- We’ll complete them – Governors
With a massive infrastructure deficit standing at about $2 trillion, according to development agencies, over N3 trillion worth of infrastructure projects have been found abandoned and unaccounted for by sitting governments in no fewer than 10 states of the federation since 2012.
Investigation by The Point revealed that funds for the projects, which were at various levels of execution, had also been re-allotted in budgets by some of the affected states.
According to a top source in the Budget Office of the Federation, the state helmsmen caught in the web of the uncompleted or abandoned projects include some immediate past and current governors of Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, Imo, Rivers, Kwara, Kano, Kaduna and Anambra states respectively.
A check through the affected states revealed a legion of once celebrated projects, which have now turned into ‘white elephant’ projects, over the last five years.
Consequently, many financial and economic analysts have been bemoaning the effects of the development on residents and the economies of the affected states now and in the near future.
For instance, as explained by an investment analyst, one effect is that a project that was supposed to be completed in 2013 at N100 billion (when the naira/dollar exchange rate was at N150/$1), would be completed at three times or more the price in 2017, (when naira/dollar rate hovers between N500 and N550/$1).
Investigations by The Point showed that incumbent governors in six of the states initiated some of the abandoned projects during their first terms in office.
Today, most of them have abandoned the projects for new ones, which they have also failed to complete.
The six states include Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Kwara, Imo and Rivers. For instance, the Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with foreign investors to construct the 10-lane Abeokuta-Sagamu interchange road at the cost of N60 billion after abandoning projects worth about N2 trillion across developing areas in the state.
Rather than give convincing reasons for his action, Amosun told critics that there was no going back on the 10-lane Abeokuta-Sagamu interchange road project.
“When the government starts this project and others that we have earmarked for completion, people should not misconstrue our mission, because the money we got is specifically for this project,” he said.
Aside from inherited projects from his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi, there are indications that Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has also abandoned some of the projects he started in 2015.
The Publicity Secretary, Rivers State All Progressives Congress, Mr. Chris Finebone, said, “One of the most visible projects that have now been abandoned by the governor is the ElemeTrailer Park Junction.
“The rehabilitation of the road was touted as the best thing to come out of the Wike government; taxpaying companies were made to contribute over N3 billion or slightly less than half of the N7 billion required for full reconstruction of that section in July 2015.”
Other abandoned projects across the affected states include the sevenkilometre Egbejila-Airport road and Asalapa-Abayawo road in IIorin East Local Government, Kwara State; N15 billion Civic Centre in Ado-Ekiti; N10 billion Ilawe-Igbara-Odo-Iboji road, in Ekiti State; 27 General Hospitals across all local governments in Imo State; N20 million two units, two blocks of three classrooms at Dakata and Tudun Murtala wards in Nasarawa Local Government in Kano State; N150 billion Ibadan-Circular road project; as well as the N50 billion state teaching university and six model secondary schools project in Oyo State, among others.
GOVERNORS CONFUSED?
Without doubt, indigenes and residents of the affected states are bitter over what they described as unfair treatment meted out to them by their various state governors. While some of them insist that their governors appear confused, others argue that they are fraudsters who are only interested in fleecing their states of resources.
A resident of Agbado Station, Ogun State, Mr. Moses Lawal, said that the Amosun-led administration was confused and lacked direction. Lawal, an accountant, said Amosun was biting more than he could chew, regretting ever voting for the governor.
Lawal said, “The abandoned roads and bridges in Akute, Sango and Lambe have made life miserable for all residents in those areas.
The roads are bad and we now regularly park our vehicles and take motorcycles home,” he told The Point.
In the view of some residents of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has plunged the state into huge debt, what with the increased rate of borrowings to complete some of the abandoned projects.
An investment analyst, Mr. Funso Omole, claimed that fixing federal roads, flyovers and airport construction, which had been abandoned currently, amounted to a waste of funds on the part of the states.
Ajimobi promised to construct aN55-billion 108-kilometer circular road in May 2012. The project was to save motorists and travellers passing through Ibadan to other neighbouring states the stress of passing through the ancient city. But after demolishing some property in the city in 2013, the idea has remained a wild dream
“The government needs to change its perception of providing infrastructure in the state, in view of the current economic recession. It is not compulsory for the government to provide them, it can partner with private firms that have companies in the state to provide such amenities.
It should ensure the companies take their Corporate Social Responsibilities seriously as they are expected to give back to their communities of operation,” he stated. A resident of Mokola, Ibadan, Oyo State, Mr. Akin Majiyagbe, faulted Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s administration over several failed projects across the state.
Like other failed promises, Majiyagbe recalled that the governor promised to construct a N55-billion 108-kilometer circular road in May 2012.
He said the project was to save motorists and travellers passing through Ibadan to other neighbouring states the stress of passing through the ancient city. But after demolishing some property in the city in 2013, the idea has remained a wild dream.
Investigations also revealed that Ajimobi laid the foundation of a supposed 150-room 5-Star hotel, estimated to cost N6.5 billion at the open space between Premier Hotel Ibadan and the Cultural Centre in May 2012.
Today, having spent over N1 billion on the project, it is on the list of projects abandoned by the governor. Also, a resident of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Engr. Toby George, urged Wike to change his mind on abandoning the monorail project, which he had declared he had no intention of completing.
He said, “I am not a politician, but I believe the vision is to take the monorail up to the airport in future, traversing the city. A lot of River’s taxpayers’ monies have been sunk into that project and it should not be allowed to die. I hope the governor is not playing politics with that project, because it will be the most unfortunate thing to befall the state.”
There are also allegations of failed and abandoned projects in Imo State.Some Imo residents alleged that Governor Rochas Okorocha had failed in delivering on some of his campaign promises, with the most obvious being the construction of 27 General Hospitals in all local government areas, which he had promised to complete by 2015.
PROJECTS LACK TRANSPARENCY – Analysts
Founder of a civic technology organisation, BudgIT Nigeria, Mr. Oluseun Onigbinde, disclosed that “secrecy in the preparation, enactment, and implementation of the budget, as well as a pervasive lack of transparency conspired to keep citizens in the dark as to what their government owes them.”
According to him, many projects were signed off and contractors were paid, with little or no follow-up reporting and assessment by government authorities. Another observer, Mr. Ayo Olukotun, advocated the merger of the offices of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, the Bureau of Public Procurements, as well as the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission for better oversight and monitoring of projects.
He stated, “It would be interest ing, if a doctoral student in Political Science, in one of our universities, researches our abandoned project syndrome, for what insight it throws into a perverse governance culture, leadership atrophy, programmed dysfunction, a thriving spoils system, and the lack of monitoring mechanisms.
“This immediately opens a line of investigation as to those who get awarded the ‘juiciest’ contracts, some of which are never implemented, most of them half-implemented, with only a tiny proportion completed. At any rate, it is time to frontally apprehend and arrest the mania of project abandonment.”
WE’LL COMPLETE ALL PROJECTS – GOVERNORS
However, the governors of some of the states have denied the allegations of abandoning projects across their states, blaming the delay in completion of projects on the current economic recession.
In Ogun, the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Taiwo Adeoluwa, said, “The government cannot abandon any project, because we know how important they are to tax payers and residents of the state. Work will soon start in those areas.”
Meanwhile, the Governor of the State of Osun assured that projects that added value to the state and people’s lives would not be abandoned.
“It is not in the plan of the government to abandon capital projects, especially those that have been started before the financial problems of the state started,” he said.
Also, Governor Wike reassured Rivers’ people that his administration would not abandon any ongoing project, adding that his projects execution framework had been properly laid out to accommodate all ongoing projects.
The Special Adviser to the Ekiti State Governor on New Media, Mr. Lere Olayinka, claimed that a former governor of the state, Kayode Fayemi, was the one who abandoned projects shortly before the 2014 gubernatorial election and not the current Governor, Ayodele Fayose.
“The projects were abandoned and Fayemi and his men did not leave any money behind to complete them. N1.2 billion is being deducted monthly from the state’s allocation to service debts that the former governor took in the course of his four years.
That is responsible for the inability of this administration to pay salaries,” Olayinka told The Point. Meanwhile, efforts to get the response of the Imo State government were unsuccessful as the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Sam Owunemedo, failed to respond to all enquiries.
