Elder statesman and Leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum( Pandev) Edwin Clark has decried the deplorable state of Federal roads in the Niger Delta region, calling on President Bola Tinubu to urgently intervene.
Addressing a News Conference in Abuja on Tuesday, Clark blamed the death of 20 people following a tanker explosion at Koko junction along Warri – Benin Highway in Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State on October 1,2023 on the neglect of federal roads in the region.
The elder statesman noted that although the region is responsible for the bulk of the wealth of the country it has been left to wallow in total neglect, marginalization and deprivation.
The incident, which occurred in the early hours of Sunday October 1st, was reported to be due to a spark from a faulty vehicle while the persons were busy scooping fuel that spilled from the tanker.
Clark said: “Although this region singularly produces the bulk of the wealth of this country and we see the impact of the natural resource that is daily taken out of our soil here in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and almost every other part of the country, we are left to wallow in this total neglect, marginalization and deprivation.
This recent accident at the Koko junction could have been averted if particularly in the past eight years of President Muhammad Buhari’s government, efforts had been made to look into the state of our roads.”
Clark recalled that in “October 2021, the federal government approved NNPC’s request to take over the reconstruction of 21 federal roads nationwide, totaling 1,804.6 kilometers at N621.2 billion, under the Federal Government’s Executive Order No. 007 of 2019 cited as the companies income tax (Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme) signed by President Muhammadu Buhari. From the information that was made available, in terms of kilometers (length of the roads), the South-South had the least with only 52.2 kilometers. The North Central had 1,479.9 kilometers; North West had; North East had; South-East had 122 kilometers and South-West had 119 kilometers. The question we asked at the time was what were the reasons for such an absurd distribution? What was the yardstick?”
The PANDEF leader explained that the former minister of works and housing, Babatunde Fashola had disclosed that about 13,000 kilometers of roads and bridges are under construction and rehabilitation in 856 contracts, comprising 795 projects and aggregate length of 815 kilometers of roads and 733m of bridges.
He noted that the only projects listed in the South-South zone were the construction of a two-lane Bridge at the Cameroon-Nigeria Border at Ekok/Mfum, including Approach Roads.
“The critical question, in all of these is, where are the roads and bridges in the South-South zone in the said list of 854 contracts comprising road and bridge projects of the Ministry of Works and Housing?”
He said: “January this year, 2023, the Federal Executive Council at its meeting of January 18, 2023, which was presided over by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, approved another request by NNPC to reconstruct 44 additional roads across Nigeria at N1.9 billion, the East-West road and Benin-Sapele-Warri road were not captured. For the federal government to wait until less than a month to the end of its tenure to reportedly approve NNPC’s takeover of the reconstruction of the Benin-Sapele-Warri road is deceitful and insulting.”
The former minister of information under Gen. Yakubu Gowon, alleged that the south-south region has been neglected for eight years.
He called for urgent steps to be taken to fix the roads of the region.
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He said: “Maybe as an old man, I should mention that this state of affairs is already leading to a build-up of frustrations among our people and the outcome may not be pleasant to all of us if these situations of things continue as it is. This situation as they say, of robbing Paul to pay Peter may not go on well for too long.
“I am therefore appealing to you as Head of State who has pledged to take the whole country as his constituency to pay attention to our people even when we, as leaders, continue to prevail on them to keep the peace.
I trust that an urgent action will be taken as our people are silently saying within their hearts that enough is enough.
“Government is a continuum, and today you are on the saddle. I therefore urge you, as leader of the South-South Region, to reverse this trend of neglect, which is known worldwide. I urge you to break this jinx of resource curse and the pain that our people have borne for decades and stamp your name in history as it pertains to the Niger Delta development”, he said.
(Editor : Ena Agbanoma)
