whereas, Fashola said, the Ministry of Works and Housing has about 13,000 kilometers of roads and bridges under construction and rehabilitation in 856 contracts, comprising 795 projects and aggregate length of 815 kilometers of roads and 733m of bridges. The only projects listed in the South-South zone are the construction of a two-lane Bridge at the Cameroon-Nigeria Border at Ekok/Mfum, including Approach Roads.
The critical question, in all of these is, where are the roads and bridges in the South-South zone in the said list of 854 contracts comprising road and bridge projects of the Ministry of Works and Housing?
In October 2021, the federal government approved NNPC’s request to take over the reconstruction of 21 federal roads nationwide, totaling 1,804.6 kilometers at N621.2 billion, under the Federal Government’s Executive Order No. 007 of 2019 cited as the companies income tax (Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme) signed by President Muhammadu Buhari. From the information that was made available, in terms of kilometers (length of the roads), the South-South had the least with only 52.2 kilometers. The North Central had 1,479.9 kilometers; North West had; North East had; South-East had 122 kilometers and South-West had 119 kilometers. The question we asked at the time was what were the reasons for such an absurd distribution? What was the yardstick?
In January this year, 2023, the Federal Executive Council at its meeting of January 18, 2023, which was presided over by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, approved another request by NNPC to reconstruct 44 additional roads across Nigeria at N1.9 billion, the East-West road and Benin-Sapele-Warri road were not captured. For the federal government to wait until less than a month to the end of its tenure to reportedly approve NNPC’s takeover of the reconstruction of the Benin-Sapele-Warri road is deceitful and insulting.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, neglected the South-South zone in the allocation and distribution of projects by his ministry, in tandem with the established pattern of the Buhari administration. Even the housing units being built by the federal government across the country, we are unaware of any being built in the south-south.
Recall that when the $311 million Abacha loot was returned from the United States in 2020, the South-South was excluded in projects designated for the fund, which included the second Niger Bridge, Lagos-Ibadan and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano expressways, as well as the Mambilla Power Project in North East zone; no project in the South-South zone was listed. That scenario was repeated with the Ibori loot.
I considered it an obligation to make this communication from a standpoint of patriotism to highlight the failures of the outgoing administration, particularly, the callous inattention of the administration to issues of the Niger Delta region and to further accentuate the developmental necessities of the people of the region, with the justified expectation that the incoming federal administration will bestow a fairer disposition and responsiveness to the Niger Delta region.”
5. Mr. President, I have taken copious time to quote my letter above due to the fact that it is not only from your time that I have been forced to cry out. We have been neglected for eight years with no visible impact by the Federal Government. Our people are dying daily from these accidents, yet no action is being taken. As a leader of the people of the area, I want to urge you to take an urgent step to fix the roads in the region. We cannot be the goose that lays the golden eggs, the goose that bears the brunt of providing the wherewithal for everybody in terms of environmental damage, yet remain in such stark deprivation.
6. At my age of 96 years, I have seen it all; I therefore will like to caution, Mr. President, that this level of neglect which is leading to daily suffering may not go unnoticed forever. It is good that the people of the region have maintained relative peace to allow for the continued massive exploitation of oil and gas activities to take place. But their silence in the midst of such glaring deprivation may not be sustained forever.
7. I recall that in the early 2000, many of us, leaders, had cautioned the government of Obasanjo as well as that of Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan administration on the need to take certain corrective actions to assuage the suffering of the people. This was not heeded until we had a near breakdown of law and order. This was what led to the upsurge in violence, economic sabotage and instability in the region. This was what led to the Presidential Amnesty Programme which itself has a major component of social and infrastructural development. Today, nobody is saying anything about that major component of the amnesty programme, rather, we hear envious and mischievous statements by some misguided and tribal sentiments.
8. During the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari when this type of neglect started, there was an incident of what became known as activities by Niger Delta Avengers. Again, this led to major challenges to the national economy leading to an unusually low level of oil production and deep economy depression. Again, the Niger Delta leaders under the aegis of PANDEF mediated and prevailed on our people to give government a chance of massive infrastructural development of the region, especially the modernisation and completion of the East West road.
After PANDEF has successfully mediated with the agitating youths, we were invited to meet the Federal Government in Aso-Rock, I led a delegation of over 100 personalities including traditional rulers, legislators, professionals to present a 16-point programme for discussion with Mr President, but till the end of Buhari’s tenure, he did not revert to us, except Vice President Osinbajo, when as acting President, visited the region, where he made series of promises including relocation of the IOC’s to their operational Headquarters in the Niger-Delta, to improve the living standard of the people and to reduce the incessant crises.
Secondly, modular refineries will be established in statutory places to reduce the illegal refineries being operated by the youths.
9. As I have stated above in my letter to your predecessor, President Buhari, this failed to take place. Maybe as an old man, I should mention that this state of affairs is already leading to a build-up of frustrations among our people and the outcome may not be pleasant to all of us if these situations of things continue as it is. This situation as they say, of robbing Paul to pay Peter may not go on well for too long.
10. I am therefore appealing to you as Head of State who has pledged to take the whole country as his constituency to pay attention to our people even when we, as leaders, continue to prevail on them to keep the peace. I trust that an urgent action will be taken as our people are silently saying within their hearts that enough is enough.
11. Government is a continuum, and today you are on the saddle. I therefore urge you, as leader of the South-South Region, to reverse this trend of neglect, which is known worldwide. I urge you to break this jinx of resource curse and the pain that our people have borne for decades and stamp your name in history as it pertains to the Niger Delta development.
12. I will continue to pray for the peace of our country and for you, as you rule to ensure justice and fairness to the whole country and especially to the people of the Niger Delta region.
Chief E.K. Clark, OFR, CON
