A Nigerian lawmaker, Garba Muhammed has urged the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing to direct the contractor handling the construction of the Abuja-Kaduna road to resume work immediately.
Honourable Muhammed said the Abuja-Kaduna highway was the gateway between the North and the South of Nigeria and the major link road to the North West and North East as well as to many neighbouring countries.
“In March 2021, the Honourable Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, SAN announced that the Federal Executive Council had approved the contract for the rehabilitation of the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway, amongst other approvals with a delivery date of December 2022; Equally recalls that the Honourable Minister announced that the firm, which had initially been contracted to undertake the rehabilitation work on the road, Julius Berger Plc. would also be responsible for the reconstruction of the road,” he said.
Honourable Muhammed further recalled that following concerning incessant and rampant incidents of banditry along the Abuja-Kaduna Highway, the contractor withdrew its workers from the road for security reasons.
He said that at the time of the withdrawal by the contractor, at least one half of the stretch of road had been graded and covered only in laterite which, after the intense rainfall of the past few months, has given way to gorges and potholes that have left the road unmotorable and severely slowed down traffic.
According to him, because of the current condition of the road, it only takes for a vehicle or truck to breakdown on it for a few minutes and it would result in a build up of static traffic.
“Distressed that this was exactly what happened on the road i.e. a truck broke down on the road as a result of which there was massive gridlock on the road and that this gridlock was cleared only after five (5) days; Distraught that, to worsen matters, the gridlock that was occasioned recently often left motorists and commuters stranded on the road sometimes for between six (6) to nine (9) hours on a journey that should last no more than one and a half (1½) hours; Anxious that there is a high probability that that this gridlocks will become a very recurrent occurrence in the immediate future,” he said.
The Lawmaker also said that although the security situation has recently improved along that stretch of road, gridlock on it still exposes commuters held up in it to the probability of bandit and terrorist attacks with their attendant loss of lives and property.
He therefore called on the Nigerian Government to deploy the military personnel and material resources as well as intelligence necessary to secure the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway to enable the contractor resume work without risk to personnel and equipment.
“Equally mindful that the Abuja-Kaduna highway is the key outlet for the transportation of persons, commodities and goods across Nigeria and this is evident in the extraordinary traffic on it. Worried that the situation on the Abuja-Kaduna Highway has become a debilitating drawback for the Nigerian economy, that if not immediately rectified, spells doom for the economy and the social life of Nigerians contrary to section 15(1) of the Constitution, which mandates the Nigerian State to “provide adequate facilities for and encourage free mobility of people, goods and services throughout” Nigeria as well as section 41(1) which guarantees the right to freedom of movement throughout Nigeria to every Nigerian,” he pointed out.
Honourable Muhammed also called on the Minister of Works and Housing to urgently and without further delay direct the contractor, to immediately return to site and complete its reconstruction work starting with the Jere – Kaduna stretch.
Confidence Okwuchi
