Mixed reactions as Lagos, CCECC seal Lekki-Epe link bridge deal

Nigerians have expressed divergent views after news filtered in from faraway China that the Lagos State government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Chinese firm.

With the MoU, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) will build a bridge linking Lekki to Epe, a Lagos suburb. CCECC is not new to Lagos and Nigeria at large, having been involved in building many bridges, rails and roads infrastructure across the country.

The MoU signing was witnessed by President Bola Tinubu, who is currently in China on an official visit to Chinese President Xi Jinping. The visit preceded Tinubu’s participation in the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation scheduled for September 4-6.

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A source close to the Lagos State government said the project’s feasibility and design studies have been conducted, and the government is set to award the engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contract to CCECC, adding that the project is part of the government’s commitment to improving transportation infrastructure and reducing traffic congestion in Lagos State.

Many Nigerians have reacted differently to this development. While some give kudos to the Lagos State government for this project which they consider another milestone in the state’s infrastructure drive, others frown at the decision for the government to engage a foreign firm instead of any of the local ones that have both competence and capacity to do the job.

Commending the move by the Lagos government on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, a man, who identified himself as Abdullahi, noted that “sustainable development is the pathway to the future we want for all. It offers a framework to generate economic growth, achieves social justice, exercises environmental stewardship and strengthens governance.”

But an aggrieved man, who identified himself as Professor, wondered on his X handle why “our government went to China to award a contract to a Chinese company when Nigerian companies could have handled the project if proper measures were put in place.”

Also commenting on his X, another man who identified himself as Future King said that sometimes it seemed that Nigerians were illiterates, noting, “if it comes to infrastructure development and construction, we call foreigners like Chinese, Americans, Russians, Japanese and even common Philippines and Lebanese, Is it that our first class graduates are special illiterates?”

Construction industry chiefs have always cried out over the preference of foreign construction firms for local ones by local clients, especially governments at the federal and state levels. They explain that the lack of patronage of local firms is a major reason the industry is not growing despite opportunities.

“I do believe that the colour of the white man’s skin means he knows this job more than we do,” Igbuan Okaisabor, executive vice chairman/CEO, Construction Kaiser, an indigenous construction company, told BusinessDay, stressing that the construction industry in Nigeria is not growing as fast as it should due to a number of reasons.

Besides low patronage from the government and other clients, Okaisabor also noted that construction is a high-asset business, meaning that as a contractor one needs to invest in his business which is what a lot of Nigerian entrepreneurs don’t do.

Read also: Nigeria-China agree to boost trade, strengthen currency swap initiative 

“The multi-national companies come in from Europe and America. They can borrow money from their home countries at single-digit interest rate. If Julius Berger, for instance, wants to buy equipment, they simply go to their country to buy. Sometimes they are even begged to buy these equipment.

For us, if we want to buy equipment, we go to local banks and borrow money at 21 percent for two years while we are competing with companies that get money for 10 years at 3-4 percent interest rate,” he said.

He noted that indigenous firms need support from the government in terms of tax holiday, pointing out that, anywhere in the world, construction and manufacturing are the highest employers of labour. “Once construction suffers unemployment, you know that the economy is going into recession. We need to be supported so that we will continue to employ more people,” he pleaded.