Since the troubled Lagos-Ibadan expressway became a subject of national discourse, many analyses of the project have been done in the media. Some make for interesting reading, as writings by informed commentators and deep thinkers who have done painstaking research on the concession and the attendant issues. Others are clearly the works of infantile minds who want to sound off about the road, apparently in general diminution of its significance to Nigerians, even when they lack the faintest knowledge of the details of the concession agreement, the intrigues and the politics involved. Those in this category pontificate in a pretentious manner, as though they were experts in the process that led to the concessioning of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to Bi-Courtney Highway Services Limited (BHSL).
In an article published on Page 27 of BusinessDay of Sunday, April 10, 2016, entitled “Lagos-Ibadan Expressway: The unending tales”, a certain Akhigbe Dominic, who should have limited himself to the praise-singing of his benefactor and immediate past Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, delved, in faltering English, into what Bi-Courtney purportedly did and did not do on the road. In a display of unrivalled ignorance, he wrote: “The controversy ragged (sic) on till Obasanjo, in his wisdom, decided to Concession it (Lagos-Ibadan Expressway) to Babalakin along some other major national assets, such as MM2. Not even this Concessioning could bring the much-desired solution. What Bicotny (sic) did was to move some heavy duty equipments (sic) to the former Lagos-Ibadan toll-gate, built some construction sheds and left them there. Nigerians that ply the roads (sic) started to hope upon hope. This dragged on till OBJ’s administration coasted home in 2007.”
In a pitiable and baffling display of cluelessness, Mr. Dominic went further: “Like so many other national projects, the taxpayers’ money went down the drains (sic) in that moribund partnership that never saw the light of the day.”
And in what qualifies the article for the dumpsite in its entirety, headed: “This was slowed down by a gigantic (whatever this means) litigation that was floated by the Babalakins who felt the Federal Government had erred to have whisked away the job from them after years of inactivity.”
It is not my brief to defend Bi-Courtney, as I believe the company is more than capable of fighting its own battles. It is, however, my duty as an engineer, stakeholder and one who has been following developments on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway since 2007 when the Federal Government appointed Bi-Courtney as concessionaire of the road, to correct some misconceptions, deliberate falsehood, misinformation and disinformation contained in Dominic’s article.
It is shocking that someone who calls himself “A Consultant in Real Estate & Investment Portfolio Manager…Business Coach & Seminar Speaker/Expert in Business & Property Law” could write that taxpayers’ money had gone down the drain on the Lagos-Ibadan road on account of Bi-Courtney and the concession. It is regrettable that Dominic, a self-proclaimed “Investment Portfolio Manager,” does not know the difference between a concession and a contract. And this is a major problem that concessionaires are contending with in Nigeria: the ignorance of many about the real meaning of the term, concession. For the uninformed like Mr. Dominic, the indubitable fact is that Bi-Courtney got aDesign, Build, Operate and Transfer (DBOT) concession on the road, under the Federal Government’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement. The concession was to last 29 years (four years to construct and 25 years to operate the road before transfer).
No “taxpayers’ money has gone down the drains” as Dominic erroneously declared in his hatchet job. Rather, it was the concessionaire’s $300 million that went down the drain because they had to borrow money at a huge interest rate to keep the road motorable while awaiting, for an inordinate length of time, the approval of the design by the Federal Ministry of Works. Right from the inception of the project, the Ministry breached major parts of the agreement and neglected key obligations, making it unrealistic and impracticable for Bi-Courtney to meet its timelines under the Concession Agreement. Those are the facts.
If all “Bicotny (sic) did was to move some heavy duty equipments (sic) to the former Lagos-Ibadan toll-gate, built some construction sheds and left them there,” while waiting upon the Ministry of Works, then it means Mr. Dominic was not living in the country, or never travelled on the road in question while the concession lasted. Or perhaps he is just up to mischief. Serious commentator on national issues could write as he did about the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and be taken seriously. If he could point to one of the “sheds” built and “left” along the road by the former concessionaire, then he would be a magician. What I noticed while Bi-Courtney was on the road was constant maintenance of the bad spots, which have become deadlier today because Federal Government brazenly flouted the concession agreement and muddled up an arrangement that would have made Lagos-Ibadan Expressway the toast of the nation.
Instead of pouring invective on the battered former concessionaire and spitting venom, years after the concession’s termination (since November 19, 2012), Mr. Dominic and his ilk should concentrate their energy on persuading the Federal Government to do the needful: the road should be fixed and made safe for its users, as a way of putting a permanent end to all the needless stress travellers endure daily while commuting on it.
Dayo Kuteyi
