Special Correspondent, BENJAMIN JIBRIN, writes on controversies surrounding abandoned road projects in Kaduna South senatorial district.
On assumption of office on in May 2010, the late Kaduna State Governor, Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, had pledged to run a government that would be fair to all, irrespective of sex and religion.
He had declared at his swearing-in: “I am not a Christian governor; I am a governor for all.” He consequently vowed to be just and fair to all, in the discharge of his obligation as the state’s chief executive.
Divine elevation
The late Yakowa, who emerged governor by ‘divine intervention’, was deputy to Mohammed Namadi Sambo, before the latter’s elevation to his current Vice President’s position.
Sambo became Vice President following the death of the then President Umaru Yar’Adua, which saw the then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan being sworn in as President. Jonathan, in turn, picked Sambo, who was Kaduna State governor, as his vice. With the elevation of Sambo, Yakowa also moved up to become governor.
Promise made good
Yakowa, while taking over form Sambo, had pledged the sustenance of the 11-point agenda enunciated by his predecessor. In keeping with the promise, therefore, Yakowa had ensured that the programme of his boss was religiously implemented, to avoid abandonement and waste.
Apparently keeping faith with the promise, shortly after his election in 2011, Yakowa awarded contracts for the construction and rehabilitation of a total 31 roads network worth billions of naira across the 23 local government areas of the state.
TheNiche gathered that some of the projects, which included the long-neglected Kudendan, Hayin-Danmani roads, were completed and put to use before Yakowa died in December 2012.
The contractors handling the projects were expected to have completed and handed over the others to government between April and May this year.
Enter Yero
Dr. Mukhtar Ramalan Yero
When Yakowa died in a helicopter crash in Bayelsa on Saturday, December 15, 2012, his deputy, Dr. Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, stepped in as governor.
Yero promised to continue the implementation of Yakowa’s projects, especially on such areas as security, road contracts and human development.
But nearly two years after Yakowa passed on, the roads are yet to be completed. They are rather enmeshed in controversies.
Backstab
While Yero is being accused of abandoning the projects particularly in the southern part of the state, the senatorial zone of his late boss, TheNiche investigation revealed that the late governor’s kinsmen stabbed him in the back. Some of the kinsmen, who got the contract and collected mobilisation fees, betrayed him, as they took advantage of his death to abandon the works.
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sunday Ibrahim Modecai, and an indigene of southern Kaduna, is not a bit happy with the development. Worried by the circumstances surrounding the projects, Modecai took the pains to tour the road projects, with a view to ascertaining the facts on the contentious issue. The trip, he said, took him to the three senatorial zones of the state, after which he absolved Yero of blame over the abandoned projects, accusing the late governor’s kinsmen of perfidy.
Absolving Yero
Modecai, the National Chairman of Arewa Peoples Patriotic Front (APPF), told journalists: “I saw utter disappointment. I saw wickedness on the part of humanity. Some of the construction works are at the normal speed; some others have been abandoned even after the contractors had collected 25 per cent mobilisation fees.
“From my investigations and observations, some of the roads were abandoned because some of the contractors do not have the wherewithal to execute the contracts. Some of them do not even have a wheelbarrow to pack sands, yet they got the contracts. Some of them collected the 25 per cent mobilisation fee and took off.
“If the man who gave the contract had been alive, I am sure he would not be happy. The intention of the late Sir Patrick Yakowa was that the contractor and community would benefit from the contract. But as it is today, the story is different.
“Anybody who is accusing Governor Muhktar Ramalan Yero of abandoning road projects is not fair to him. He has not abandoned any project; rather, he has even awarded additional six roads, which are also ongoing. Some are even completed. They are at both the northern and and southern senatorial zones.”
Against insinuations that he was commissioned by the government of Yero for the investigation, Modecai retorted: “I was not commissioned. I am a citizen of Kaduna State and a tax-payer. Consequently, I have the right to know how my tax is used. If you collect tax from me and the money is not judiciously used, I have the right to challenge such a government. Two, I am a journalist, and three I am an opinion leader. Four, I lead the Arewa Peoples’ Patriotic Front. Patriotism pushed me to embark on this tour. It is, therefore, wrong to say that I was sponsored.”
Clean bill of health faulted
Analysts have, however, faulted the clean bill of health offered the Yero administration by Modecai, stressing that government being a continuum, the governor should have gone after defaulting contractors.
But Modecai chose to be political in his answer.
“The contractor to one of the abandoned roads was closely related to the late Yakowa. That was why I said if Yakowa were alive to see this, he would not be happy. If he were alive to see that the roads he awarded for construction were abandoned by his kinsmen, he would be angry with them.”
Speaking further, he argued that though “there is nothing wrong with Yakowa’s kinsmen getting contract, there is everything wrong when they get contracts and abandon site after collecting mobilisation fee.”
He added that as a patriotic citizen, “if I were to be the governor of Kaduna State, if you don’t perform, I will revoke the contract and re-award it to someone who can deliver in record time. Not only will I revoke the contract, I will send the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after you until they recover every kobo of the tax-payer.
“But as I told you earlier, the man is a politician. I am sure he wants to contest election in 2015. The man is being careful with the sensibilities of the people of southern and northern Kaduna because, not only southern Kaduna people got the contract. Some of these contractors are the brains behind this noise going round the town that the late Yakowa’s projects have been abandoned by his successor. Look, it is only a case of giving dog a bad name to hang it.”
Though Modecai laboured to exonerate the Yero administration, critics blame it for not ensuring accomplishment of contract execution.
