http://sunnewsonline.com/new/trending/lagos-ibadan-expressway-ppp-poisoned-by-politics/
It appears the daggers are drawn now to stab Bi-Courtney, the concessionaire of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway in the back. There are voices calling for the crucifixion of the infrastructural development company with the track record of single-handedly delivering the MMA2, the only project that has successfully been completed under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement in the country.
But, before we wash our hands off, like Pontius Pilate, and feed Bi-Courtney to the dogs, there is a need for an appraisal of the real issues on the proposed modernization of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. I’ve taken so much interest in the expressway project, because I live along the road, and I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly part of it.
In the last one year or so, the controversy over the seeming slow pace of work on the ever busy expressway, which is of major economic and social importance to the whole country, has reached a level that is becoming disconcerting due to the numerous wrong notions, incorrect perceptions, politicization of the project and government’s failure to, initially, set the right tone for the commencement of work.
There have been strong bias against Bi-Courtney among some politicians loyal to a particular opposition party, and the concessionaire has been complaining in the media about government agencies that have been stalling the progress of work on the highway for political reasons.
There were reports of the Ogun State government’s seizure of the asphalt plant meant to produce bitumen to keep the road in good condition while other issues are being sorted out, the series of attacks on Bi-Courtney staff, the abduction of the workers from the Sagamu interchange site by policemen attached to the Ogun governor, who were later issued a warning by the Inspector General of Police, even as the Federal Ministry of Works urged the state government agents to stop their illegal activities on the road.
I’m yet to see where such things happen anywhere in the world, when a Federal Government’s Public Private Partner saddled with the task of fixing a federal road will spend most of the time fighting. If some of the stakeholders will not be patriotic enough to http://sunnewsonline.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Ibadan.jpgsupport Bi-Courtney in fixing the road, they should not compound the firm’s problems.
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