Mr. Kayode Adepoju, a civil engineer, is the Special Adviser to Governor Abiola Ajimobi on Infrastructure. In this interview with KEMI OLAITAN, he speaks on the controversies surrounding the recently commissioned Mokola flyover and roads construction in the pace setter state.
The Mokola Bridge has come under criticism from the opposition most especially on its cost, alleging that the contract sum was inflated. Do you agree with them?
A lot has been said about the Mokola flyover bridge right from the time it started till the time it was commissioned and I think the opposition is deliberately misguiding the people about the bridge and some other projects, because what they have alleged are not correct and are far from the truth. A lot of misinformation has been dished out. They even compared the bridge to that of Molete which was built 35 years ago, they did not understand the difference between a bridge and a flyover. A bridge is one that is built over a river that allows all types of vehicles to cross over it, while a flyover is built intentionally to solve traffic problems which are on a level, and it will segregate part of the traffic which used to be at the same level to another level, so it will flyover that level, and that was what was done at Mokola roundabout. The percentage of traffic that needs to flyover at Mokola intersection is relatively small, so we were compelled to do a single lane dual carriage way, which means you have a single lane of dual carriage way which is 10 meters wide, and then the two lanes with one going and one coming, and we are sure that it will last a long time before it needs maintenance. If you go there more than 80 per cent are still under the bridge, if you now relate it to Molete which was done 35 years ago, that time Molete was done to take care of traffic coming from Ijebu bye pass through Ibadan to the East and to the North and they designed a dual carriage.
It was designed that way because they want any vehicle to climb it and it remains under utilised. So there is a lot of sense for this one being a single carriage way. Unfortunately too, the opposition that said we built a small bridge as far back as 2005 when some designs were done in this same Ministry of Works, a single carriage way was designed then during Senator Rasheed Ladoja's administration, so we improved on it based on the traffic analysis that we did. Common sense dictates that if you have a single carriage way, you should not allow any distruption on top of the bridge, and so we were compelled to put that barrier which would totally remove the traffic that has history of breaking down, rolling back and causing accident. It is normal that if we have a single carriage way, we should not allow anything that may cause traffic hold up on it, and that is why we sent off those heavy articulated trucks from climbing it, it is not that the bridge is not strong, it is the market women that should have said the flyover was not strong and not someone that professes to be an engineer, how did he judge that the wall was not strong?
Could you beat your chest on the strength of the bridge?
It is in the designs and columns of the bridge that determine its foundation, and in this case, the pillars are those columns, the decking and construction pattern of the flyover have said it all. The government would not have spent billions of naira and not make it strong, that barrier there does not mean the bridge is not strong. There is also an argument that, why don't we put that barrier on that of Molete, I believe there is no need for it because if a vehicle breaks down on it, it has a lot of space to maneuver before the towing vehicle comes up, but you cannot allow that on Mokola single carriage way.
Also comparing it with that of Abeokuta, it will be stupid for anybody who professes to be an engineer to say that he wants to compare two structures that are not in the same place just like you can build a borehole in this place now and some 10 meters away you could say there is no water found there because of the underground strength. If we must compare now, the foundation strata at Abeokuta is completely different in terms of the ground structure from what is here. Abeokuta as you know is relatively a rocky area, this place it is not like that, again if you do have a dual carriage way at Abeokuta, its not the same with the single carriage way designed to ease traffic here. If we are talking about price, ours is about N2.9 billion, but not just the bridge alone, it includes so many ancillary projects because we found the contractor as the cheapest but also the best. China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) is one of the largest in the world in terms of size and competence and they gave us the cheapest price when they quoted for it, and we grabbed that opportunity because we thought that we should push some other projects along with it, so we decided that we were going to do the water drainage which include the underground water pipes, the pipes are 500 millimeters long, and we put new pipes in one kilometers, because the bridge is over 600 millimeters, so over one kilometers of water pipes were put there. They were dug and fitted on the ground to connect to the water pipes of the city. Also steel barriers were constructed to keep people off under the bridge, we all know how Molete under bridge was messed up, it was during Nigeria 1999 football competition that Molete became clean and immediately after the game it became rubbish all over again until now that Senator Abiola Ajimobi make sure that they keep that place clean. So in order to prevent Mokola from being messed up, that was why over one kilometer steel barrier was constructed there at different sides plus the roundabout decorations and a water fountain that is still coming up there soon, also the adjourning roads at the Mokola side, Secretariat side and Dugbe road side were all widened to allow some vehicles to easily maneuver.
All those adjourning roads were scrapped, re-tarred and were made to blend with the bridge. We also have the electrical set of traffic lights, perimeter light under the flyover, so all those put together added up to that N2.9 billion. The case of Abeokuta bridge only costs N1.5 billion but they did not mention other engineering cost, the Abeokuta bridge is 400 meters long and it is a dual carriage way and it cost them N1.5 billion, while ours is 550 meters long, single carriage way plus other ancillary projects costing N2.9 billion and seen as cheaply done, designed and constructed by one of the best contractors in the world. If we are to be factual, Senator Ajimobi has never been or known to be a joker when it comes to things like this, all they are complaining about is that he is not throwing out money, but by his nature he will always give his best . You can build a building for N10 million and the same one for N20 million else where depending on their components.
What is your take on the allegation that the contract for the bridge was awarded to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu's company and that he was only using CCECC to front ?
I will only say only drunkards can say that, how would we in our right senses have awarded a contract to Tinubu, is Asiwaju Tinubu a contractor? He is only a political leader and he has his own roles that he plays, CCECC is a Chinese government company, and not a private company, so it does not relate with any politician or individual.
The Ajimobi government has been accused of not awarding contract to local contractors but only foreign ones, how true is that?
That is not correct, about 250 roads have been done by this administration in terms of refurbishing, rehabilitation, reconstructing and construction of roads, six dual carriage ways , eight bridges on top of water, over 20 culverts and all those have not been done by foreign contractors. I have the list here with me, even the six dual carriage ways that we are doing, one of them is totally a Nigerian company and that is the one in Ogbomoso and the ones that are not Nigerian are mixed. For example, what do we call Julius Berger? The Chinese can give you first class job once your supervision is right and also Julius Berger once your supervision is well with them. We will not fold our arms and allow them to take back our money to China, that is why there are some that we are giving to Nigerians also. This government is committed to engaging local artisans in order to lubricate the economy.
We are not perfect as human beings, but we want to ensure that we maximise the usage of the artisans, because we are very concerned about them, some of them were told to register, some jobs have been given to the associations concerned, but we endeavour to engage, maximise, optimise what ever number and quality we can use in them, but it is still ongoing and we are going to need them more for the projects that will be rolled out soon. We will focus more on how to improve and increase the level of patronage to the artisans.
Does government also patronise local content companies?
Instead of someone saying he got the contract and he now sells it, it is going to be directly to the artisans, so many of them will participate in construction. It is going to be participatory as lot of artisans will be brought in, so the formula is being worked out on how to spread their usage .
When will this government replicate the Mokola bridge in challenge?
I do not think there was a promise to do that, whatever we do is based on what is required. The Challenge traffic situation is not a problem you solve with a flyover, it is more of traffic control and by the time we introduced the coming dual carriage way that enter the road, widen the roundabout, put traffic light controls, the street signs, safety signs and so on, there will be a meaningful change. If you remember at that Challenge roundabout junction , before we started the construction, half of the road have been taken over by shanties and shops . I just believed that it was indiscipline that was creating problem there rather than the flyover that is being mentioned. Flyover is a solution to traffic problems and cannot just be constructed anywhere.
