Still on the controversial N63.5bn Abuja Second-Runway

The contract was awarded to Julius Berger Nigeria Limited, through selective tendering, at the said sum of N63.5 billion.  It was signed by now President Goodluck Jonathan, on December 9, 2009, then in his capacity as then Vice President. Essentially, the idea of putting up a legislative inquisition into a development administrative was multi-pronged even […]

The contract was awarded to Julius Berger Nigeria Limited, through selective tendering, at the said sum of N63.5 billion.  It was signed by now President Goodluck Jonathan, on December 9, 2009, then in his capacity as then Vice President.

Essentially, the idea of putting up a legislative inquisition into a development administrative was multi-pronged even as it has undefined political pressures.  First, there is a group of lawmakers in the House of Representatives, who go by the social tag-name, “Nigeria First Forum.  Members of the NFF, either by accident or design claimed to be working in the interest of the current Acting President, Dr.  Goodluck Jonathan.

Judging from the kind of emotive appeals elicited at the Public Hearing, one other target was in the list of persons, the group had hoped to prey on.  This was with a view to settling perceived political scores was the immediate past Minister of Aviation, Chief Babatunde Omotoba.  He is believed to be a political god-son of the current Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Saburi Bankole, who had nominated Babatunde Omotoba, in the early days of the President Umar Musa Yar’Aduas administration.

The perceived thinking within the ranks of this group is that, Babatunde Omotoba, may have extended some form of knowledge-base about the ABUJA SECOND RUNWAY CONTRACT, since he had facilitated his ascension to the exalted office as AVIATION minister.  They all got it wrong. This is because, almost eight months before the end of the last session of ministers, who’s tenure ended on March 17th ,2010, the hitherto flourishing relational rapport that existed between the Speaker and Omotoba, had become strained that has as  bearing with the citizenry’s comfort is not only important but highly commendable.

This is more so, when such a body of inquisition, is intended to correct what can be listed as institutionally dysfunctional in the general order of doing government business.  However, the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation’s one day probe, that lasted almost ten hours, presented itself as a session enmeshed with issues, values and concepts of mixed emotions, facts and law.

The committee also showed high level animosity against the Bureau for Public Procurement, the Aviation Ministry and to a large extent, the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria [FAAN]. From the way and manner the session, it was obvious that, members of the committee, had a predetermined mind-set about what to do and how best to do it.  For instance, the committee, was aversed to the concept of the selective tendering approach, adopted in the award of the N63.5 billion Abuja second runway contract, whose fiscal instrument profile, it saw a bogus and monumental, have drawn some relational comparisons with the Akwa Ibom and Gombe Airports.

The Committee, had faulted what it described as the non-inclusion of an engineering design draft as well as the provision of bill of quantities for the award of the contract for the construction of the Abuja second runway, endorsed by the Federal Airport Authority [FAAN] and awarded to Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, as against the PW [West Africa] LTD, whose tendering was deemed to have had a lower fiscal instrument profile of no fewer than N30 Billion Naira.

However, the same committee did not take into cognizance the fact that, the design, profile, quality, infrastructure and social engineering dynamics surrounding the listed local examples of Akwa Ibom and Gombe Airports against the backdrop of a comparison of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, did not show any kind of balanced cognitive reasoning.

The fact of the matter is that, these two local airports, whose examples were curiously cited by the Committee members, do not and cannot be compared with the nature and profile of the civil engineering project work schedules which the basic design of the Abuja International Airport, entails.

Going by the project description as well as the outlay of the basic design benchmark for the civil engineering work schedules, the amount so quoted was essentially meant to take into consideration the following, [1] location of the runway, [2] orientation of runway and (3) length of the runway.

In terms of the length of the runway, it is fixed and ostensibly defined by AAP- Abuja International Airport Land Use Concept Plan dated 1995 backed by the Convention on International Civil Aviation [ICAO] cannot be altered by the tendering firm or the construction company.

A look at the derivation of the runway length against the backdrop of the designed airplanes which includes the following ranges:  Airbus 380 and Boing747 400 ER [Min] based on ICAO recommendations version 2009, the body length of the second Abuja Runway is 73m/71m, the body height is 24m/19m while the wing span stands at 80m/65m.

The maximum take –off weight is put at 569,000 kg/413,000 kg even as the proposed runway length is estimated at 4,450 meters, with the reference elevation at 341meters,assumed longitudinal slope of 1% with a reference temperature of 35.6’c**

Given the cost distribution profile of N63.5Billion, which had informed the projected value of the contract awarded to Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, there are no fewer than eleven [11] structural engineering items of infrastructure that were built in to form part of the ABUJA SECOND RUNWAY project, that had been criticized based on issues of public hysteria, public emotive perceptions as well as mixed facts and law.

These include taxi way, drainage channel, culvet, electrical infrastructure, remaining area, design, fence/patrol road, fire-fighting, roads and allied contingencies.  The scope of work of this much criticized second runway project premised on the convention on international civil aviation the safety strip- measures 300 meters wide, while graded Strip and the Runway have a width profile of 210 meters and 60 meters respectively.

As a matter of fact, the quality of earth works, topography survey, which entails the examination of geometrical site conditions, determination of the gradient of runway based on ICAO regulations, requiring civil engineering input of cutting to fill quantities of almost 4,060,000 m3 to fill as well as no fewer than 1,792,000 m3 to cutting to spoil concrete works, the main drainage components, box culverts and drainage ditches, the runway construction, of the Abuja runway project is not only capital intensive but a capital project that, should not be criticized or compared with local airports construction, that may pass as mere air-strips.

Umunnabuike contributed this piece from Abuja