- Uncompleted projects have become an index of our underdevelopment
Abandoned or “failed” contracts became a pervasive feature of governance at every level in Nigeria since the Second Republic. A first-time visitor, seeing so many projects in various states of uncompletion, may go away with the impression that the country is bustling with work in progress and moving in the right direction, the volume of on-going construction being one of the indicators of the economy’s health.
If the visitor were to return to same terrain the following year, the chances are that he or she would find those projects in the same state of uncompletion, with tell-tale signs of abandonment. The scaffolding might still be in place, but construction equipment will have been transferred elsewhere.
What had seemed to the visitor like work in progress was in reality not merely work suspended but work abandoned with impunity, after the contractor will have collected as much as 60 percent of the contract sum upfront as “mobilisation fee.”
The contractor usually entertains no fear of punishment, much less reprimand. There is no reason for that.
He or she must have secured the contract through connections with persons of consequence in government or in the ruling party. A good part of the upfront payment is handed back in under-the counter-payments to the awarding and vetting authorities, sponsors, and the political bosses. Whatever remains is then expended in partial and perfunctory execution of the contract.
With the upfront payment thus distributed, the contractor is confident that no repercussions will flow from abandoning the project. Nor is that confidence unwarranted. For, in the long and sordid history of abandoned projects and failed contracts, no contractors have been prosecuted, none have been made to return payment collected for services not rendered or rendered only in part, and among the awarding authorities in under-the counter payments.
To compensate for decades of neglect, the Federal Government set up special bodies in the Niger Delta, funded them reasonably well and tasked them with building the infrastructure and generally fast-tracking development.
Instead, abandoned projects litter the place, as the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo found to his consternation during his recent official tour of the area. The treasuries are empty, and outstanding debts for dubious contracts stand in the tens of billions of Naira.
This practice has endured for far too long. It is subversive of development and must be checked. Professor Osinbajo’s warning that prosecution awaits those who bid for, and then abandon public projects, is timely.
The impunity that runs so deep in the business must be curbed. With such projects strewn all over the landscape, many of them going back more than a decade, prosecutions should commence shortly.
It has to be said, however, that not all contractors engage in this shady practice. Nor is government always an innocent party. Even after a contractor has fulfilled all obligations, payment is often not forthcoming. Debt owed bona fide contractors stands at hundreds of billions of Naira.
Many a contractor has been brought to grief by government’s failure to honour its commitment promptly.
This dereliction has to be addressed, too.
