THE usual beauracratic bottlenecks and lack of continuity that characterise Nigerian governments at all levels have caused alarming inflation on the construction cost of a road project in Abuja, the federal capital city.
The project, Apo-Karshi road construction which was awarded in 2011 has lingered till 2023, yet there is no hope it will be completed any time soon.
The alarming dimension to this scary story is that the contractors are demanding a whopping N97 billion to complete a project that was awarded at just N6.3 billion.
Although the federal government has bargained for N33 billion, there can only be progress when the parties agree. At the moment, that has not happened.
When in 2011 the contract was awarded by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, and Karshi, Apa and Ara residents in the outskirts of Abuja, celebrated endlessly. The reason for this was not far to seek: The road is a vital link between the Karshi-Ara and Karshi-Apo Road which when completed will bring to an end the traffic nightmare that has continued to haunt motorists and other road users in the area over the years.
Unfortunately, the joy of the people was short-lived. Twelve years after, the hope that the construction of the road would soon be completed has continued to hang in the balance. The only reminder of that rapidly fading hope is a sign board at the construction site bearing this forlorn information: “Contract for the construction of the Karshi-Ara and extension of Karshi-Apo Road Project”.
As at the time it was awarded in 2011, the contract sum was put at N6,355,609,124.53, and signed as a flagship project to open up an alternative route for residents of the FCT. As at the time the road project was awarded, Senator Bala Mohammed, then FCT minister, who is now the Bauchi State Governor, had promised to complete and commission the important road as one of his priority projects.
Mohammed said the road was a priority project due to the multiplier effects its construction would have on the economy of Abuja and its environs.
However, neither he nor his successor was able to complete the road. As at the time of filing this report, the road still under construction.
But The Vanguard Investigator, has since revealed many factors militating against its completion.
A deep probe into why the road construction continues to drag shows that poor budgetary provision and inadequate funding are the major problems.
Beyond poor funding, there was also the inability of the FCT administration to come up with appropriate design for the Karshi-Apo section, which spans about five of the over 13 kilometres of the entire stretch. This has also constituted a major stumbling block to the completion of the road.
Again, lack of continuity which has bedevilled governance in Nigeria also played an unenviable role in why such a major road project that requires urgent attention is still under construction 12 years after.
With the Jonathan administration failing to complete the road, successive FCT administrations have not also been able to budget and release more than N200 million yearly for the work, a development that has dragged the work and consequently led to it being caught in a web of high cost of materials and services.
Meanwhile, the construction firm, Kakartar Nigeria Limited, has lamented the effects of huge rocks and several valleys on the Karshi-Apo section of the road, saying they constitued a problem which was not envisaged and, therefore, not provided for in the final sum approved for the job.
The 60 metres high rocks now require substantial amount of money to ‘blast’, while the valleys also needed to be filled before bridges will be built in designated places to keep the road work in progress.
While the contractor is demanding for more money, it appears the then FCT minister, Mohammed, it has emerged, prevailed on them to carry on with the N6.3 billion that was approved, with plan to compensate them through some other projects to be awarded the same firm by the administration to make up for the loss on the Karshi-Apo section.
It is on record that the FCTA awarded the contracts for the provision of engineering infrastructure for Maitama Extension and Keyami Extension to the same company worth hundreds of billions of Naira.
However, our correspondent gathered that as soon as the Jonathan administration left office, the accounts of the construction company was frozen and its equipment site in Maitama seized by the Nigerian Army, which claimed that the site was wrongly given to Kakatar by the FCTA, thereby stalling any operations by the firm.
Findings by The Vanguard Investigator, has however established that despite the setback, the new FCT administration headed by Bello Mohammed, has stepped up the funding of the road project with a view to completing it so as to give relief to residents of the FCT and reduce the suffering of people living around the communities to be served by the road.
Documents obtained from the FCT indicate that the administration has so far paid the sum of N4,542,975,288.14 out of the N6.3 billion contract sum to the contracting firm, leaving a balance of the N1.8 billion of the original contract sum.
The documents also show that out of the total road length of 13.125 kilometres, the construction firm has so far asphalted eight kilometres, laid stone base on three kilometres and laid sub-base on one kilometre, while work is progressing on another one and a quarter kilometres on the road.
The company is, however, said to be mobilising resources to break, blast and drill the huge rocks hindering the progress of work around Kilometre 9 of the Karshi-Apo section. It is also filling the base with laterite up to formation level of about 20 metres high in order to pave the way for stabilising the section for hardcore laying and asphalting.
However, more than two kilometres of the stretch of road along the Karshi-Apo remains to be laid with stone base and priming,in addition to the entire five kilometres, that are yet to be asphalted by the construction firm handling the job.
There has also been a sharp disagreement between the contracting firm and the FCTA over the amount that should be paid as variation in view of the rising cost of materials and services following the delay in funding the project.
Documents obtained by The Vanguard Investigator from the FCT indicate that the contracting firm has submitted a request for the sum of N97 billion to the FCT as variation based on the current rates of materials in the market to be able to complete the road.
However, the FCT in its valuation of the project and the prevailing cost of building materials, has proposed to raise the project cost to N33 billion as it revised estimated total cost, RETC.
In a letter sent to the company with ref No. FCTA/STDD/R1/3280/121 and dated October 14, 2022, the FCT gave the company one week to indicate its acceptance of the proposed variation from N6.3 billion to N33 billion as its final offer for the completion of the road.
The letter, which was signed by the FCT’s Director of Procurement, Mr. Idris Musa, however, asked the company to note that the amount offered was not an indication of an award of contract by the authority.
It was not clear as at the time of filing this report if the contractor had accepted the revised fee of N33 billion by the FCTA and if the latter had also forwarded the same to the Presidency for consideration and approval.
However, the Senate Committee on FCT, led by Senator Smart Adeyemi, has waded into the standoff between the two parties and summoned them for a hearing session with a view to ensuring an early completion of the road project by summoning the contractor and officials of the FCT to appear before it to explain how the job can be expeditiously done.
During the session at the National Assembly, Senator Adeyemi confronted the Managing Director of Kakatar, Azibaola Robert, on why the road project had remained uncompleted over a decade since it was awarded to his firm.
In responding to the Senate Committee Chairman on the FCT, Azibaola explained that he had done his best to get the job done but that poor funding by the Federal Government was the main reason for the delay.
Robert, a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, said: “Distinguished members of the committee, let it be made known today that the Karshi-Apo Road project is not a failed project and that we have the capacity to execute it expeditiously. The road, however, has teething problems. If the teething problems are not solved, the project will not be completed.
“All the data that you have about the project from 2011 are correct. The funding issue was not addressed until this new FCT minister came into office. Funding of the road has been very poor in the past. For the first time, N2 billion has been appropriated for the road. It used to be between N300 and 200 million a year. And it is not for lack of ability to do the work and collect the money, it is for lack of money in the budget to execute the road project. If you give me N200 million for a year, how can I do the work in a year?
“We are not the first company that has been awarded any contract that has been left undone due to teething problems. Even if we are given N5 billion, we will not be able to complete the road. FCDA is indirectly asking us to subsidise the Federal Government. We have done the road to formation level but we cannot tar it so as not to lose asphalt; as at 2011, the rate we were given was N2450 per cubic metre, but today one cubic metre is N15,000.
“For laterite, it is based on first three kilometres at N750 till date, but the rate by all multinational companies today is N4000. If I haul one tipper of laterite, it is N750 times 30. If a foreign company hauls a tipper of laterite it is N3500 times 30.
“We have been fighting for a review of the cost of the project so that we can bring the rate to the current price regimes. We have been on this for more than two years and they have now proposed new rates based on their own terms.
But that proposal has still not been presented to the FEC for approval till date. We cannot borrow money at exorbitant rate to subsidise the work for the government. We are patriotic people who have been pushing to get this work done and not the other way round,” Robert said at the public hearing at the National Assembly.
Responding, members of the committee headed by Senator Smart Adeyemi, promised to look into how the difference in variation could be sorted out between the contractor and the FCT so as to get the road project done once and for all, so that Nigerians could derive the expected benefit from the infrastructure.
Another member of the committee, Senator Abiodun Olujimi, asked the contractor to return to the site and continue with the work while efforts were being made the resolve the dispute over the new rate of payment, querying the firm however why it quoted the job so low in the first place given the magnitude of challenges associated with it.
Residents reactions to non-completion of Road
Meantime many Nigerians affected by the delay in the completion of the Apo-Karshi Road have expressed disappointment over the non-challant attitude of the Federal Government towards the vital route in the FCT.
Dr. Austin Maho, a journalism teacher and publisher of Daybreak Nigeria Newspaper, who lives in Karshi axis, described the near abandonment of the road by the authorities as pathetic and a display of insensitivity on the path of the FCT Administration.
Maho, who is also a member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors and a media analyst, said it was inhuman to leave a vital road that is less than 14 kilometres under construction for 12 years with the authorities concerned not bothered by the plight of the road users.
“What the authorities have done is borne out of a lack of concern and respect for the people who are living around the affected route and are suffering daily as a result of the non-completion of the Apo-Karshi Road,” Dr. Maho lamented.
Chief Samuel Chori, who is the secretary to one of the chiefs in the Karshi communities, told The Vanguard Investigator that although they were initially excited about the decision of the Federal Government to construct the road, the delay in completing the road 12 years after, is posing serious threats to their homes and farmlands.
“Our excitement has been turned into a deferred hope, but we are still expectant that something will be done by the government to complete the road and give succour to our suffering communities that have been cut off from the rest of the FCT and Nigeria as a result of the non-completion of the road,” Chief Chori prayed.
In his reaction, Mr. Bayo Oyelemi, who runs a mechanical workshop in Apo, lamented that the delay in finishing the road has posed serious setback to many of his clients in Karshi who now have to use a longer route to come to fix their vehicles rather than use the shorter route which has been under construction since 2011.
“It is unfortunate for the FCT to continue to subject people to avoidable stress just because of lack of the political will to fix a short road between Apo and Karshi for over 12 years despite huge budgets reeled out yearly by the government,” Oyelemi said.