HI-TECH: CONTRACTOR HANDLING LAGOS CALABAR COASTAL HIGHWAY HAS SPENT 8 YEARS TO CONSTRUCT LAGOS ROAD BILLED FOR COMPLETION IN 20 MONTHS

The Lagos State Government awarded Hitech Construction Company a contract to fix a road, but the project, which was supposed to be completed within months, has snail-paced into eight years. HANNAH OLAOSUN looks at the impunity that trails most government-awarded contracts.

Some residents of Isawo Community in Ikorodu in Lagos State are not too happy with the Lagos State Government.

Many of them lost their homes to road construction and the road, which was projected to be completed within 20 months, has lasted for eight years and still counting. A businesswoman, who simply identified herself as Foluke, is one of those impacted by the demolition of the buildings to pave the way for the road construction. Our reporter met her where she sells cooking gas. She complained bitterly about how the demolition affected her life and business.

Sounding frustrated, Foluke said: “Look at the building demolished by the government. The government said they’ll compensate us, but to date, we’ve not received anything! We went to Alausa many times, wasting transportation fare, time and energy, armed with a myriad of documents, but at the end of it all, I received nothing! In fact, after the demolition, Lagos State Government officials from Land Use Charge (LUC is a fee every landlord pays to the government for owning a piece of land or property) came to me with a letter. At first I rejected it as I explained to them that I couldn’t collect it with the way my house was demolished.”

She narrated that the demolished building was a gift from her elder sister. Her sister gave it to her when she started having accommodation challenges. She also recalled that her sister did not have the strength to go through the stress that comes with building in Lagos State, so she passed the building to her. Therefore, Foluke took over and carried out all the necessary work.

She was already thanking her lucky stars that she would no longer be anxious about payment of whopping rent prices synonymous with Lagos State when the bulldozers came. She watched as her money, sweat and efforts were levelled to the ground.

Today, she sells cooking gas close to her demolished building, living in just a one-room apartment with her family. Foluke is still hoping and praying that the Lagos State Government will remember those who lost their homes to the road construction and then compensate them.

The construction of the Agric-Isawo Road was awarded to Hi-Tech Construction Company in 2018. The construction is not just for the road, but also a bridge. Before the award of the construction contract, the residents were plagued by bad roads, which usually get flooded when it rains. Some residents paid for canoes to take across the flooded road. To pave the way for the construction, the Lagos State Government demolished several buildings, leading to many becoming homeless. Our reporter, who visited the area, also discovered that many businesses were affected.

Our reporter also found out that since the road construction contract was awarded Hi-Tech Construction Company, work has been at a tortoise pace, with the construction giant abandoning work for weeks and sometimes months. During one of the periods that work was abandoned, there had been condemnations from residents.

This forced the Chief Press Secretary to the Lagos State, Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Gboyega Akosile, to take to his X space in 2019, assuring Ikorodu residents that the construction would continue. Akosile’s words: “Dear Ikorodu residents, I’m happy to announce that Hitech construction has been fully mobilized and will resume work on the Agric-Isawo road in Ikorodu on Monday 21st Oct. Also, Arab contractors will resume at Ijede Road same day. Thanks for bearing with us.”

A Facebook page, Lagos Spy NG, in 2019 also mentioned the subject matter. It stated: “Good news to residents of Ikorodu area of Lagos State, as H.E Lagos State Governor has approved Hitech construction company and also mobilised them to resume work on the Agric-Isawo road in Ikorodu, Lagos. Hitech Construction Company is scheduled to begin the aforementioned road construction tomorrow Monday 21st October 2019.  While Hitech is working on Agric-Isawo road, Arab contractors have also been mobilized to begin road construction work at Ijede road, Ikorodu, Lagos. Gov. Sanwo-Olu reiterates that he is aware of the road decay around Lagos and its administration is committed to ensuring the pains of Lagosians on Lagos roads will soon be ameliorated ASAP. The massive road construction rehabilitations and palliatives work is ongoing around Lagos and works are scheduled to resume in full swing on Ijede, Agric-Isawo roads from tomorrow, Monday, October 21, 2019.”

It is now over eight years since the contract, and the mantra has not changed as construction works keep going off and on with impunity. This naturally gave rise to disgruntled residents. While citizens whose businesses and homes were affected by demolition cry foul over the government not paying them compensation, road users are badmouthing the government and construction companies for not keeping to the promised time of completing the work.

However, abandoned road projects and others have become synonymous with local, state and federal governments in Nigeria. And Lagos State is not too different. BudgIT in 2019, using a project tracking tool, “estimated the abandoned projects to be over 2,000 in the last 10 years, while according to a report in 2011 by Project Audit Established by Goodluck Jonathan reveals that from 1962 to 2012, a total of 11, 886 abandoned projects are spread across the country worth N15 trillion.”

BudgIT also stated that abandoned projects can be traced to contractors carting away money for projects, money sometimes paid to ghost companies, embezzlements, and corruption. It said that project abandonments should be viewed as holistic, looking at the effect on different of the economy including the health sector and education, to comprehend and appreciate the danger it poses to all Nigerians.

A former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, said the causes of abandoned projects are shoddy planning, messy procurement, incompetent project management and financial mismanagement.

A report: “Abandonment of Construction Projects in Nigeria,” shared by Nairametric, mentioned causes such as inadequate planning, inadequate finance, inflation, delayed payment and political factors, incompetent project manager, wrong estimate, faculty, design and inadequate cost control. It goes further to state that the effect of project abandonments is a disappointment of the populace, users, low living standard unemployment, wastage of resources, decrease in the tempo of economic activities and decrease in revenue to the government.

While Lagos State citizens around Agric-Isawo Road are agitating for Hi-Tech Construction Company to complete their work quickly, the same company has been awarded the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway construction contract by the Federal Ministry of Works. The contract is currently causing a hue and cry.

Former Lagos State African Democratic Congress gubernatorial candidate, Funso Doherty, alleged that the award of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway construction contract by the Federal Ministry of Works to Hitech Construction Limited violated the Public Procurement Act. The politician said that there was no competitive tendering and as such does not comply with the law as outlined in Sections 42 and 43 of Part VII of the Public Procurement Act.

A trader, who sells provisions close to the Isawo Bridge, Olaoluwa Balogun, spoke about how the road affected her shop, especially during the rainy season. Balogun said: “I don’t receive customers like before because most people cannot wait under the bridge to patronise me. Also, we cannot pass through the road whenever it rains. Motorists and passersby are finding it difficult to ply the bridge because the construction is not in good order. Whenever it rains, some people will come with canoes to cross the river since the construction of the bridge has been abandoned. The demolition of the building affected many owners and tenants. An aged landlord, following the demolition of his house, took ill. His children tried to get the government to compensate him, but it has not been successful. They were told to go and get the necessary documents. The family has scattered, moving to different places to stay.”

A cobbler at Isawo-Road, who identified himself as Mohammed, said: “My madam left her building four years ago and put me there as a security guard. I started staying there with my friends as guards and then the government came and demolished it. I have yet to tell the madam because my phone has been faulty. I don’t even know any of her family members so that I can tell them that her building has been demolished.”

The Secretary of the landlords’ association at Isawo community, M. Olabode, said that most people whose buildings were demolished were compensated by the government. Olabode said: “At least 70 percent of house owners in the areas were compensated while the 30 percent were not because they lacked necessary documents needed for such payment. A few others did not attempt to get their compensation they did not want to go through the stress people go through in assessing their compensation.”

Hi-Tech Construction Company

According to research, Hi-Tech is a building and civil engineering construction company in Nigeria and was founded in the year 1988. Hi-tech is a privately owned construction company. Our reporter visited the construction company branch at Isawo-Road, Owutu Agric area of Ikorodu.

The rehabilitation, according to the billboard in front of the company, was scheduled for 20 months. However, it has been eight years and work has not yet been completed. One of the Hi-Tech staff, simply identified as Jubilee, said the slow pace of the work was not the fault of the construction company. His words: “It is not the fault of the construction company. The truth is that the bridge needed an extension and the walkway needed to be fixed. One of our challenges is the lack of finance. The work can be completed if the government provides resources needed for the project.”

Our reporter’s findings showed that many communities in Ikorodu are suffering due to bad roads, and this makes commercial transporters charge higher fares from passengers. Some of these areas are Igbogbo, Igbe, Gberigbe, Igbokuta, Imota, Ijede, and Oriokuta, among others.

According to The PUNCH, the abandoned road project is a symbol of broken promises and dashed hopes. The PUNCH reports that in July 2022, the Lagos State Government began the rehabilitation of the Igbogbo-Bayeku Road after residents protested several times over its terrible state. A board erected at Fashola Estate Road, which has details of the project, showed that the rehabilitation was expected to commence from Odofin Street and extend to Igbogbo-Baiyeku IIB Housing Estate. Also, the road rehabilitation, under the Lagos State Public Works Corporation, is expected to have drainages on both sides and street lights. The road rehabilitation was scheduled to be completed within 22 months. But 17 months after the commencement, and just four months before the scheduled completion date of the project, work was stopped.

Problems affecting road projects

The Chairman of the Human and Environmental Development Agenda, Olanrewaju Suraju, said: “The sad aspect of road and construction awarding contracts in Lagos is the challenge of favouritism and political patronage. The majority of beneficiary contractors in Lagos are members of or related to the political families in charge of Lagos. There is a lack of accountability or reprimand for failure to deliver on contracts, and there is a litany of such all over. Despite the succession of the same party in the state for almost 25 years, many programme inconsistencies are exposing the lack of party policies or supremacy.

“The State’s Parliament is compromised, lethargic or timid in many instances, and that has blurred the effectiveness of separation of power or oversight possibilities. Until there is a change of political leadership of the state, the situation is unlikely to experience any chances of change to the current sad situation of project abandonment.”

Causes of delay in Isawo Road project

Engineer Seriki Dikrullai, a staff who works in the Department of Finance at the Hi-Tech office in Ikorodu, said he joined the Hi-Tech company two months ago. Dikrullai explained that he does not know when the project will be completed, but he hopes it will be very soon.

He added: “Challenges are holding down the project at the Odo Afa Bridge and one of these is the bad soil of the ground, and it needs to be studied before concluding. Also, rainfall is another challenge that has made this project look abandoned, but it is not abandoned. Rather, there are surveys that needed to be done under the ground in dry and rainy seasons to give a better result. However, people plying this road keep saying the Odo-Afa Bridge collapsed, but it’s not true. We only stopped people from plying it for the benefit of everyone in the community, to avoid accidents and collapse of the bridge. This is because the bridge construction is not yet finalised.”

BudgIT argues that the solution to abandoned projects “lies with citizens to monitor projects that have been budgeted and funded because the responsibility is a collective one — from the legislators to the man on the street, from the government in releasing procurement information to the contractor implementing the project in communities.”

Auwalu Mohammed Shinkafi of the Department of Civil Engineering, Abdu Gusau Polytechnic, TalataMafara, Zamfara State, Nigeria in a report: “Review of Possible Solutions to the Causes and Effects of Project Abandonment using Engineering Approach and Terminologies for Sustainable Economic Development in Nigeria,” while recommending solutions, urged clients to ensure enough fund, adequate planning, reliable estimate at the inception, and engage services of competent professionals. Shinkafi stated: “The government should also put in all effort to reduce inflation and when there is a change in political administration previously started project should not be abandoned, which results in sabotaging the national economic development.”

. This report was facilitated by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism under its Collaborative Media Engagement for Development, Inclusivity and Accountability project.