…Road poorly constructed—residents
…Experts blame ministry for poor supervision
…Contractor agrees to revisit the site
The Amawbia-Nibo-Nise-Umuawulu Road in Anambra State was one of many deplorable roads in the state that residents say they struggled with prior to 2022.
“We suffered on this road, especially during rainy seasons, because water and mud would cover everywhere,” said Ifeanyi Nwoye, a motor mechanic who has a shop opposite the Amawbia Custodial Centre, which is the beginning of the Amawbia portion of the road.
“Some of our customers stopped patronising us. It affected everything around us, including our families,” Nwoye explained, adding that prior to 2022, “coming out and going in was a problem for car owners here.”
However, the Federal Government brought smiles to the faces of residents when, on January 31, 2022, it awarded the contract for the rehabilitation of the road to Techsave Nigeria Limited at the cost of N494,383,073,93 with a three-month completion deadline.
However, even more than a year after the project was completed and handed over, road users continue to complain about the poor condition of some sections of the roads. This development has sparked concerns about the quality of work done by the contractor.
During a fact-finding visit to the road project site,our correspondent discovered that many portions of the completed project, particularly around Amawbia and Nibo, had failed.
Ifeanyi Nwoye, a motor mechanic, expressed regret over the road’s quick failure, claiming that the project was clearly not completed properly.
“If they don’t pay attention to it now, it will be worse than before because the ground is not strong again,” he said.
“The road started cracking some weeks after they finished it. I don’t think the federal government can build this kind of road,” he said, expressing disappointment.
Like Nwoye, Sina Adegoke was on his way to his shop located around Eke Awka market in Awka, Anambra State capital when he was engaged about the road project.
While walking down the road, Adegoke expressed surprise that the contract, which he described as poorly done, had been awarded by the Federal Government.
”These places you are seeing started failing just one month after the construction,” he said.
“Look at the gutter they did. It is almost collapsing,” Adegoke continued, pointing at some portions of the road that were failing.
Also observed was a collapsing drainage channel with some parts of it blocked, making it difficult for easy discharge of water from the road. The road, which is intra-community, traverses into Ngene village in Amawbia, part which is prone to erosion, was ridden with bumps, which were put in place by the youths of the community to slow down speeding vehicles or reckless tricycle riders.
The failure of the road is more visible on its two shoulders. While some parts have collapsed, many others are full of potholes, especially around the starting point opposite the custodial centre.
Residents decry “low quality work” despite N404 million release
Information from the Govspend portal revealed that out of the total contract sum of N494,383,073,93, the contractor had received ₦404,995,297.68 on October 11, 2023, for the entire contract spread across four communities of Amawbia, Nibo, Nise, and Umuawulu under the Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State.
The contract description also covers maintenance of some critical portions on the ring road leading from Amaenyi-Awka through Isiagu to Nibo under the same LGA.
“Before the contractor came, this ring road was very bad, with big potholes everywhere. Even those of us riding motorcycles were not enjoying plying it because our machines suffer wear and tear every time,” Obinna Nwawo, a commercial motorcycle recalled.
The motorcyclist, who plies the road regularly, regretted that the repairs, which offered some relief to road users, failed soon after delivery. “We expected them to repair the road before Christmas last year, but they didn’t. They came after Christmas; after they repaired some places, it’s not been up to six months; the things have started spoiling,” he said.
Anthony Okechukwu, a Nibo resident, agreed, saying, “The ring road is very bad right now.” The contractor did not do a good job either. They just did what they liked, and it is easy for the rain to pull off the asphalt,” he said.
Although the Amawbia-Nibo-Nise-Umuawulu Road is not a federal road, a source within the Federal Ministry of Works explained that the federal government also intervenes on state-owned roads that link federal roads.
ANAMBRAPEOPLE also discovered that the majority of the rehabilitated parts are still in good condition, while some have failed. As a result, the road, which also poses a security risk, is quickly becoming a nightmare for road users, exacerbated by other portions not included in the contract last year.
“As I speak to you, people avoid the road except when it becomes compulsory to use it. They rather go through a longer route through Awka, Amawbia to get to Nibo,” Obinna Nwawo, the commercial motorcyclist explained.
Experts explain reason for road failure and blame works ministry
Assessing the current condition of the road, a road construction expert, Glory Thomson, said projects with a lateritic-base course were not as durable as those with a stone-base course.
When asked about the expected service life of the lateritic-base course, he said, “I know that stone-base lasts 15-20 years, and if that of stone-base is 15-20 years, laterite will be around 7–10 years.”
Thomson explained that the road was failing from the shoulders due to poor compaction.
“That failure you saw on the road is a compaction problem. Full attention was not paid to the shoulder during compaction. Most roads start to fail from the shoulders because of that,” he said.
“Moreover, if the edges are not protected with kerbs in areas we don’t have drains, it will be prone to failure early. It can also mean that vehicles often pack on the shoulders,” Thomas said, while analysing possible causes of the failed shoulders of the roads.
Reacting to the development, a public finance management consultant, Dr Cosmas Ohaka, blamed the failure of the road on both the Ministry of Works and the contracting firm.
“For every contract, there is an engineer from the ministry attached who would ensure that the specifications in the Bill of Quantities are strictly adhered to,” he said.
“He is supposed to work with the contractor on daily basis and ensure that they are doing the right thing. So, if the road fails, he is responsible. This ensures that regardless of the experience or qualifications of the contractors, the ministry officials must closely supervise the work,” Ohaka concluded.
The supervisory failure of the Federal Ministry of Works contravenes Section 57(2) of the Public Procurement Act 2007, which stipulates that all persons involved with public procurement, whether as an official of the Bureau, a procuring entity, supplier, contractor, or service provider, shall at all times be governed by principles of honesty, accountability, transparency, fairness, and equity.
Section (8) of the act states that all public officers involved in public procurement and disposal of assets shall maintain the highest standards of ethics in their relationships with persons, real or corporate who seek government commerce, whether as a bidder, supplier, contractor or service provider by developing transparent, honest, and professional relationships with such persons.
Failure to stick to the act, according to Dr Ohaka, leads to malfeasance, which undermines the economic progress and overall development of the country. “If it is a country with, for instance, a 10-year development plan and you are looking at developing 20,000km of roads within that period, you need to do at least 2000km every year progressively and not go back to the first one you did.”
“But, when you have to repeat the one you have done before or you are going to another one while the previous one has gone bad, you are running within a circle,” he explained.
He described it as a waste of taxpayers’ money adding that people are also denied the economic benefits accruable from the use of the road.
Testimonies of residents and road users on the road project and first-hand assessments point to the fact that the contract did not fully deliver its value. This is despite a recent statement by the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, that such poor-quality work would not be tolerated.
According to the statement, “It is the right of every Nigerian to have value for their money deployed to the road infrastructure sector and therefore must show both interest and passion in all the ongoing projects by the Federal Ministry of Works and FERMA”.
Umahi had encouraged Nigerians to photograph and report any poorly constructed roads showing the name of the contractor, the location and type of contract and defects observed.
“The Federal Ministry of Works will document such reports, verify and take effective action to correct such infractions,” he said.
Techsave Nig is inactive on CAC portal
Findings show that Techsave Nigeria Limited was incorporated on September 2, 2020, to carry on the business of contractors, builders, town planners, road construction, infrastructure developers, estate developers and engineers, land developers, landscapers, estate agents, and immovable property dealers.
Located at Plot 61, 1st Avenue, Lugbe Federal Housing Authority Phase 1, opposite Timber Market, Lugbe, in Amac Area Council, Abuja, the company is not up to date in terms of annual return filing. Information from the CAC portal reveals that it has not filed its 2022 return, which, by Section 822(1) of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA 2020), should have been done by June 30th. As a result of this, Techsave Nigeria Limited is inactive on the CAC portal.
Section 425 (1) of CAMA says if a company required to comply with any of the provisions of sections 417-423 fails to do so, the company and every director or officer of the company are liable to a penalty as may be prescribed by the Commission.
Prompt filing of an annual return in full notifies the CAC that a business is actively operating while failure to file an annual return may result in penal sanctions against the directors or principal officers of the company and the company itself.
We shall revisit site-contractor
When Radio Nigeria sought the reaction of the contractor, Techsave Nigeria Limited, to the issues raised in this investigation, one of its directors, Mr Ndubuisi Sunday Augustine, who is also the secretary of the company, failed to react to the inquiry.
On November 21, 2023, when a call was put across to the director, he disconnected it. Subsequent calls to Mr Augustine were not honoured. He also failed to respond to SMS sent to him and WhatsApp messages, even though the two blue lines indicated that the WhatsApp message was delivered and read.
Having waited for days without a response from Mr Augustine, another director and shareholder in the company, Mr Chikwendu Chukwudi, was contacted on November 30, 2023. When confronted with the findings from the sites of the project, he asked if some of the rehabilitated portions of the roads were failing. “From your own observation, are the roads fast failing? He asked.
When Radio Nigeria replied in the affirmative, he promised to pay a fact-finding visit to the site to ascertain the true situation. “It’s alright; as you have said now, we will revisit it. It doesn’t call for any issue,” he said.
Residents and road users eagerly expect the contracting firm to revisit the project site as promised by one of its directors to justify the huge sum the Federal Government expended on it. They also hope to see the Federal Ministry of Works approach its supervisory responsibility patriotically to give Nigeria value for money in line with the promise made by the minister, Dave Umahi. In their opinion, a country in dire need of socio-economic and infrastructural development cannot afford to continue to waste its scarce resources on shoddy project execution.
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