Hammed Shittu in Ilorin
Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has revealed that the federal government has approved the construction of Kishi-Kaiama road in the state at the contract sums of N27 billion.
He said the development was why the state government stopped its ongoing work on the road.
The state had taken over the construction of the road in phases to ease transportation challenges along the busy corridor.
However, AbdulRazaq who dropped the hint at the weekend in Ilorin, at the first Kwara North Economic and Development Summit organised by Kwara North Development Council (KWANDCO said: “The Federal Ministry of Works has informed us that we should stop work on that road because they have got new approval from the Federal Government and the contract for the road has been reissued at N27 billion.”
According to him, “There is huge infrastructural deficit in the whole of Nigeria, in Kwara State, and especially in Kwara North.
“Now, what are we doing about it as a government? Like it was mentioned by the Emir of Lafiagi, the Kishi-Kaiama road is very important for the whole of the country because of the volume of trade in farm produce.”
Speaking further, he said: “The contract was first awarded over 10 years ago and it is a federal road. However, nothing was happening.
“But when we came, we tried to continue the project and the Federal Ministry of Works has now asked us to terminate the contract and vacate the road.
“The ministry said the former administration in the state gave the contract to a company that did not meet BPE requirements.
“So, we removed them and gave it to the company that came second in the bid and we mobilised the company with as much as N600 million.”
The governor added, “Our latest communication with them was that they want to re-award the contract and that our own contractor should vacate the site. That is why you will see that work has stopped on Kishi-Kaiama road.”
The governor promised that work would begin on the Bode-Saadu-Kaiama-Kosubosu road next year, saying the project would be financed through a portion of BUA Group’s tax.
“We are also trying to construct Bode-Saadu-Kaiama-Kosubosu road using the road tax infrastructure scheme with BUA Group. Hopefully, by the first quarter of 2023 work should begin on that road.
“The plan is that BUA Group will use a portion of its tax to the federal government to fund the road. We have been on that discussion with BUA to open up Bode-Saadu-Kaiama-Kosubosu road.
“Most of our major roads are federal roads and they are in deplorable conditions. You can see Share-Patigi road in deplorable condition.
“That road was awarded a few years ago but was not done. I was with the Etsu Patigi some weeks ago; we had to move in and save an almost collapse bridge on that road and several points of the road in which the state government had to come in to save the situation.
“It is not just in Kwara North. Ilorin-Kabba road is a federal project and we are not happy about the situation of that road at all. We wrote the Federal Ministry of Works few days ago to quickly fix some roads in the state.”
AbdulRazaq assured the people of the state that his administration would henceforth improve on the specifications of the state roads to make them last longer.
He noted further that, “From the next budget, we will have a new focus on the way we construct our road. Right now, all we do is compacted latrite and asphalt.
“Such roads, truly, will not last long. The specifications of our roads will change with compacted latrite, stone base, and asphalt on it. If you look at Ilesha-Baruba-Chikanda road, it has fallen apart because it was just surface dressing. It won’t last.
“That’s the major issue with our roads today. Gradually, we are building one-two kilometres roads in our cities so as to see that infrastructure get to every part of the state and reduce travel time.
“As part of our infrastructural development to evacuate farm produce, Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP) will begin next year to ease movement of farm produce from rural areas to urban centres. We have made all the payments.”
The Emir of Lafiagi Alhaji Muhammad Kudu Kawu, for his part, advocated the creation of an interface between government, private sector and Kwara North communities for massive injection of investments through what he called Public Private Communal Partnership (PPCPs) to kick start economic growth in Kwara North.
Also, the Emir of Shonga, Dr. Haliru Yahaya, called for enhanced focus on information and communications technology to leapfrog development in the health sector.
