Have you seen Mike Onolememen these days? The man is full of smiles. He talks with the confidence that has not, for a long time, been associated with persons holding the big portfolio of minister of works. Like Akwa Ibom’s Godswill Akpabio, he talks with statistics reeling from his head and dripping from his mouth. He has all but confronted the monster of Benin-Ore highway all the way through to First Circular Road junction in the Edo State capital. During the furious floods that ravaged the country last year, he caused an alternative route to be created in a matter of days to reconnect the north with the south in Lokoja. Now, he has turned to Abuja-Benin highway.
In times past, even in moderate speed, you could expect to make the 469-kilometre journey from Abuja to Benin City, the Edo State capital, in five hours. Several factors helped to smooth the path. The first of these was that the highway benefitted from the Petroleum Trust Fund by which the Abacha administration in 1993-1997 massively transformed decayed infrastructure across the social structure in the country. It became one of the tools by which, beyond the mindless coercion associated with the Babangida administration, people – mostly from the southern flank – were persuaded to give the then still largely unattractive proposition of relocating to the FCT a chance.
Put simply, it was now quite easier to travel to Abuja, a far cry from the days when, if you were travelling to the FCT, or to the north for that matter, from Lagos, you would do so through the Ibadan-Ilorin-Bida-Kainji-Suleja route. It was always an exciting experience, given the opportunity to see some of the most variegated best sceneries that Nigeria boasts, but it was such an excruciating exercise. Too bad that a good deal of these attractions remains hidden from north-bound travellers from the south.
By 1999 when Obasanjo took the baton of Nigeria’s leadership again, the single-carriage highway was still in tip-top shape. However, with democracy promising dividends of indeterminate proportions, the road became overburdened. It would soon become the busiest thoroughfare in the nation’s network, linking the north to the south in a way that no other highway does. Calls for its dualisation remained unheeded for the eight years of the Obasanjo administration. But then, literally on the eve of its exit, the contract for this long-overdue facelift was awarded to a number of firms.
Thus began the snail-speed effort to fix the Abuja-Lokoja highway. It was reported that the resources made available to the contractors did not match their expectations. The stretch of road became the most frustrating and most dangerous experience for motorists. Yet, there was still the incongruity of stopping the project at Lokoja, when the popular and logical expectation was to extend it to Benin City in Edo State. Grudgingly, it seemed, Okene was added to the equation, but, again, without additional, commensurate commitment in terms of resources or political will.
The allegations set in. Had anyone really diverted the funds for the project? In a corruption-infested polity such as we have in this country, it is the most tempting conclusion to reach. However, the truth is that government is ever unlikely to commit resources in one fell swoop to capi
tal-intensive projects, but instead use annual appropriation processes to effect execution. That’s where political will becomes the most compelling factor is such matters. Now, however, there is every piece of evidence that government is serious about this strategic project. Not only has Benin-Okene section of the road been included, more high-profile firms – Danata and Sawoe, Mothercat, Gito and RCC – have been contracted to do the job. And, mine, what a damn good job they are doing of it!
The story is that, once when President Jonathan decided to do the trip to Lokoja by road, his aides, citing security challenges, advised against such a risk. But the man insisted, whereupon some officials of the Ministry of Works who were concerned that the slow pace of work on the road would embarrass the President, tried to get the contractors to do patchwork to make things look better. However, some of the contractors were reported to have stuck to their position that “the President must see things for himself”.
The President did see things for himself. He, of course, didn’t like what he saw. Soon, he is very likely to like what he sees on the Abuja-Benin highway. And then, Mike, whose surname translates as “One who plans good towards me (will also reap good)”, will – deservedly – take a bow.
You can now understand why, unless you are careful enough to make attributions, you are sure to incur the wrath of the architect and his principals. The poor Israeli didn’t realise this.
