Minister
of Works Arc. Mike Onolememen says Works past administrations are to
blame for deplorable state of roads in Nigeria. The minister spoke on
Friday at the Academy of Entrepreneurial Studies, AES, Excellence Club
3rd Annual CEO’s Dinner/Awards Night in Lagos. The minister said the
poor state of the roads is inimical to the nation’s development, adding
that the development of societies like America is due to the success in
the management of its roads. He stressed the need for “Attitudinal
change in management and financing of roads in Nigeria is needed to
enhance development in our country,” and greater investments in the
construction and maintenance of good road network to enhance the
nation’s economy. To achieve the transformation agenda of the government
and for Nigeria to be among the top 20 economies of the world by 2020,
investments in road infrastructure are needed, the minister add.
Read full text below
THE TRANSFORMATION AGENDA IN THE FEDERAL MINISTRY OF WORKS:
A PAPER DELIVERED BY ARC. MIKE ONOLEMEMEN, FNIA, FNIM, FNMGS
AT THE AES EXCELLENCE CLUB MONTHLY BUSINESS LUNCHEON ON DECEMBER 7, 2012 AT EKO HOTELS & SUITES, VICTORIA ISLAND, LAGOS
Protocol
It
gives me great joy to be with you today to deliver a paper on “The
Transformation Agenda in the Federal Ministry of Works”. Your choice of
topic is no doubt deliberate and timely in view of the federal
government’s new approach to the construction, rehabilitation and
maintenance of road infrastructure under my leadership in line with the
transformation agenda of Mr. President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan,
GCFR.
2. I have noticed the impressive membership of the AES
Excellence Club which include seasoned administrators, and captains of
industries, who have at different times, contributed to the social
economic development of our dear country. I am also particularly glad to
know that members of the Governing Board/Patrons are individuals who
have distinguished themselves in various fields of endeavour. The fact
that this august body stands for excellence, honesty, accountability,
determination and patriotism, is further reassuring particularly when
viewed from the determination of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s
Administration to instill values that will change the business as usual
mentality of the polity and transform the country for the good of all.
Road Development and the Transformation Agenda
3.
The importance of roads infrastructure to the economic well being of
any nation cannot be over emphasised. The connection between good roads
and economic well being of a nation was made many decades ago by no less
a figure than Former President John Kennedy of the United States of
America who stated, “America is having good roads not because America is
rich, but America is rich because it has good roads”. Can we say the
same of our dear country Nigeria today? The obvious answer is No!
4.
We have come to this sorry state of affairs in the governance of our
road sector because the leadership of our country in the past four
decades failed to develop the right attitude like former President
Kennedy of the United States of America to road development. Therefore
Attitudinal Change in Management and Financing of Roads in Nigeria, is
needed to transform road development in our country. And I dare say that
the time for this attitudinal change in the road sector is NOW! A
paradigm shift has become inevitable in the development of roads
infrastructure in our country, judging by our recent experiences of the
near-collapse of our roads infrastructure. We need to reclaim our
National Road Network from its dilapidated state and once again elevate
it to an enviable state where it can help to promote national economic
growth and prosperity.
5. The purpose of encouraging attitudinal
change in policy formulation, management and funding of the road sector
is to promote the development of good roads that can truly serve as the
economic arteries of the nation. Our country needs to make Strategic
Investments in Roads Infrastructure if the objective of the
Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government to be among the top 20
Economies in the World by the Year 2020 is to be realised. It can
therefore be seen that the current leadership of the Ministry was
confronted with a situation that required urgent and far-reaching
changes and reforms especially in the areas of policy, management and
financing.
6. A look at some of the statistics indicates that
Nigeria has an uphill task ahead of her. Nigeria has a total of about
194,000 km of roads. Comparing this figure to those of the United States
of America (6,506,204 km); India (4,109,593 km); China (3,806,800 km);
Brazil (1,751868 km); Turkey (352,046 km); and South Africa (362,099
km), enables one to better appreciate the enormity of the challenge that
we face as a Nation in the road sector. For Nigeria to be among the
first 20 Economies in the World, our road infrastructure needs to grow
from 194,000km to about 300,000km. This will require huge investments by
both the three tiers of Government and the Private Sector. This kind of
investments cannot be possible if there is no attitudinal change in the
policy formulation, financing and management of roads infrastructure in
our country.
7. In realisation of the above, the Federal
Ministry of Works under my leadership, has pursued passionately the
reform of road sector institutions in line with international best
practice, as to be able to attract funding from the Private sector. We
took this line of action in the Ministry because we truly believe that a
paradigm shift is inevitable in the road sector if we are to develop
additional 100,000km in about ten years. We need a shift in
Institutional Structures that will lead to the creation of a National
Roads Fund and a Federal Roads Authority by legislation; a shift in the
funding mechanism of road projects, from Public Sector to Private Sector
driven; And a Shift from the present Palliative regime in road
development where only a paltry sum is devoted to road development to
being BOLD in our approach, through the pooling together of a wide range
of finances (Government Yearly Budgets, Multilateral Agencies Funding,
5% Petroleum Tax, IVT Charges, Private Sector Fund, Road Bonds, ROW
Revenue, Toll Charges, etc.) into the National Road Fund for the
ambitious development of roads infrastructure in Nigeria. Since the
1970s, Nigeria has not been able to embark on major road development
programmes that would help to accelerate economic growth in our country,
and bring the nation’s economy at par with emerging economies such as
Brazil, South Africa, Turkey and India.
8. It is a well-known
fact that we have had to contend with deplorable road network in the
country for many years now due to lack of adequate investment in road
infrastructure by successive governments to ensure the sustainable
maintenance of our national road network. The challenge posed by the
deplorable state of our road infrastructure has seriously impacted the
cost of transportation of goods and services in our country.
9.
Earlier efforts by Government to maintain, upgrade and/or modernize the
existing highways to international standard did not yield the desired
result. The reasons for this are not far-fetched; they include paltry
budgetary provisions, poor project planning and design, poor supervision
of works, road abuses, bureaucratic bottlenecks and lack of political
will in the past to entrench institutional and legal frameworks that
would transform the sector in line with international best practice.
Institutional Restructuring
10
At the inception of the President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s
administration and on my assumption of duty as the Honourable Minister
of Works, I identified a number of challenges facing road development in
the country. These included:
· Inadequate Planning;
· Poor Design;
· Ineffective Supervision;
· Bureaucratic Project Management Structure;
· Lack of Strong Quality Assurance, and
· Inadequate Funding.
11.
I moved quickly to address these challenges by restructuring the
Ministry to provide the needed capacity through the decentralization of
the bureaucratic project management structure which I inherited, for
better delivery of road projects. Consequently, Mr. President approved
the creation of six Zonal Directorates of Highways to better manage and
supervise construction works on sites within the geopolitical zones. The
administration also created the Department of Materials, Geotechnics
& Quality Control, to carry out continuous assessment of materials
with a view to ensuring that quality materials are being deployed on our
road projects by Contractors. This has significantly enhanced the
quality of works as well as better service delivery in the road sector.
12. Independent Zonal Monitoring Teams for the six geopolitical
zones were constituted with membership drawn from the Private Sector to
provide independent report on projects and activities in the zones. The
Chairmen of these Zonal Monitoring Committees report directly to my
office to ensure that uncensored and reliable information are passed on
to my office, and thereby checkmate the excesses of any dubious staff in
the handling of road infrastructure projects.
Strengthening of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency
13.
The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency is saddled with the responsibility
of maintaining all federal roads in the country. As part of its
rejuvenated programmes for road maintenance, the Agency has commenced
its Preventive Maintenance and Road Surveillance Programmes on major
highways. Six mobile laboratories were acquired for material testing and
quality control to guide against sub-standard works.
14. The
Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) recently acquired 38 new FP5
Bergkam Pothole Patches for the effective maintenance of roads
nationwide. The trucks have been deployed to major highways in the six
geo-political zones of the country. FERMA has also commenced cold
asphalt production with a Cold Asphalt Production Base at Kuje in Abuja.
The agency has increased the number of road rehabilitation and repairs
across the country since the inception of the administration of
President Goodluck Jonathan. With FERMA’s emergence as a modern Road
Maintenance Outfit, the issue of potholes on our roads will soon be a
thing of the past, as the Agency recently flagged off a programme that
will eliminate potholes from the Nation’s major arterial roads.
Road Sector Reforms
15.
By far the most important policy intervention that will impact
positively on the road sector under my leadership, is the reforms we are
carrying out in the road sector.
16. Prior to my assumption of
office last year, earlier initiatives to reform the road sector were not
accorded the needed attention. In view of the Federal Government’s
inability to wholly construct, reconstruct, rehabilitate and/or maintain
roads in the country due to the global economic recession and its
attendant consequences to our environment, I set up a Road Sector Reform
Committee, comprising international experts, professionally experienced
and credible Nigerians in October 2011. The Committee painstakingly
reviewed existing institutional frameworks and policies on road
infrastructure development in our country. The Committee’s Report, among
others, recommended the establishment of the National Roads Fund and
the Federal Roads Authority, all to be guided by independent boards.
These bodies, when constituted, would strengthen our resolve to drive
road development in Nigeria through the Public Private Partnership (PPP)
initiative and other funding models that are certainly global best
practices in meeting road sector development funding challenges. The
draft bills for the two bodies are currently being studied and reviewed
before a formal presentation to the Federal Executive Council.
Benefits of the Reforms on Road Projects
17.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is pertinent to state that the ongoing
transformation in the Federal Ministry of Works, has started to yield
dividends which are obviously impacting on the socio-economic wellbeing
of the people of this country. Works are currently ongoing in most of
the road projects that were abandoned due to delayed and/or nonpayment
of certificates prior to my assumption of duty. This is the result of
our purposive interactions with the Contractors and our consistent
efforts at ensuring that payments are made within available resources.
18.
Specifically, some of the major roads on which the transformation
agenda of the Federal Ministry of Works is progressively yielding
desired results include:
1) The Benin-Ore-Shagamu Expressway
2) The dualisation of Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja road
3) The Kano-Maiduguri road Dualization
4) The Onitsha-Enugu Expressway
5) The Ibadan-Ilorin road Dualization
6) The Kano Western Bye-Pass/Flyover in Kano State
Bridges
7) The Loko-Oweto Bridge
8) The 2
nd Niger Bridge in Anambra/Delta States
9) The rehabilitation of Jebba Bridge in Kwara State, and
10) The Replacement of 8 No. Expansion Joints on the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos State.
19.
Two weeks ago, the Federal Executive Council approved the continuation
of the Abuja-Lokoja road dualization to Benin City, to connect the dual
carriageways of the North-East, North-West and North-Central zones to
those of the South-East, South-South and the South-West zones. This will
ensure that, for the first time, Nigerians will be able to drive on
dual carriageways from any of the six geo-political zones to any of the
other zones in an unbroken chain/network of dual carriageways. This will
also truly ensure the transformation of road transportation in Nigeria,
which is one of the cardinal objectives of Mr. President’s
transformation agenda.
Recovery of Road Washouts
20. The
threats of Washouts and Gully Erosion on the nation’s roads have become
a recurring decimal in parts of the country. The Federal Government
through the Federal Ministry of Works has, through its transformation
programme, risen to the challenge with prompt reinstatement of affected
roads in the past one year. Notable among them include -
(i) Gombe-Potiskum road Washout in Gombe State.
(ii) Auchi-Okene road Washout in Edo State.
(iii) Onitsha-Enugu road Washouts at Km 6, km 30 and km 35 in Anambra State, and
(iv) Sokoto-Illela road Washout in Sokoto State.
21.
Most recently, the country witnessed an unprecedented flood which
adversely impacted on some federal roads and bridges and ravaged
communities where vehicles, houses and other properties as well as
farmlands were submerged, and agricultural produce destroyed. In
particular, the Lokoja-Abuja Highway was cut-off at three different
locations. My Ministry rose to the occasion by creating temporary
alternative routes for motorists who were stranded in the areas. We are
currently working round the clock to accomplish the task of
reconstructing failed sections of roads and collapsed bridges/culverts
as mandated by Mr. President during his national broadcast on the
flooding.
Projects Funding by Multi-Lateral Agencies
22.
To address the challenges of funding road projects, the Road Sector
Development Team Unit was upgraded to a full-fledged Department. It was
strengthened and repositioned to meet contemporary needs, including
soliciting and managing funds obtained from multi-lateral agencies for
road development projects in the country.
The Ministry under by
watch is collaborating well with the Africa Development Bank and the
World Bank, and has been able to enhance access to finance for the
rehabilitation of the following critical road projects:
i. Ikom-Mfum Road
ii. Abakaliki-Ogoja Junction road
iii. Enugu-Abakaliki road
iv. Ogoja Junction-Ikom road
The final procurement for the Mokwa-Bida road and Akure-Ilesha road respectively are currently ongoing.
Additionally,
fourteen (14) roads are variously undergoing periodic maintenance under
the road development programme through the collaboration between
Federal Ministry of Works and the World Bank.
Public Private Partnership Initiative
23.
I inherited the Public Private Partnership Unit with no performing
project. In view of the urgent need to reposition the Unit to meet the
funding challenges in the road sector in the country, it was upgraded to
a full-fledged department. It is no longer news that government alone
cannot fund road infrastructural projects with the annual budgetary
provisions.
24. The pressure on the Federal Government to
provide additional kilometres of roads to the network and rehabilitate
existing ones is presumably high, considering that federal roads serve
as major arteries to economic centres like sea ports, airports,
petroleum depots and refineries, and connect various States and
important cities/towns. The dual carriageways linking the six
geo-political zones are also owned by the Federal Government, and a
major priority of the Federal Ministry of Works is to ensure that the
six geopolitical zones are connected by unbroken chain of dual
carriageways in good and motorable condition all year round.
25.
To sustain this increasing demand for good and sustainable road
network, it has become pertinent to involve the private sector as it is
now fashionable all over the world. It is also important to note that
roads all over the world are fast becoming big businesses because of the
demand to keep them in perfect condition all the time.
26. It
is in this regards that the Federal Government through the Federal
Ministry of Works has been working round the clock to produce a private
sector driven road development programme in Nigeria. We have been
engaging the organized private sector and the international community on
the need for them to invest in Nigerian road development programme.
27.
Late last year, the Federal Ministry of Works called for Expression of
Interests from willing private sector investors in the concession of the
following projects:
i) The 2
nd Niger Bridge linking Delta and Anambra States;
ii) Bridge Over River Niger at Nupeko, Niger State; and
iii) Expansion and Upgrading of Apakun-Murtala Mohammed International Airport road in Lagos State.
28.
So far the responses have been very encouraging and the Federal
Ministry of Works intends to deliver world-class road concessions on the
above federal roads and bridges, among others.
Conclusion
29.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, you will appreciate therefore that
change and reform have been very important components in our efforts to
reposition the road sector since my assumption of duty. Indeed, we shall
continue to make change and reform cardinal factors in our
determination to foster a vibrant and performance based management
environment, to drive road sector development in Nigeria.
30.
The challenges of repositioning the Federal Ministry of Works with a
view to providing good motorable roads in our country are enormous. I
am, however, not deterred by the challenges but committed to ensuring
that during my stewardship, there would not only be substantial evidence
to show that development of road infrastructure can be executed in line
with the Transformation Agenda of Mr. President, but to also ensure
that efforts are institutionalized for the sustainable development of
Nigeria’s road infrastructure.
31. Finally, I wish to assure all
that we at the Federal Ministry of Works shall continue to work in
ensuring that world-class roads infrastructure are developed in our
country to help support real economic growth for the good of our people.
32. I thank you for your attention.
Arc. Mike Onolememen, fnia, fnim
Honourable Minister of Works
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