East-West Road Saga: A Metaphor of Regional Politics

By Lawson Hayford

East-West Road is a major dual carriage way connecting the coastal states of Cross River, Edo, Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom states to Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre. It measures over 700 kilometres, crisscrossing more than 1,000 communities within the Niger Delta region, where the major International Oil Companies, IOCs, are located.

Prior to about 20 years ago, the highway had remained a death trap, recording multiple accidents and causing untold hardships to thousands of commuters who used the road for trading and other businesses daily. Consequent upon the deplorable condition of the road, worsened by frequent devastating flooding, residents along the ever-busy East-West road were forced to travel by sea, thus risking their lives.

Angered by the perceived nonchalant attitude of the federal government and the oil producing companies, the youths of the Niger Delta embarked on protests and blockade of the road to get the attention of the authorities to the deteriorating condition of the road and the persistent neglect of the people of the region. The sad situation was further heightened by the lingering ethnic conflicts between the Itsekiris, the Urhobos, and the Ijaws, which snowballed into the kidnapping of oil workers including foreign nationals and demands for ransom.

As a result of increased militancy aggravated by large-scale destruction of   oil facilities in the region, culminating in the formation of the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, and the famous Kaiama declaration of December 11, 1998. Apparently sensing danger, President Olusegun Obasanjo facilitated an emergency meeting with  leaders, chiefs, and the youths drawn from over 40 Ijaw clans to end militancy in the region.

The outcome of the meeting at the Government House, Port Harcourt, in October 2006 was the award of the East-West road contract to Julius Berger Nigeria Limited at the initial cost of 211 billion Naira. The contract involves piling the road, particularly from Kaiama in Bayelsa to Eleme in Rivers, due to its soil texture, and was to include 41 bridges and 1,000 culverts.

A  few months after the commencement of the project, Julius Berger pulled out of the construction site, citing persistent intimidation, harassment and kidnapping of its staff, necessitating in huge ransom payments to the militants. This created palpable fears amongst the workers, especially foreigners who were leaving the country in droves. Consequently, the East-West road construction suffered some terrible setbacks, including the non- availability of engineering drawings of the project and its non-budgetary provision in the federal government’s 2007 appropriation.

Following the abandonment of the project by the construction giant, the services of four other indigenous construction firms were enlisted for the all-important project. The new companies were: Messrs Setracoo Nigeria Limited, SNL, Sarajevo Nigeria Limited, China Civil Engineering Company, CCECC, and Reynolds Construction Nigeria Limited, RCNL with different sections of the road project assigned to each of them.

While only the section running from Akwa Ibom and Cross River down to Onne junction in Rivers State may have clocked 80% completion, the stretch from Onne  to Delta and Edo  axis have been rendered impassable due to perennial flooding. In

Keeping with its mandate as an interventionist agency,  the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC has stepped in with remedial efforts on the bad portions of the  East-West road in order to assuage the sufferings of its users.

Between the years 2012 and 2024, the NDDC has pumped in millions of Naira to carry out repair works on various aspects of the road. The most recent was the bad portion along the Ahoada (Okugbe) – Orashi axis of the road with the youths of the area threatening to block the only diversion to the road.

Commuters who navigated their paths through the neighbouring thick forests were subjected to sexual harassment and looting of their personal belongings. Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, the managing director of NDDC led his management team on an on- the spot assessment of the deplorable condition of the road with a view to ameliorating the situation.

Pushed further by the experiences of some travellers including state governors and leaders who travelled on the road  to attend a – three – day stakeholders Summit of the NDDC in Port Harcourt, the commission mobilised its engineers and equipments to the site and  effectively contained the bad spots, measuring 1.5 kilometres of the road.

Senator Douye Diri, the governor of Bayelsa state  explained that he and his entourage spent over four hours to navigate their way from Yenagoa to Port Harcourt to attend the NDDC’s organised summit, for a journey that usually takes  about one hour. He received a standing ovation as he seemed to have spoken the minds of majority of attendees at the summit. The summit also attended by former President Goodluck Jonathan,in one voice called for quick completion of the highway which connects the south south to other regions in the country.

In sharing the pains of users of the East-West road, Senator Godswill Akpabio, the Senate President said the project  was being delayed by stakeholders themselves, citing two years ago when Ogoni people demanded the transfer of the road construction to the Ministry of Works from his then Ministry of the Niger Delta which had a budgetary provision of 75 billion Naira for the project. According to him, since he left the ministry and the road construction transfer effected, he did not know what had happened to the money already provided for the highway project in his former ministry. 

The Senate President confirmed that construction work from the Akwa Ibom end has reached over 80% and that the sum of 10.4 billion Naira  would be required to complete the remaining 20% portion of the road project. Ogbuku assured that the NDDC would do everything possible to ensure that the goal of the federal government in starting the East-West road is achieved.

Comrade Jonathan Lokpobiri, the IYC president lamented the deplorable condition of the road, accusing the government of Bola Ahmed Tinubu of not only playing regional politics with the highway, but also serially neglecting  the people of the area. Otherwise, he queried the priority attention including funding being  given to the recently awarded  Calabar- Lagos coastal highway over and above the East-West road project of over two decades.

As if corroborating Lokpobiri’s assertion, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, confirmed that the Calabar- Lagos coastal highway was part of President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Infrastructure Projects that will gulp the sum of   3.2 trillion Naira out of the total 6.2 trillion supplementary appropriation recently passed and signed into law by the nation’s number one citizen.

Chief Henry Seriake Dickson, a former governor of Bayelsa state  and current Senator  representing Bayelsa West Senatorial district, said the federal government had no justification in prioritising  the  Calabar -Lagos coastal highway over the East-West road covering about nine states. Dickson who was on the delegation of the Senate Committee on appropriation to the budget minister, expressed sadness that the East-West road was not considered important enough to be integrated into the Renewed Hope Infrastructures  to benefit from the supplementary appropriation bill.

He appealed to the federal government to make budgetary provision and expedite action on  the East-West road project so as to reduce daily carnage on the road. According to the visibly angry Senator, the East-West road serves as a major gateway to the coastal states  where the nation’s resources come from. Dickson specifically called on the minister to ensure  the appropriation report reflected the state of the abandonment of the said road project which had suffered so much under successive administrations in the country.

Painting the pictures of glaring marginalisation of the region by the Tinubu’s administration, the Niger Delta Congress, NDC, a socio-political group at a press conference in Port Harcourt, called for a state of emergency to be declared on the East-West road. In addition, the NDC moved that a special fund be immediately set aside and announced for the completion of the controversial highway project.

Although it has not been clear how much funding had been sunk into the multi billion Naira East-West road contracts so far, statistics from the federal office of Statistics indicate that over 90% of Nigeria’s economy comes from the nine Niger Delta states where the road criss-crosses.

*Hayford is a senior journalist and media consultant based in Port Harcourt.