By SUNDAY ABBA, Abuja
The Minister of Works, Sen. David Umahi, says roads that are currently under constructed in the country would not last for seven years after their completion.
Speaking in Abuja during a meeting with contractors handling federal roads, Umahi expressed dismay at he manner in which contractors cheat Nigerians in the materials they use to construct roads in the country.
The minister said the contractors have been in the habit of increasing the cost of their projects to swindle the country through contracts variation and the use of asphalt materials, which are subject to the international price of crude oil.
He said he had stopped the signing of the funds to be released to contractors who are seeking price variation of their contracts.
He lamented the pains Nigerians face travelling on federal roads saying he had to feel their pains when he travelled to Edo state from Abuja.
“There is no project being constructed right now in Nigeria that is going to last for seven years. The question is, are we going to be maintaining or reconstructing our roads after every 10 years?
“That is what we have been doing. I travelled from Abuja to Benin City through Lokoja, all the stretches of the road are on contract, ongoing, this is through the policy of the last administration but how much of the roads are motorable.
I travelled through the roads myself and I shed tears for the kind of pains our people are going through.
“I spent 14 hours on the road having started my journey from 10am and got to Benin City at 2pm the next day and I was very happy I experienced the pains.
“President Tinubu said I must travel through all the projects so that I will brief him on my experience and tell him the truth.
“He said the claims that cement price would go to N9,000 if the government starts doing concrete roads is false as it is part of a big campaign of blackmail against him by the cabals in the construction industry.
Umahi said he is doing his work with the fear of God as he is representing the president and receives instructions from the him.
“This is my line of instructions. I will do whatever the president instructs me to do and he is the only one and God that can cancel my instructions so don’t waste your time reporting me to anyone apart from these two. No matter the amount of blackmail and lies, it will not prevail.
“I travelled to the South West, I am not totally unhappy with the project there and supervision as I gave them 80 marks. I am happy that the directors are doing their work. I went to the part of the North-Central, I am very dissatisfied with the quality work and supervision. I went to Kaduna and I disagreed with the design of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano. I want kilometre zero to 38 to be concrete because it is on land water level base. I want to see if I can do that and if the contractor encourages me or maybe they can have their way,” he said.
While critising workers in the ministry for not doing their supervision of contracts as they are expected, the Minister said they have blood in their hands for the number of people that die in road accidents and those that are kidnapped.
“Unless Mr president does something about it, his lofty intention to help this country may not totally be achieved. Documents will be sent to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) for no objection certificate and it will stay for six months. How will the contractors do the additional job you directed them to do without a backup authorisation?,” Umahi said.