The decrepit state of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in the South-West is a reflection of the culture of poor governance that has laid Nigeria low for decades. When stakeholders cried out over its abandonment by contractors handling its rehabilitation, they reminded a befuddled country of the flippancy and incompetence of successive governments. The Muhammadu Buhari administration should buck the unsavoury trend by according priority to the speedy completion of this project.
The only good news about this highway is its conception and building by the military government. Inaugurated in 1978, the 127.6 kilometre road connects the country’s industrial, financial and commercial hub, Lagos, to Ibadan; the gateway to the vast Nigerian hinterland and is reputed to be one of the busiest highways in Africa and indisputably the busiest inter-state artery here. Lagos accounts for over 70 per cent of our maritime trade, 60 per cent of industry and is a magnet for about 21 million persons.
The first expressway in the country, it has been expanded from four lanes to between six and eight; but that is as far as it goes. It has suffered maintenance neglect over the years, despite large sums paid out for rehabilitation contracts that civil society groups say are routinely embezzled. The recent cry of exasperation by transporters and commuters should galvanise the Federal Government into action, not only to persuade the contractors awarded N167 billion contracts to upgrade the highway to return to the sites they abandoned since mid-last year, but to also resolve contentions over two controversial concession contracts that have led to costly litigation.
We join those who called in desperation to Buhari and the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, to fulfil their promise to complete the project in 24 months. Given the avoidable legal tangle in which past administrations have ensnared the government, it will not be easy.
In a series of actions reflective of the corruption, insincerity and carelessness of past administrations, work is stalled on the road. In 2009, the government under Umaru Yar’Adua entered into a 25-year concession agreement with Bi-Courtney Highway Services to reconstruct, operate and transfer at the end of the lease period. The company initially announced that it would spend N80 billion, but later said it would need over N300 billion. For three years, it did little and the government, now under the even less prudent Goodluck Jonathan, revoked the contract. While the public applauded and Bi-Courtney bristled, the government waited until 2014 to award Messrs Julius Berger and Reynolds Construction the N167 billion rehabilitation work in two sections.
But official chicanery was evident when Jonathan gave a 48-month completion date, deepening suspicion that it was a re-election gambit. Worse, his works minister, months later revealed that government would only provide N50 billion for the project while “private investors” would provide N117 billion. This paved the way for the Jonathan government to smuggle in another concessionaire through the back door without public or parliamentary oversight. If the Bi-Courtney concession was controversial, the one with Motorways Assets Limited was patently opaque. But for the former’s court action, Nigerians did not even know that the Jonathan government had entered into another concession agreement even while it had a pending case contesting the revocation of the first.
The government must now get round a Federal High Court order that set aside the secret concession pending determination of the substantive suit.
Navigating out of the inherited quagmire will test Buhari and Fashola’s ingenuity. Having admitted that the past government did not “act in good faith or even compromised or was even negligent,” we expect a thorough probe of the entire concession transactions and the punishment of officials who abused public trust. We support his order for an internal review of the Federal Highways Act and of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission Act. Some have argued that the latter loads the dice against the state and favours the concessionaire.
We continue to oppose any move to concession existing roads or re-impose tolling. In accordance with global best practices, public private partnership and tolling for highways should be for new or rarely used roads. Experts say that typically, private highways or toll roads run parallel with existing routes that have substantial passenger volume of commerce that will make the concessions profitable for private investors. Private highways or concessions rely on private funding and are used in Europe, Asia and the Americas to attract investment and relieve government of some of the burden of road maintenance. Enid Slack of Canada’s Munk School of Global Affairs says tolling brings in money, freeing government to meet other obligations, discourages frivolous travels and controls traffic flow. Figures from the International Transport Statistics Database show that of France’s 950,000 kilometres of roads, 11,830 km are part of the Autoroute system operated by private concessionaires that provide alternatives to toll-free roads.
The government will do well to exit commercial enterprises and railways so it can have money to fund roads, health care, education, water, sanitation and rural infrastructure. Rather than concession the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in the first place, it can map out routes on virgin land, facilitate acquisition and concession to investors who will build alternative roads on a Build-Operate-Transfer basis.
India has a private highway linking Bangalore and Mysore; Mexico has a 108-kilometre highway under a 99-year lease with a provincial government; in the US, only 4,657 miles of its 3.9 million miles of roads are private roads; Germany’s superb Autobahns are state-funded, equipped with emergency telephone lines, parking stops, restaurants, shops and playgrounds, but collects tolls only for heavy trucks using a concessionaire. Private concessionaires manage two-thirds of Sweden’s road network, but these are mostly rural roads accounting for only four per cent of total transport activities; the state takes responsibility for the major roads.
The Nigerian government should henceforth demonstrate responsible behaviour. Our past attempts at granting concessions for state assets have been controversial, with some outright frauds.
The government should get the contractors to resume work and shorten the 24-month completion date to not more than 12 months, while untangling the legal mess bequeathed to this government.
