Still On The East-West Road

The resumption of work on the Mbiama – Port Harcourt axis of the East – West Road barely days before the arrival of the Good Governance Team to the Niger Delta has raised confusing emotions and hopes. That work can begin and with all the seriousness witnessed also raises some questions.

The road which hitherto appeared to have been abandoned, actually rekindled some hopes, especially when considered against the back-drop that this is happening before the usual heavy down pour in the region that is often blamed for the pace of construction work.

However, The Tide hopes that the sudden resumption of work on that axis of the road, especially, the rush is not intended to give an erroneous impression during the just concluded National Good Governance Tour to the South-South and Rivers State in particular.

We say this against the backdrop of recent disclosure by the Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe to the effect that the effort by the Ministry to complete the East-West road in December 2014 target date might be hindered by failure of the Federal Government to release adequate fund for the timely executive of the project.

According to the Minister, the road had reached 53 per cent completion, but blamed the Federal Government for releasing a paltry N1.2 billion for mobilisation as against the sum of about N32 billion needed for the project.

Our worry is also informed by the contradiction in Orubebe’s statement and earlier report that budgetary allocation to the road was inadequate for which reason money from other projects were to be channelled to the East-West road project.

The Tide and indeed the people of the Niger Delta will need to know that the sudden resumption of work means a confirmation that the required funding for the effective completion of the project has been released.

We also hope that the disclosure by the Minister to the effect that 36 out of 42 bridges and 756 out of 786 culverts have been completed does not infer that the plan to redesign the road to cope with recent flooding realities, particularly on the Kaiama-Mbiama-Port Harcourt axis of the road has been jettisoned.

The Tide notes that the provision of infrastructural development is only part of the responsibility of the government, it is not a proof of good governance for which reason, the job should be done in a hurry. This is more so because only the joy of the people can confirm that there is indeed good governance.

The importance of the East-West Road to the development of the Niger Delta can not be over-emphasised, and we believe that the good governance tour has gingered government to wake-up to its responsibility to the Niger Delta people, but we insist that the work that has started in earnest should continue with the same pace now that the tour has ended.

On the other hand, the speed being employed on the job should not result in some kind of shoddy job that would compromise safety and quality of the road. With the new development, we hope that due attention will be paid to the timely and effective completion of the project as against the publicly perceived high politicking with the road.

The Federal Government should ensure that adequate and prompt release of fund, effective supervision by officials of the Ministry of the Niger Delta to ensure adherence to the contract terms and to ensure prompt delivery by December 2014 target.

Failure to ensure due diligence in the execution of the East-West Road project to ensure timely delivery may once again bring about conflict between the Niger Delta Ministry and the government and people of the region. This trend must be avoided and now is the time.

The Federal Government must ensure that the East-West Road jinx is broken this time around, especially with the need to keep faith with the promise to attend to the biting needs of the good people of the Niger Delta region.