The Benin-Ore-Lagos Road is eating too much money
The Federal Government recently approved the sum of
The Benin-Ore road has been a nightmare for travellers for more than two decades. Lives have been lost and goods worth billions of naira have also been lost or damaged due to frequent road accidents occasioned by crater-like potholes in most sections of this all-important route between the east and west of Southern Nigeria.
Previous governments attempted repairs, but most of the work done was more or less cosmetic, especially on the Ore-Okada Junction axis between Edo and Ondo States.
In the 1970s when it was built by Dumez, travellers needed only a comfortable three hours between Benin city and Lagos. But that joy of easy travel lasted only a few years. Collapsing sections yielded the
phenomenon of full-time, year-round budgeting for endless repairs.
Going down memory lane, in this article we take a look at how much has been spent on the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Benin-Ore road from 2001 to date.
On 21 August 2001, Information and National Orientation Minister Jerry Gana announced a
In February 2004, the government announced “Operation 500 Roads,” to rehabilitate a total of 26,400km of roads, including Benin-Sagamu; and in October, “Operation 1000 Roads” and 32,000 kilometres, at a cost of
In November 2005, the Senate, citing “the deteriorating state of our federal highways and the increase in the spate of road accidents,” specifically on the Lagos-Ibadan and Sagamu-Benin highways, asked its Committee on Works to investigate FERMA and the Ministry of Works.
On October 16, 2006, Olubunmi Peters, the Managing Director of FERMA, announced the government had approved
In Feb 2007, Solel Boneh International received a $52 million contract for renovating the “Lagos-Benin” expressway.
In August 2007, the new Minister of Transportation, Diezani Allison-Madueke, reportedly broke down when she visited and saw the deplorable condition of the road. Soon after that, she disclosed that the Obasanjo government had spent over
years.
In April 2009, the government approved
In September 2011, during a courtesy visit to Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole, Minister Mike Onolememen explained that the real problem with the Benin-Ore part of the road was the water table being very high, and that every construction methodology had been defeated because in the rainy season the road would be washed away. The governor expressed shock that neither contractors nor the Minister’s predecessors had identified and corrected this issue. The
In October 2012, Solel Boneh won a three-year $390 million contract to widen and pave the Sagamu-Benin road, and rebuild drainage and water channel.
In April 2013, SURE-P was said to have invested
As of September 2014, The Federal Executive Council approved the award of a contract for the construction and asphalt overlay of Benin-Ofosu-Ore-Ajebandele-Shagamu dual carriageway Phase IV: Ajebandele-Shagamu KM162 + 586 (Ondo State to KM 261 + 000 (Ogun) in Ogun state in favour of Messrs RCC Nigeria Limited in the sum of
From the figures above, it’s quite obvious the federal government has spent a chunk of money on the Benin-Ore road, which could have been used to finance other projects.
Worse, most of these contracts for the construction of these roads were awarded to foreign engineering firms that spend most of their income
developing the economy of their parent country.
It’s high time the federal government started looking to award these contracts to indigenous companies such as Lubrik Construction Company, Technovas Construction Company Limited, Hapel Nigeria limited, and so on, who have at least as much expertise as the foreign companies.
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A version of this first appeared on the Engineering Network.