Our position on Lagos-Calabar, Sokoto-Badagry roads — Umahi

The Minister of Works, David Umahi, said superhighways, such as the Lagos-Calabar coastal road and that of the Sokoto-Badagry, are not just roads, but projects aimed at opening up the country and attracting investments. In this exclusive interview with Weekend Trust, the minister also gave insights into the contracts award processes, and the identity of Infiouest, the […]

The Minister of Works, David Umahi, said superhighways, such as the Lagos-Calabar coastal road and that of the Sokoto-Badagry, are not just roads, but projects aimed at opening up the country and attracting investments. In this exclusive interview with Weekend Trust, the minister also gave insights into the contracts award processes, and the identity of Infiouest, the company that took over the completion of a section of the Abuja-Kaduna highway from Julius Berger, saying another company, InfoQuest was registered by some people to mislead the public.

 

Immediately you took over as minister of works, we started hearing reports of disagreements between you, the ministry and contractors. There were also reports that you threatened to revoke some contracts. What was responsible for that?

There was no actual decision to sack them, but there were issues and we needed to address them in order to move the ministry and the country forward. And it was very simple – some contractors would collect money and would not do the work they collected it for. Some were doing shoddy jobs while some were delaying projects. And you know the rate of inflation in the country. So, we made it a policy of the Ministry of Works, that if you were in default in any or all of these, we might have to determine the contract. We determined some of the contracts.

 

Has that changed anything in terms of the performance/delivery?

Oh yes. You know, you can’t continue to do things over and over the same way and expect a different result.

Everybody agrees that the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is  divine, especially if you judge from the way the election went, the Muslim-Muslim ticket and what some of us passed through, especially in the South-East and he still emerged. Even when they took him to court, he still emerged. So you can see the finger of God in it.

So, we decided to align the ministry with his vision of changing things for the good of the people of this country.

 

Would you say the contractors are now on board with the position of the ministry? Are you still getting push-back from them? 

There are some contractors (I won’t mention their names) that believe they are our bosses and they go to any length to lobby stakeholders, de-market us and say all sorts of things to have their ways. 

People think that the coastal highway being done by Hitech (Construction Company Ltd), is the most expensive in the country. I can tell you that there are over 10 projects we inherited, even at prices that are still higher than what Hitech gave.

In reviewing the jobs, we said some of the elements were more expensive than the same elements that were given to the coastal road and the other legacy projects.

But for the other elements we have reviewed, we cannot give you who is upland, cost that is more than what we are giving to construct the coastal road. And they are still being very funny, insisting that they will not accept.

We still have three to four contractors we are battling with, but we will win because our hands are clean. We are fighting to ensure that contractors get fair prices and that there is no selective engagement in terms of pricing with contractors in the Ministry of Works.

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A lot of Nigerians have been talking about the coastal road, which is one of the legacy projects, as you mentioned. These are huge projects, where is the funding coming from?

For me and the country, legacy projects are a huge blessing. We are talking about foreign investments. There is no place, even in America, that you can develop infrastructure without borrowing. If you are borrowing to feed, it is a bad one, if you are borrowing to buy cars, it is bad, but if you are borrowing to develop infrastructure, that’s what this country needs.

There are four of these legacy projects, but people only know the Lagos-Calabar coastal road. We also have the Sokoto-Badagry project.  In fact, the Sokoto-Badagry road is about 1,058 kilometres while that of Lagos-Calabar is about 750 kilometres. You have the one coming from Calabar to the South-East, Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa and Abuja, that’s 462 kilometres. Then, you have the Akwanga-Jos-Bauchi-Gombe, which is 420 kilometers.

And the Sokoto-Badagry is ongoing right now. We have the 120 kilometers in Sokoto ongoing. We also have the 256 kilometers in Kebbi ongoing. And then when you talk about Lagos-Calabar, there is the first 47 kilometers and another 55 kilometers. These are the only two ongoing; then we are procuring 65 kilometers in Akwa Ibom and Cross River states.

The good thing about this is that 30 per cent of it is to be funded by the federal government while 70 per cent is going to be a loan. And the contractors are seeking the loan for as low as 2.5 per cent.

When you get such loan at 2.5 per cent and construct this road and toll it, it is a win-win situation because the loan component—the interest on it—is very low.

Along these legacy projects, we are developing infrastructure corridor like the CCTV and solar light and we are using concrete. So we are going to, in the first place, earn carbon credit and clean climate environment because we are using solar. We are using concrete because it has less emission than asphalt.

The truth is that if the president completes these projects within the next six years plus, it is going to open up the country. There’s no doubt about it.

Look at the Sokoto-Badagry project; we have over 56 dams along that corridor. You also have similar dams along Akwanga-Bauchi, the same thing going on in the one coming from the South-East to Abuja.

We also have a lot of wind energy we are going to tap on the Lagos-Calabar axis. We have a lot of tourism along the corridor of the road. So, it is a wonderful project. We will have return on investment very quickly.

 

There are still questions about the Sokoto-Badagry, Lagos-Calabar projects, because information on their costs is not in the budget…

They are all there. But you cannot see 100 per cent of the cost in the budget because we have the foreign component of it. Don’t forget that the National Assembly has also approved the borrowing, which aspect is manifested in that budgeting.

 

At the beginning, we heard that Hitech would bring part of the money; has that changed?

No; that was the very first narration. It’s not the first time we are doing EPC plus F. China Harbour did EPC plus F from Keffi to Makurdi. That was about 240 kilometers dualised. The federal government brought 15 per cent and China Exim Bank brought 85 per cent of the funds.

We have another EPC plus F, which is from Makurdi to 9th Mile. It is also the same thing. The contractor borrows on behalf of the federal government. It is the federal government that is borrowing, but the contractor facilitates it; that’s why it is called EPC plus F, which is engineering, procurement, construction, plus finance.

 

Talking about borrowing, do you entertain any fear that there could be problems in getting the money?

No. The president has opened up the economy. Look at the Eurobonds, we were looking for; you can see the oversubscription.

So, the funders have lined up to assist these projects because they have a lot of confidence in what the president is doing. They see a lot of very good roadmap in the reforms. The economy is awake and running. You see the reform in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited. We are beginning to have money from the company.  

 

What would you say to those who feel that you are pumping huge sums of money into the big roads whereas there are many bad roads across the country that require attention?

These are investments. And the president has not abandoned any of the inherited projects. We have 375km running from Sokoto to Zamfara, Zamfara to Funtua, Funtua to Katsina, down to Kaduna. It is ongoing. We also have the Abuja-Kano road, which is 350km. Although, there are little delays, it is on. We have the Port Harcourt-Enugu project. We have the Kano-Maiduguri road as well. We are completing the sections that were not completed.

These projects are going on. Don’t forget that it is a total of 2,064km of roads. And at the time the president came into office, it cost about N13 trillion, today, it should be about N20 trillion.

These legacy projects are more than roads because there are other investments along the corridor that are coming up. The existing roads are also linked to them.

Don’t forget that it also has rail by the side. We are almost concluding the procurement for the rail that runs from the first section of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway. And that’s going to be a very wonderful thing because it is an evacuation corridor.

At Apapa now, you have a shallow depth for importation and export, but at the Lekki deep seaport, where the first section is terminating and where our rail is running to, it is going to be wonderful. They are going to be doing roads, which would take off all the goods within the deep seaport, while the Lekki free zone takes it to Lagos-Shagamu-Ore. So, it takes all the goods to the northern and southern states. The network and the plan are great.

 

Are you saying the federal government has not abandoned other roads?

Yes. We are doing all the projects.  But it is difficult to carry 2,064 projects at the same time. Some of them have lasted for over 24 years. What we have done is to prioritise along the economic corridor of this country. For example, a road that is running through a village is not as important as the Abuja-Kano road. 

 

It appears as though you are prioritising relatively ‘unknown companies’ instead of the giants. It is in line with this that this newspaper did an investigative report on the Abuja-Kaduna road and came up with a story about InfoQuest, Infiouest, which actually generated a lot of interest. Why do you prioritise relatively unknown construction companies?

To call them “unknown companies” amounts to looking for my trouble because we have gone beyond that stage. The Abuja-Kano road is one project that I have given attention since I resumed as minister because, in the first place, it is 350km dualised.  When we came on board, the balance of this project was 140km, which means that Julius Berger had done about 210km, dualised.

When we came on board in September 2023, Julius Berger wrote us a letter, stating that they needed to review the project; and we said, okay. But I faulted the method of construction, engineering-wise. Sub-grading has consolidated over the years, and the CBR had achieved its maximum density.

First of all, I asked Berger how long it would take them to complete the project and they said it would take them not less than three years. And three years from 2023 meant that we were looking at 2026/2027; and the president didn’t want to hear that.

The president wanted the project to be completed in 14 months, which means that by now, we should be thinking about completion.

Berger also said they had done 65 per cent of the job. And by my record, it appears as though they have collected about N391 billion, but by the record of the NSIA (Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority), the people that were actually paying the money, it is like Berger collected about N500 billion. I am yet to reconcile the two. We will meet with them to reconcile the two.

Now, let us say that we have used N500 billion to do 65 per cent; why would you be asking me for N1.1 trillion to do the remaining 35 per cent? We all felt that it was very unreasonable and there was no reason for that. So we went into discussion.

First, we said we would dismember the project. We have 17km in Kano and about 38km at the section zero, which is Abuja to Niger. We asked if they would allow us to give it out and they agreed. I told Dangote that he would do the first 38-by-two on concrete, then BUA would do the last 78 kilometers in Kano, also on concrete. It was agreed and we were to take it to the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

Now, on the 82km that was left, which is entirely in Kaduna, 82-by-two, we told Berger to do the job since they had gotten N400 billion, plus another N310 billion. That gave us about N2.2 billion per kilometre.

For Dangote on concrete, like the coastal road, their own came to N1.8 billion per kilometre. So using concrete to do that road was still cheaper than doing asphalt by Julius Berger.

They (Julius Berger) refused and we brought in a consultant. When the consultant came, our cost was about N2billion. That’s where we had N2.2 billion per kilometre. We offered it to Berger and they did not talk; instead they demobilised from site. After about four months, we called them here again and asked why they did not accept our offer. We added that we had seen that since that time, prices had gone up, so we were going to review. All of us sat here and did the calculation and increased the project by N30 billion. So, it came to N740 billion. 

We then took it to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), which approved and we took it to the Federal Executive Council.

But the next day, they wrote us, stating that they were not accepting the N740 billion; instead they demanded N903 billion. At that stage, we had done a 14-month negotiation and 20 meetings. We had to meet and agree that our recommendation was that we could pay them 30 per cent if they accepted the N340 billion. They would have gotten N100 billion at a go, to fast track the project.

Number two, if they did not accept the N740 billion approved by the Federal Executive Council, we had to determine the project using due process. And the due process is that we would give them seven days to mobilise to site. If they said no, we would give them a 14-day termination notice. We did all that. Within the 14-day termination notice, they came back to say they had accepted the N740 billion, but they reduced the quantities.

So, if the total kilometre was to be 82 by reason of quantities, they probably did about 60 and now increased the unit rate and arrived at N740 billion.

We told them that we all went to school and this is fraud. What it means is that at the end of the day, you would still go back to that N903 billion and you would be going back to Federal Executive Council for another review; and that was not acceptable to us.

We said we were giving them another 14 days. Again, we held about three meetings with the new managing director, pleading with him to accept the N740 billion and take N100 billion immediately to start work. They refused.

So, after 14 days, we had to terminate the project; and it remains terminated.

Today, the cost we are giving to the Federal Executive Council to approve includes additional job. The president directed that we should project the road in Kano to the Aminu Kano International Airport. And I commend him very highly because the road to the airport is not good. So, we are going to do that, then install solar light and CCTV within that axis.

The president also directed that there should be solar light throughout the entire section of 370km of the road, which was not there before. We are also at the zero point, where we are including about 5.5 kilometers, going to Kogi State, because the road is not good. It is not good that you see a beautiful road on one side and a bad one on the other side.

 

At what level did InfoQuest come in?

It was Daily Trust that brought InfoQuest with the Q in. And this company has been in existence for so many years. They have been doing a lot of projects for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and for Water Resources, and so many other companies.

When we went to the BPP, they directed that we should use selective tendering. One of the reasons we asked InfoQuest (Infouest) to bid is because on that particular road which Berger was doing, all or most of the equipment they were using were hired from them.

The documents are here. There is a receipt generated by the company and sent to Berger.

We didn’t consider any preference for Infouest, we only asked them to come and bid because they have the capacity.  They also have the concrete paver they can use to do the work, so they participated in the bidding. InfoQuest Q did not bid. We didn’t know about them.

Our idea was that, should Infouest be reasonable and it wins, there would be no mobilisation for them; they would just move their equipment from Berger yard to start the job. So why would you say that Berger is better than Infouest? If it has the machines and you are hiring them to do the work, who is better? Without the machines you cannot do anything.

When you people published what you published, I didn’t blame you very much because we could hardly discover the difference between O and Q. I was told that a company went and registered this Q to defraud Infouest of their land in Abuja and when the rightful company learnt of it, they went to court, which gave the ruling to deregister them. They sent this thing to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and they deregistered them.

 

Is the ministry giving preference to smaller construction company over the bigger/known ones?

I am a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers. And I have spent most of my years on earth in the field. Even when I was governor, I spent about 20 per cent in office and the other 80 per cent in the field. That’s why God used me to achieve the much we achieved in Ebonyi State.

Yes, there are big companies, but it is the ability to perform that is important to me. So, it doesn’t matter if a smaller company has all the equipment but their skin is not white. If your skin is white and you don’t have equipment but just a portfolio contractor and answering name, would you make a difference? I would prefer you if you can perform.

 

Most of the roads constructed in Ebonyi State while you were governor, were made of concrete. Why are you fixated on concrete roads?

Concrete roads will outlive other types of road. Replicating what we did in Ebonyi is already the vision. Don’t forget that it was President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that first did concrete road when he was governor. The contractors know that to do concrete roads you cannot cheat because if you use less cement it will fail immediately. In asphalt, to do a binder course, the percentage of bitumen allowed is about 5.8 per cent, the wearing is about 6.5 per cent, it must fall within the technical envelop, but you and I will not be there, so they can use three per cent; some people could even put engine oil so that it will just be very beautiful. Tell me any asphalt road of late that is staying up to 15 years? There is none. But this concrete is staying between 50 and 100 years. That is the assurance and the drive.

 

Some roads like the East-West and Kano-Maiduguri are yet to be completed; what is the plan?

The Kano-Maiduguri road has only one section and that is the place that was handled by Dantata and Sawoe for 17 years. We have terminated it and it is undergoing procurement. It is going to be completed.

Between Jigawa and Bauchi, we have about four sections that failed due to very serious flooding. We are procuring it. In some of the locations that failed, we are raising about one kilometers backwards and using a bridge to do it so that you have a larger waterways. We just have few locations on the East-West road. We have flooding sections at Ughelli and another one between Ahoda and Bayelsa. We are using concrete to do those sections. 

There is also a section between Bayelsa and Rivers State, which is the last section being done by Setraco. We are working on it. We had three failed bridges at that place and the president has given a matching order to Setraco, which is already working to replace it. Between Eleme and Onne, is being done by the RCC. We are tackling them. It is a fight, but we will win because the president has given a marching order that the job must be finished this year.