How abandoned road projects turned Jos ‘red’

Across Jos, Plateau state, communities have cried out over threats to their lives caused by dust from abandoned road projects sites. MUHAMMAD TANKO SHITTU takes a look at the uncompleted projects

Lanlong’s campaign promises
One of the campaign promises of Governor, Simon Lalong, to the people of Plateau State, was to rehabilitate or construct accessible roads within the state, and pursuant to that he has upon taken the mantle of leadership, directed the patching of dilapidated roads within and around Jos and Bukuru metropolis, while also embarking on completion of some major roads projects left unfinished by his predecessor.
The “operation zero potholes,” which brought about touching of some roads within Jos, with much of the work done in the hitherto; neglected areas by past administrations, gave some glimmer of hope to the people that as time goes on, the Lalong, administration will construct more roads in those neglected areas; of Anguwan Rogo/Anguwan Rimi, New market, Buzu Street, Pump Street, Yan Shanu-dutse uku, Rikkos, Tudun Wada, State Low Cost and many others.

Work on the roads
Contracts were indeed awarded and flagged off in February 2017, for the constructions of about 7 km of road networks and a bridge in Anguwan Roro/Anguwan Rimi, however, work in those areas was halted for some times. Expectedly, the action has raised concerns and agitations from communities around these areas in Jos North Local Government Area, that gave Governor Lalong APC -led administration, the deciding votes above other contestants during the 2015, elections and since then the people have been expecting rapid developments, hinging it on the Governor’s promises to consider all neglected communities in the state.
The fact that so many people have been writing and raising concerned about the slow pace or none completion of the roads projects, it was understood, is putting the Governor in a worrisome situation. According to a lawmaker in the Plateau State House of Assembly, “Governor Lalong, is really disturbed by the number of complaints he has been seeing almost on a daily basis, about the non- completion of the projects, but he has promised to me that such projects will surely be completed as soon as funds are available,” however, to many of the people who spoke to Blueprint, are of the opinion that the Governor is delaying the projects, “with the aim of getting them completed towards 2019, only for him to show case them during electioneering.”
Labaran Aliyu, a freelance writer and public commentator said “with the stagnant situation of roads projects in Jos, “Everything is turning red,” and that communities are bedeviled by dust generated from the unofficial abandoned road projects sites, and are also trying to cope with the new reality of living in a polluted environment – due to the fallout of laterite used in the rehabilitation of roads around the city”.
According to him the dusty situation of the areas is posing health hazards onto the people, stressing that the fact that they continue to, “breath contaminated air-filled with dust, a silent killer.”
He posited that: “In both scenarios, victims suffer a wide range of complications involving: eye irritations, coughing, sneezing, hay fever and most important of all – asthma attacks.

Lamentations, fears
A visit to the New Market area, by Blueprint it was discovered the dusty conditions of the site has forced must shop owners evacuate their properties out of shops. A shop owner, Usaini Abdullahi , said, “we welcomed the idea of the Governor when he awarded the contract for construction of the road, thinking that it will be done quickly, but you can see that it has not been easy with us.”
But Salihu Yusuf was of the view that the delay was deliberate, from the government using it as a tactics to execute close to 2019 electioneering period.
“I think that Governor, Simon Lalong, is just playing politics with the contracts, knowing fully that if doesn’t do any good to us here in Jos, our mammoth block votes will be difficult for him to get, so he is delaying to execute it close to 2019, so that he can campaign with it to get our support,” he insisted.

State government
Nonetheless, the Plateau State Government said it awarded contracts for the construction of ten (10), roads within the state capital with best of intentions and with the high hope of seeing to their execution within one year.
The state Commissioner of Information and Communications, Malam Nazif Ahmad, said; “When they were awarded we thought we thought that we will have sufficient money to execute them bearing in mind that we will have the Paris club fund that will hit the State account, but sadly enough we could not received as much as expected.”
The mouth piece of the government stressed that it was certainly in the heart of their government to have those projects executed, but due to the financial problem that have affected Nigeria and Plateau State, the government was releasing the little amount that came it ways to the contractors.
“Last week the contractors are back to the sites, the little we received certain percentage of funds are giving to them,” he said.
He debunked insinuations that the government was deliberately delaying the execution of the contracts till close to 2019, saying, “It wasn’t a deliberate plan, but you cannot rule out that insinuation in a political setup, we have opponents, our aim is let’s do as much as we could, because the level of our performances determines the next tenure, but not deceit.”
According to him, there was no disparity in the allocations of funds to contractors for the execution of projects; “contrary to insinuations, people don’t dig much information this government has inherited 30 uncompleted projects, that are ongoing and most of these contractors have received more than 50 percent of the money and with little work done, so when this government gave them some funds, with some pressure they came back to work, but those 10 contracts we awarded are just new and they cannot be compared with those ongoing for two years before this government took over.”
Ahmad, appealed to the people to be patient, have trust in the government that all projects will be completed.

Project sites
However, a tour of some project sites within the city of Jos, Blueprint observed that contractors have really been working. At the Ali Kazaure Bridge site, workers were sighted busy fixing one thing or another towards actualising the execution deadline.
“You can see that we have erected all the beams, and with the work we are now doing the bridge is now about 80 percent completion, but no money was released to us, it would have since been completed,” said head of work at the site that pleaded anonymity.
He stressed that during the last raining season the people suffered untold hardships trying to cross over from one community to another, “because we have demolished the old bridge that connected the communities.”
Similarly, work is ongoing at Anguwan Togo/Anguwan Rimi roads construction where drainage slaps were seen being constructed. The situation was the same at Pump and Bauda streets, just as those of State Low Cost are also having attention, while the contractor for the New Market is yet to get back to site as at yesterday, (Wednesday, November 22).

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