Politics behind non-completion of Kaduna’s N1bn bridge

Weekly Trust investigation revealed that the Kaduna State government initiated the road construction that includes the construction of the fourth Kaduna bridge in order to ease movement of people and goods between the southern parts of the state and the metropolis. The work was informed by the fact that it is only one road that […]

Weekly Trust investigation revealed that the Kaduna State government initiated the road construction that includes the construction of the fourth Kaduna bridge in order to ease movement of people and goods between the southern parts of the state and the metropolis. The work was informed by the fact that it is only one road that is now linking Kaduna South, especially the suburbs of Barnawa, Sabon Tasha, Kakuri, among others, with the metropolis. This brings about heavy traffic at rush-hour.

When our correspondent visited the construction site, it was clear that the work has moved ahead but at the axis of the bridge, work was at standstill because progress can only be made after the demolition of the aforementioned houses. Investigation revealed that the prominent Nigerians who own homes along Colonel AD Umar Road and Gobarau Road which are hindering the progress of work on the forth Kaduna bridge include the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, Brigadier-General Buba Marwa and Colonel Dangiwa Umar, former military governors of Lagos and Kaduna states, respectively, just to mention but a few. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) Zonal office is also earmarked for demolition if the road must take its original route.

Events of the past months have clearly indicated that the Kaduna State government is not ready to ruffle feathers and move on with the construction as planned. Weekly Trust was reliably informed that the state government has been engaged on a wide range of consultations “in order to have an amicable way of addressing the issue of the influential houses and properties.”

The notion that the houses are behind the delay of the completion of the fourth Kaduna bridge and the road attached to it, appeared to be correct, when Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa confirmed to the Kaduna State Correspondent Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalist that the road has been rerouted. He said his government is rerouting the road through the link road to join Ungwan Rimi GRA.

The bridge is being constructed over the River Kaduna at the cost of N1.9b, while the access road that would be constructed through the bridge to link Kaduna metropolis with the southern part of the state would cost the government N4.4b.

Apart from the bridge and its access road, other projects embarked upon by the Kaduna State government that are facing delay in completion are the 300-bed capacity ultra-modern hospital at the new layout dubbed ‘Kaduna Millennium City’ and the mass-housing units for civil servants and low-income earners.

The contractor handling the hospital project has identified non-supply of required equipments by the state government as the factor responsible for the snail-pace of the project. The hospital’s construction that was awarded at N4bn ought to have been completed last year, Mr Elie Antonios, the branch manager of the Nahman Construction, the company handling the construction, explained. “We cannot complete the project by 100% because there are equipments that need to be installed before we can complete the building. So far, based on the certification we have received from the Ministry of Health, we are at 63 per cent level of completion. And we have been paid N2 billion to date. But we are not the contractors to install the equipments. The contractors for the equipment will be chosen by the State Ministry of Health. I was told that it is in this year’s budget,” Mr. Antonios said.

Weekly Trust visited to the mass housing units, and though some of the houses were either completed or at advanced level of completion, a lot of work still remains, especially if they must be completed this year. The mass housing units are in their second year now, as Yakowa launched it on the 29th of September, 2010.

But the N576m Rigasa-Tsangaya-Hayin Danmani 4.5 kilometre road project may be completed by the end of this month, as the resident engineer in charge of the road construction, Musa Abubakar, said the work stands outstanding in speed because it was categorised as an emergency due to the difficulties which residents of the communities experience during raining season.

The lingering question on the lips of many Kaduna residents is: Will the rerouting of the construction work of the access road that would go through the fourth bridge lead to early completion? Others residents are questioning the rationale behind the decision of rerouting the road, just to avoid houses of influential Nigerians, showing that the government has allowed politics to play a role in what ought to be a developmental stride.