Umahi’s Concrete Roads and the Pushback of Corruption
By: Yahaya Kana Ismaila
One of the most famous quotes about the viciousness of corruption comes from pioneer EFCC chairman and current National Security Adviser (NSA) Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, when he posited that “when you fight corruption, it fights back”. Nuhu Ribadu was then talking in response to the pervasive corruption in the public system. A chronicle of the event from during and after Ribadu’s stewardship of EFCC will suggest that corruption won the battle against the ex-police officer and his successors in particular and Nigeria in general.
When David Umahi was inaugurated as the minister of works, and he immediately hit the ground running, travelling the entire length and breadth of Nigeria’s very bad Interstate roads for on-the-spot analysis, it became very clear that the man was, on the strength of his early showing, ready to work.
My fear in the immediate aftermath of his very strong statements regarding the very poor quality of roads was that, unless he has a very tough skin and the backing of his president, he may not survive the heavy firepower that contractors are bound to direct his way and may soon be coward into silence. This is because, the big players in the road construction system have woven a very strong yarn of corruption that shields their nefarious activities and reaches to the very top of agencies involved in road construction. Interestingly, the man has refused to be coward and has anticipated and matched the contractor’s shenanigans every step of the way.
At a meeting with contractors in Abuja, the minister informed them that he has caught wind of a conspiracy to sabotage federal government’s policy shift from asphalt to reinforced concrete roads. “I learnt that some of you want to sabotage me to prove that concrete is not good”. He alleged connivance between errant contractors and some members of his team to sabotage the decision of government. Most importantly, the minister also informed the contractors that he has “secured the president’s backing to proceed with the new policy”.
Nigerians will recall a video that went viral sometimes in July of 2021, where a man was seen lamenting bitterly about the poor quality of a newly constructed asphalt road, purportedly a constituency project somewhere in Akoko Edo. In that video, the man was seen effortlessly using his bare hands to pull off the so-called asphalt road. Before the sad event was turned into an avenue for scoring cheap political points, the message has been passed. The truth is, that road in Akoko Edo is the prototype of virtually every asphalt road in Nigeria.
Like that man in Akoko Edo, many Nigerians would have wondered – no – scratch that – would have lamented government’s insensitivity for awarding such below par road projects. What many Nigerians may not know is that government has a minimum standard for asphalt roads and it’s never as low as the death traps being constructed by our road contractors.
Recently, I engaged an engineer who explained to me how the monumental corruption in the road construction value chain that results in the poor asphalt roads works. He explained that contractors have developed a template for corrupting everyone involved with road construction. This is the system with which they exert favourable ratings by government’s monitoring and evaluation teams and many consultants whose double dealing allows the contractors to cut down the quality of the road eventually delivered to Nigerians.
In the books, the contractors are certified to have constructed the road in compliance with agency quality standards and contractual specification even though in reality, the quality expected from the contractor has been compromised. The outcome is what Nigerians must contend with in their daily commute as portions or entire roads that are expected to remain motorable for at least 10 years begin to fail even while the construction company is still on site. Yet, nobody from the works ministry or retained consultants together with their chief accomplices – the contractors have ever been brought to book for the dangerous crime of substandard roads, many of which have led to death of many Nigerians.
Dave Umahi recently confirmed this when he declared that “contractors cheat us on the thickness of asphalt. The bitumen imported is of bad quality and then you start putting enhancer and modifier. We don’t want that again, there is no such thing overseas. Use the type of asphalt used abroad”. What this means is that, since contractors have proven themselves incapable of delivering abroad-type quality asphalt roads, it’s about time that we try something else, and in this case, reinforced concrete roads. This is music to my ears.
Yet, in a reenactment of Ribadu’s “corruption fighting back”, these contractors have been shouting their voices hoarse to whoever cares to listen about Dave Umahi’s alleged attempt to abuse his powers as honourable minister of works to rewrite the terms of contracts, many of which are been dishonestly executed. This followed the minister’s insistence that the shift from the use of imported substandard bitumen laced with so called enhancers and modifiers, all of which water down the quality the chemical to concrete roads is non-negotiable.
However, contractors continue to insist that the decision by the minister to abruptly order them to dump asphalt for concrete technology was tantamount to “shifting the goalposts in the middle of the game.” and I have wondered why is that. If the person who hires you turns up in the morning to inform you that he is changing the terms of the contract, all you need to do is review the terms offered and suggest where necessary, a change in cost. This is the practice everywhere in the world. Therefore, claims by contractors that the policy shift to concrete is too abrupt or that the cost of importing machinery to enable the switch may be too high on contractors does not hold water.
In any case, the minister revealed that he has already agreed to an upward review of the cost of construction to align with the times. I therefore, does not know where the contractors manufactured the audacity with which they have been trying to stand-off the minister in typical Mexican fashion. I believe the options before the contractors are very simple. Accept the renegotiated terms or throw-in the towel. I’m sure it won’t be too hard for Nigeria to find other contractors who will not be interested in telling the employer how to spend his money.
As Nigerians will say, you go explain tire when there’s no evidence. In this case, there’s abundance of evidence that reinforced concrete roads are way better than the jaga-jaga asphalt roads that quickly morph into death traps and kill boxes within one year of construction. All one needs to do to confirm the suitability of reinforced concrete roads for Nigerian roads, is to take a short trip to the Lagos Seaport and see what the contractor is doing or go to Ebonyi state and see what the minister did with concrete roads while he was governor.
Nigerians must therefore align with the minister on these concrete roads issue even if just because of the fact that switching to concrete roads will drive the demand for cement upward which will certainly trigger the need for cement companies to employ more Nigerians in a bid to maintain supply to contractors deploying the concrete road technology while servicing other construction areas that rely on cement. If you ask me, it’s a win-win situation for our economy in light of the fact that using cement and other materials that are entirely sourced locally will wipe out the need to commit scarce forex into importing fake bitumen into the country.
What more, the minister has put in a place a new system of rules to exert efficiency from contractors. Some of these exciting regulations include directives that any contractor with four projects will no longer be eligible to bid for any advertised jobs, and that there won’t be any mobilisation for contractors that are yet to deploy to site. The most exciting of the no nonsense directive is for the contractors to return to site within 14 days or they will be considered to have forfeited the contract.
Nigerians may be about to witness a radical change in the road construction regime as our honourable minister of works, Dave Umahi has declared that henceforth, contract variation must be accompanied with very convincing reasons. It will appear the days of shady underhanded practices between contractors and saboteurs in government agencies who indiscriminately delay contracts only to demand an upward review of the contract cost, which are almost always granted, are drawing to a close.
On his part, Senator Dave Umahi still has many things to do, one of which is to put his house in order and fish out the bad eggs within his ministry who connive with contractors to short-change Nigeria. Nigerians too must do their bit to ensure that they never abandon the minister to fight this battle alone. Corruption only wins when we allow bad elements to gang up against holders of public office who have shown the desire to work for the people. All hands must therefore be on deck to rescue Nigerian roads from the vicious grip of unscrupulous contractors.
Kana, a development journalist, he writes from Abuja
