Outrage, disbelief, and anger greeted the announcement by the Director General of the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Aminu Dikko, that work on the Second Niger Bridge has been suspended pending review of its cost by the federal government.
The general feeling is that there is no seriousness about completing a project which has immense benefits for the South East and South South in easing the transportation of passengers and goods as well as business operations.
The public private partnership (PPP) project under the design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) model was concessioned to JB-NSIA Consortium to design, finance, construct, operate, and maintain the bridge for 25 years.
It is now estimated to cost N108 billion with a completion period of about 48 months after the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) reviewed the cost submitted by the concessionaire.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan, after an on-site visit in January, expressed satisfaction with the progress of work and told the Obi of Onitsha, Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe, that the government had spent N10 billion on the N130 billion project with 14 months’ completion date.
Now, Dikko told newsmen in Aso Rock that the host communities complained that their land was taken without compensation while the Onitsha Traditional Council also protested it was not fairly represented in the transactions.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Works must review the project to resume work in about six months.
Goddy Uwazurike, the President of Aka Ikenga, an Igbo intellectual group, was first to express outrage over the suspension of work, saying it would greatly affect the economic fortunes of the South East and South South.
Emerging industries will also suffer due to their anticipated reliance on the bridge to ease transportation; and so will North-South trade currently bogged down at Onitsha head bridge.
We are equally puzzled because if the federal government is serious about constructing the bridge, it should not use the PPP model at all. Now, the project which has been flagged off twice, has gone into limbo.
Before the government goes into any project which involves using land, the land owners must be fully compensated in a democracy. Nigeria is no longer in the era of military dictatorship.
We expect the government to come out clean, and display the sincerity of purpose about the non-existent termination point for the Second Niger Bridge.
The bridge connects zones with enormous economic and commercial potentials. Let us stop politicising economic development projects with immense growth benefits.
All the federal government needs is the political will to start and end the Second Niger Bridge in time.