Site preparatory work towards the construction of the Second River Niger Bridge, designed to be Africa’s longest bridge (44km) has gulped over N40billion, BusinessDay has learnt and not one pier cap has been completed yet.
Julius Berger is carrying out early work on the project and was named preferred bidder of the EPC contract on the project’s main phase when the project was first muted in 2014, since then, no formal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed with the Nigerian government.
A visit to the project sites at Asaba and Onitsha by our correspondent revealed a flurry of activities with over 100 workers seen working on the sites, some operating heavy duty machines in Onitsha and other teams constructing an access road in Asaba for the project, but an air of uncertainty still lingers about the project.
So far, Early works I, II, III (construction phases) have been completed and the fourth is on-going. The three completed phases are at the Asaba end, while one is on-going at the Onitsha end. Each of the construction phases cost at least N10billion, according to sources with knowledge of the project and the fourth phase is valued at N14billion.
The Federal Government has reportedly released about N20billion according to disclosures made by Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the House of Representatives and Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s vice president.
During a House of Representatives Committee on Works hearing organised for Babatunde Fashola, minister of Power, Works and Housing, in January, Dogara said, “The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority had spent about N18 billion on the Second Niger Bridge as the financier during the early stages.”
Meanwhile Osinbajo, during the APC governorship campaign in Onitsha, Anambra state, on October 20, 2017, said the Federal Government paid the contractor Julius Berger N2 billion released from the Sovereign Wealth Fund, managed by the NSIA. N5.05billion has been provided for the project in the 2018 budget.
There is however a lingering suspicion that the project is an attempt to score South East votes in the forth-coming 2019 general elections, in a region perceived to be marginalised by the current administration in terms of representation and project execution.
“I think it is because of elections they are rushing the project now. Why have they abandoned it all these years?” queried a native of the community who identified herself as simply Blessing.
But this is not without precedent. On March 10, 2014 Goodluck Jonathan, former president of Nigeria, performed the ground-breaking ceremony of the Second River Niger Bridge at the Krisoral ground, Atani, Ogbaru council area of Anambra state and abandoned it. Wildly popular in the east, Jonathan failed to make good his word on delivering the project but received block votes from the region anyway.
“Past administrations have celebrated progress ostensibly made on them (construction projects) while achieving little or nothing in reality,” said Dogara. “They have become media sensations and highly politicised to the extent that it now seems that we are playing games with the lives of our people.”
But it doesn’t seem much has changed. Budgeting N5.05billion a year for a project initially valued at over N106billion, over the course of four years, is the best measure of frivolity.
“Various factors have been identified in this regard, including the sheer complexity of some of the projects and the desire of some of the investors to have some of the projects gold plated by the government,” said analysts at Olaniwun Ajayi.
Construction of the Second Niger Bridge, first initiated in 1976, is planned to reduce pressure on the current Niger bridge, constructed in 1966, which cries for maintenance and will have a beneficial effect on the economy of the country as the project is billed to reach Calabar.
At the investigative hearing called by lawmakers, Fashola expressed hope that a national consensus can be generated on Public-Private Partnerships for infrastructure development. It is critical now. According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), Nigeria’s core stock of infrastructure is estimated at only 20-25 per cent of GDP, compared with 70 per cent for other middle income countries of its size, leaving an infrastructure deficit of $300bn.
A recent report by the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), a pan-African multilateral development finance institution, and the Boston Consulting Group, a global management consulting firm, says private investments in infrastructure is the new normal for big ticket projects.
For governments with shoestring infrastructure budgets, the report says, they need to clarify regulation, develop fiscal incentives, and facilitate provisions that promote dispute settlement and licensing.
