Despite repeated assurances by the Federal Government that reconstruction work would soon begin on the Eleme section of the East-West Road, the more deaths are being recorded on the road, as the condition of the road continues to worsen.
The latest assurance came from the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, who said that the necessary paperwork would soon be presented to the Federal Executive Council for approval, so that the contractor would start irreversible work on site.
Fashola disclosed this when he received in his office the Chairman of Eleme Local Government, Chief Obarilomate Ollor, who led a delegation from Eleme to him in Abuja. The minister said the new design of the road includes 15-kilometre drainages on both sides of the road and additional lanes, which were not in the previous design.
He said the arrangements being made will include for the contractors to carry out palliative work alongside the reconstruction work so that the road could be passable while the project is ongoing.
The Eleme LGA Chairman who also met with the management of Reynolds Construction Company Limited, the contractors, however demanded that there should not be any further delay on the project because of the suffering of people and businesses on the road.
Chief Ollor questioned why an important road like that was not attended to even after being transferred from the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to the Ministry of Works and the recent directive by President Muhammadu Buhari for NNPC Limited to fund the project.
President Buhari had directed NNPC to fund the project through a tax credit scheme. According to Darlington Lawson, a financial analyst, a tax credit scheme is “a creation of the Federal Government using the extant Federal Inland Revenue Services corporate tax laws to encourage private companies/ persons to commit funds into infrastructure development and refurbishment, which they can recoup in the form of tax rebates/forgiveness.
“For instance, if Intels decides to have a partnership with government to fund the repairs of the Eleme stretch of that express with N5b, they can recoup it by reducing their tax obligations to FIRS over an agreed period.”
Meanwhile, petroleum products marketers and owners of petroleum trucks have threatened to stop supply and distribution of petroleum products in Rivers State, if the reconstruction of the Eleme Junction to Trailer Park section of the East –West road is not commenced before the end of October.
For two days running, economic, social and other business activities around the Eleme/Onne industrial hub were paralysed following a lockdown of the East-West Road, the main road leading in and out of the area. Endless lines of articulated vehicles with containers were trapped on both sides of the road for the two days. Also trapped were inter-state buses commuting people from Port Harcourt to destinations in Cross River, Akwa Ibom states as well as other areas fed by the East-West road
Youths and drivers in the area, had blocked the road after a container-laden trailer fell on a commuter bus and killed several passengers. The ill-fated trailer was avoiding a bad spot on the road when it fell and one of the containers it was carrying fell on the bus. The bus was equally manouevring a collapsed section of the road when the accident happened.
The incident occurred just about a month after President Muhammadu Buhari directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to fund the reconstruction of Section IV of the East – West road, which covers the area running from Eleme Junction in Port Harcourt to the Trailer Park at Ejamah.
Reacting to the incident, chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Rivers State branch, Dr. Joseph Obele, said the marketers can no longer accept unfulfilled promises made by the federal government on the road.
“I hereby give the whichever ministry is in charge of the project 14 days to commence action on the road, otherwise we will call for emergency conference of Petroleum Marketers, to order for the suspension of supply and distribution of petroleum products in Rivers State, until that road is fixed. Rivers people should bear with us as it is for their own good,” Obele said.
The reconstruction of the 18-kilometre section of the East – West Road has been the subject of controversy and public concern for over two decades now when that section of the road collapsed. The importance of the road could be seen from the fact that it feeds Nigeria’s second largest ports complex at Onne and other major industries like the two refineries at Alesa Eleme, the Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Complex at Nchia, the Notore Fertilizer Plant, the Nigeria Ports Authority, the Naval College and many other industries of concern to the Nigerian people and economy. Besides, it is the only link between Port Harcourt and destinations in Akwa Ibom and Cross River States after the Port Harcourt – Aba expressway equally collapsed.
In August 2021, community youths, civil society organizations, sympathetic road users and Eleme local government chairman, Chief Ollor, led the total lockdown of the road for seven days to push their demand for the reconstruction of that section of the road. They called off the standoff only when the then Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, assured that RCC Limited, the construction company contracted to reconstruct the road had been mobilized to site.
The minister’s claim failed, as the contractors simply moved out of site after carrying out palliative work on the most affected parts of the road.
While many stakeholders welcomed the Presidential intervention on the reconstruction of the road, many others were doubtful about the commitment of the Federal Government to recover the road.
However, NNPC Limited has not made any response to the directive by the President. NNPC Limited had only a few months ago, converted from a public corporation to a limited liability company. And it is still foggy how it would respond to the directive from the Presidency.
Pastor Probel William, the Convener of Ogoni Peoples Assembly, one of the organisations that facilitated the 2021 lockdown of the road said the President’s directive is a welcome gesture, if it could be implemented right away.
“It is a welcome development because now, it is doable; it’s achievable. Achievable in the sense that you know the order that was given that between now and the end of next month or thereabout, one of the refineries here of the Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited will resume for work and where will they pass? Is it not that road that will be used? So, that pronouncement is close to something that is achievable. That is my own position,” William told National Point.
Dr. Evidence Enoch, the Secretary of OPA, who also spoke with National Point, wanted urgent action taken on the road because it is long overdue. He said his organization would be on the ground to monitor and evaluate the reconstruction work to ensure that it meets acceptable standards. “OPA has already formed a monitoring and evaluation committee to ensure that we work side-by-side to make sure the right quality is delivered.”
But a former president of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, Amaopusenibo Bobo Sofiri Brown, doubts the sincerity of President Buhari to reconstruct the road. He said past promises on the road had not yielded any result and this promise would not be different.
“President Buhari’s current statement strongly suggests that there is no proper establishment procedure or government agency to manage strategic public works. When did NNPC become a road management agency?
“There is also no sense of urgency on the part of government to respond to what is clearly a pressing need of the national economy and citizens. Past promises on the road, have not translated to reality,” Brown told National Point.
He called on the stakeholders: communities, drivers, road users and corporate organizations using the road to take it up and show their dissatisfaction in the coming elections.
“We, the people should show that our lives, local economies and comfort matter as true stakeholders, even if government is showing that election 2023 and cattle movement deserve more attention and urgency.
“For a road that is perhaps the most important artery of the national economy, its worsening collapse under President Buhari’s administration demonstrates a glaring structural failure,” he said.
In the meantime, members of Ejamah community, whose internal roads have become the alternative route to the East-West road, have cried out over the pressure on the new internal roads that the community constructed using compensation money paid to them after an oil company polluted their lands.
In a statement issued by one Yanwi, the community said, “Ejamah Community is not happy with heavy trucks and heavy-duty luxurious buses belonging to companies operating at Oil and Gas Free Zone Area (OGFZA) Onne plying the community road. The people of Ejamah will not fold their hands and watch the roads which N1.4 billion community fund was expended on to be spoiled by these heavy buses and trucks.”
