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PRESENTATION BY THE HONOURABLE MINISTER OF WORKS,
ARC. MIKE OZIEGBE ONOLEMEMEN, FNIA; FNIM; FNIS ON THE
MID-TERM ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT
GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN, GCFR, IN THE TRANSFORMATION OF
THE ROAD SECTOR IN NIGERIA AT THE 2013 MINISTERIAL PLATFORM
Protocols
The Federal Ministry of Works has made significant strides in road
development since the inception of the administration of
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR in 2011. By May 29,
2011, Nigerian roads were described as death traps and many
road projects were abandoned, while a number of on-going
projects were moving at snail speed. It was a nightmare to travel
on Nigerian roads. Clearly, the administration of President
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR and the leadership of the
Federal Ministry of Works were confronted with a situation that
required urgent and far reaching changes and reforms especially
in the areas of policy, management and financing of roads
infrastructure in Nigeria. A paradigm shift became inevitable in the
development of roads infrastructure in our country. The
management of the Federal Ministry of Works under my leadership
felt the urgency to reclaim the National Road Network from the
state of disrepair this administration met it and elevate it to an
enviable state where it could once again help to promote
economic growth and national integration.
About two years on, Nigerian roads can no longer be described
as “death-traps” due to the remarkable improvement in the
condition of the roads as a result of the unprecedented
rehabilitation, construction and expansion of major arterial

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highways under the leadership of President Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan, GCFR. Today, travel times between origins and
destinations on most of these arterial routes have been drastically
reduced. Also maintenance costs of vehicles have been reduced
as a result of improved driving surfaces, devoid of potholes that
hitherto put “holes” in the pockets of vehicle owners due to
frequent repairs occasioned by bad roads. Critical stakeholders in
the road sector have publicly acknowledged the breath of fresh
air in road transportation in our country due to the improved
condition of our roads. One of the transport companies in our
country, ABC Transport Company recently slashed its fares in a
widely circulated advert in The Punch newspaper of Monday,
May 20, 2013 with the caption, “The Roads Are Getting Better”
and gave its reason solely as the marked improvement on our
arterial roads! This is one of the outcomes of the Transformation
Agenda in the road sector.
When this Administration assumed office on May 29, 2011, it made
a conscious decision to complete major road rehabilitation
projects in the country that were either on-going or abandoned
and to scale up maintenance works on Federal roads across the
country. The “Operation Safe Passage” embarked upon by the
Ministry in the 4th quarter of 2012 led to the recovering of failed
portions of Federal roads across the country; from Ilorin to Jebba,
Lafia to Makurdi, Aliade to Oturkpo, Oturkpo to 9th Mile, Enugu to
Port Harcourt, Kano to Katsina, Lokoja to Okene, Okene to Benin,
Lagos to Ibadan, and Odukpani to Itu. Many other Federal roads
criss-crossing the length and breadth of our country have been
maintained these past two years. Following the successes
recorded in the past two years, Nigerian roads have again truly

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become not only veritable economic arteries supporting
economic growth, but also a tool for National integration.
DETAILED MID-TERM ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE MINISTRY OF WORKS
 In 2011, in order to make the management of the nation’s
road network and on-going projects more effective and
efficient, the two highway departments (Highway, Planning &
Design and Highway, Construction & Rehabilitation) were
restructured into twelve departments, namely:
1) Highways, Planning and Development
2) Highways, Road Design
3) Highways, Bridge Design
4) Highways, Materials, Geotechnics and Quality Control
5) Highways, Public Private Partnership (PPP)
6) Highways, Road Sector Development Team (RSDT)
7) Highways, Construction & Rehabilitation-North Central
Zone
8) Highways, Construction & Rehabilitation-North East
Zone
9) Highways, Construction & Rehabilitation-North West
Zone
10) Highways, Construction & Rehabilitation-South East
Zone
11) Highways, Construction & Rehabilitation-South West
Zone

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12) Highways, Construction & Rehabilitation-South-
South Zone)
This restructuring exercise and the management training that
followed brought about an attitudinal change in the Ministry,
anchored on the transformation of the workforce into a well-
motivated and empowered one, ready to put in its utmost best far
beyond expectations.
In order to enhance checks and balances and promote
transparency in road development projects, six (6) Zonal Ministerial
Independent Monitoring Teams, made up of membership from the
private sector were set up by me in the 3rd quarter of 2011, to
monitor construction and rehabilitation efforts in the zones and
based on their findings, provide independent quarterly reports on
projects in the zones to my Office. This has become a reliable
project management tool in the administration’s efforts to
improve service delivery in the road sector.
With this new structure in place, the Federal Ministry of Works,
under my leadership, has been able to make momentous
improvements on the rehabilitation, reconstruction and expansion
of the Federal Roads Network in these past two years. Thus far, we
have completed 32 Nos. road projects covering about 2,000 km
and many more are nearing completion.
The 32 Nos. road projects completed during the period under
review include:
 Completion of the Dualization of Ibadan-Ilorin road section I
(Ibadan - Oyo) in Oyo State.

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 Completion of the Reconstruction of Vom-Manchok road in
Plateau State.
 Completion of the Repairs of 3rd Mainland Bridge (Phase II),
covering additional works for the replacement of 8Nos.
Expansion Joints in Lagos State (This was completed 10 days
ahead of the scheduled completion date).
 Completion of the Dualization of Onitsha-Owerri Road
(Section I) and Onitsha Eastern Bypass, in Anambra State.
 Completion of the Rehabilitation of Uba-Mbalala road in
Borno State.
 Completion of the Rehabilitation of Funtua-Gusau-Sokoto
road (section II: Gusau-Talata Mafara) in Zamfara and Sokoto
States.
 Completion of the Rehabilitation of Obiozora-Uburu-Ishiagu
Road in Enugu and Ebonyi States.
 Completion of the Access Road to the Kaduna Refinery in
Kaduna State.
 Completion of the Rehabilitation of Efon-Alaaye-Erinmo-
Iwaraja road in Ekiti and Osun States.
 Completion of the Rehabilitation of Katsina-Daura road in
Katsina State.
 Completion of the Rehabilitation of Ijebu Igbo-Ajegunle-
Araromi-Ife-Sekona Road (Section II), in Ogun State.
 Emergency reinstatement of collapsed section of Gombe-
Potiskum Road, (at KM 12) in Gombe State.
 Rehabilitation of Jebba Bridge in Kwara State

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 Rehabilitation of Otukpo-Oweto Road in Benue State
 Rehabilitation of Wukari-Takum Road in Taraba State
 Rehabilitation of Okija-Uli-Oguta Road in Imo State
 Asphalt Overlay of 2km Access Road to the Federal Science
& Technical College in Edo State.
 Rehabilitation of Hadejia-Nguru Road Phase I (Hadejia-
Krirkasama Section) in Jigawa State
 Completion of the Rehabilitation of Access Road to the Warri
Refinery in Delta State.
 Completion of the Dualization of Access Road to Onne Port
in Rivers State.
 Construction of Gombe-Bypass in Gombe State.
 Rehabilitation of Aba-Owerri Road in Abia State.
 Reinstatement of Washouts at km6+750, km30+400 and
km35+325 along Onitsha-Enugu dual carriageway in
Anambra and Enugu States.
 Emergency reinstatement of Washout/Gully erosion at
KM127+000 at Auchi along Okene-Benin road and Km14+000
along Auchi-Agenebode road in Edo State.
 Construction of Langtang-Lalin-Tunkus-Shendam Road in
Plateau State.
 Rehabilitation of old Oyo-Ogbomoso road in Oyo State
 Rehabilitation of Omuo-Ifaki road in Ekiti State.
 Rehabilitation/Reconstruction of Lafenwa Bridge in Abeokuta
in Ogun State.

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 Rehabilitation of Gombe-Numan-Yola road, Section II:
Numan-Gombe in Adamawa and Gombe States.
 Rehabilitation of Otta–Owode road in Ogun State.
 Rehabilitation of Mararaba-Pambeguwa-Saminaka-Jos road
section I (Mararaba-Panbeguwa) in Kaduna State.
 Rehabilitation of Mainchi-Anka-Daki Takwas road in Zamfara
State.
NIGERIAN ROAD DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (NRDP) UNDER THE
ROAD SECTOR DEVELOPMENT TEAM (RSDT)
Under our collaboration with multilateral agencies (the World
Bank, AfDB, JICA), the following road projects have been
completed:
 Reconstruction and Pavement Strengthening of Ikom-Mfum
Road in Cross River State
 Reconstruction of Abakaliki-Mbok (Ogoja Junction) in Ebonyi
and Cross River States.
 Periodic maintenance of Jebba-Lafiaji Road in Niger State.
 Periodic maintenance of Takai-Albasu-Gaya Road in Kano
State.
 Periodic maintenance of Nafada-Gombe Abba Road in
Gombe State.
 Periodic maintenance of Hong-Mubi Road in Adamawa
State.
 Periodic maintenance of Okpala-Igwurita Road in Imo State.

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 Periodic maintenance of Ado-Ilumoba-Agbado-Ikare Road
Section A in Ekiti State.
 Periodic maintenance of Dingaya-Galambi-Rungo Road in
Sokoto State.
 Periodic maintenance of Rumukurshi-Chokocho Road in
Cross River State.
 Periodic maintenance of Akure-Owo Road in Ondo State.
 Periodic maintenance of Ado - Ilumoba - Agbado - Ikare
Road Section B in Ekiti State.
 Periodic maintenance of Kurfi-Chiranchi Road in Katsina
State.
 Periodic maintenance of Lafiagi-Mokwa Road in Niger State.
 Periodic maintenance of East-West-Odi Road in Bayelsa
State.
 Periodic maintenance of Lafia-Doma Road in Nasarawa
state.
While the following projects are ongoing:
 Enugu-Abakaliki Road
 Ogoja Junction-Ikom Road
The Federal Ministry of Works is also embarking on major on-going
road projects including the dualization of major arterial highways
in the country. These include:
 Dualization of Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja road in FCT and Kogi State.

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 Dualization of Kano-Maiduguri road in Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi,
Yobe and Borno States.
 Dualization of Lokoja-Okene-Benin road in Kogi and Edo
States.
 Rehabilitation of Apapa-Oshodi expressway in Lagos State.
 Construction of Loko-Oweto Bridge over River Benue with
approach roads in Nasarawa and Benue States.
 Dualization of Suleja-Minna road in Niger State.
 Rehabilitation of Benin-Ore-Shagamu expressway in Edo,
Ondo and Ogun States.
 Rehabilitation of Sokoto-Jega-Kontagora-Makera Road in
Sokoto, Kebbi and Niger States
 Rehabilitation of Kano-Gwarzo-Dayi Road in Kano State
 Rehabilitation of Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway in Lagos and
Ogun States
 Rehabilitation of Ilorin-Kabba-Obajana road in Kwara and
Kogi States
 Rehabilitation of Abakaliki-Afikpo Road in Ebonyi State
 Rehabilitation of Calabar-Ugep-Katsina Ala Road in Cross
River and Benue States
 Rehabilitation of Vandekiya-Obudu Cattle Ranch Road in
Benue and Cross River States, and many more.
Very impressive progress has also been made in these on-going
dualization and rehabilitation projects. For example, the journey
from Benin to Lagos which hitherto took upwards of nine hours in

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2011, now takes between three to four hours. Travel time between
Abuja and Lokoja has equally improved from an average of four
hours to about two hours. Sections of Apapa-Oshodi road which
were in deplorable condition in 2011 are now wearing new looks.
Travel time on Kano-Maiduguri road has also been reduced by
half in the completed sections. In the same vein, while travel time
from Owerri to Onitsha is down from two hours to just forty-five
minutes, it now takes only about six hours to travel from Owerri to
Lagos from an average of fifteen hours it took in 2010.
With these improvements, maintenance costs of vehicles have
been drastically reduced, thereby increasing the purchasing
power of vehicle owners. Not only that; the progress made in the
last two years in our road development programme has led to a
reduction in the rate of accidents on our roads. For example, our
interventions in constructing reinforced concrete balustrade and
crash barriers in Ovia River Bridge in Edo State and Tamburawa
Bridge in Kaduna State, have addressed the incidences of
vehicles plunging into the river with high casualty figures which
became a weekly occurrence in both bridges. This same model is
being replicated in other impacted bridges across the country.
The construction of a new bridge over River Benue at Loko-Oweto
is becoming a reality, as the structural members are fast springing
up from the under-waters. During my recent visit to the project site
on May 22, 2013, about 115 Piles have been drilled and 1 No.
Reinforced Concrete Abutment, as well as 15 Nos. Piers have
been constructed. This project which is currently at 25%
completion, is progressing satisfactorily and ahead of schedule.

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Ladies and Gentlemen, following the floods experienced last year
in some parts of the country, and its adverse effects on road
infrastructure, the Ministry intervened in the following washed out
road infrastructure:
1) Construction of 2 Nos. bridges at CH.11+850 (two span) &
CH.12+850(three span) along Kano – Katsina road in
Katsina State to replace the collapsed 7 cell and 11 cell
box culvert respectively.
2) Reinstatement of Washout on Bridge approach &
Embankment at CH.0+100 along Shendam-Yelwa-Ibi Road
in Plateau State.
3) Reinstatement of Embankment Washout at CH.15+025
along Langtang-Lalin-Tunkus-Shendam Road in Plateau
State
4) Reinstatement of washout and reconstruction of collapsed
triple cell culvert at 4th Interchange, Enugu-Port Harcourt
Dual Carriageway in Enugu State.
5) Constructions of 75m span bridge at Kolo, along Yenegoa-
Kolo-Nembe-Brass Road, with Spur to Kolo town, Bayelsa
state.
6) Reinstatement of washout sections along Irrua-Illushi Road
in Edo State
7) Reinstatement of washout on Lokoja-Abuja Highway at
Banda in Kogi State, and many more.

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PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP PROJECTS
The ministry during the period under review embarked on the
procurement of the following projects using the Public Private
Partnership model:
1. The Second Niger Bridge in Anambra and Delta States
2. Apakun/Oshodi–Murtala Muhammed International Airport
Road in Lagos State
3. Nupeko Bridge Across the River Niger in Niger State.
While a successful bidder (Julius Berger-AIIM Consortium) has been
announced for the 2nd Niger Bridge and pre-contract works have
started on the bridge, the process for the selection of the
successful bidders in the other two projects is ongoing and a
preferred bidder each will be announced for the projects by July
2013.
ROAD MAINTENANCE BY FERMA
Road maintenance under the Federal Ministry of Works is carried
out by the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA). In the
last two years, FERMA has been repositioned and equipped with
state of the art Mobile Pothole Patchers and its capacity
enhanced for prompt intervention on federal roads. Two Nos.
Asphalt Plants was acquired by FERMA some years ago and
abandoned, have been installed and commissioned in Kuje and
Lagos. Five others are being installed in Enugu, Ikot-Ekpene,
Osogbo, Gombe and Funtua to serve the needs of FERMA in its
road maintenance activities across the country.
Since the beginning of this administration, FERMA has been
involved in the recovering of road washouts, general

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maintenance and vegetation control in some federal highways in
the country. In 2012 alone, a total of 1, 980 km of road corridors
were maintained by the Agency while an area of 1,337,343
square metres of pot-holes have been patched. Some of the
notable corridors maintained by the Agency (FERMA) in the past
two years, include:
1. Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Road
2. Jos-Bauchi Road
3. Asaba-Benin Road
4. Okene-Auchi-Benin Road
5. Sapele-Agbor-Uromi Road
6. Mbiama-Yenegoa Road
7. Lafia-Makurdi Road
8. Katsina-Dutsinma-Kankara Road
9. Okene-Kabba-Omuo-Ekiti Road
10. Kajiji-Gimi Road
11. Gusau-Talata Mafara-Sokoto Road
12. 9th Mile-Obollo Afor-Otukpa Road
13. Onne-Port Harcourt Road, and
14. Otukpa-Anyagba Road
With FERMA’s preventive maintenance policy, coupled with the
road surveillance campaign, many more corridors will be
maintained in the next two years. In addition, over 4,000 youths
have been engaged, mobilized and trained by FERMA on road
maintenance and are currently carrying out maintenance works
in most of our road corridors under the SURE-Programme.

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NEW POLICY INITIATIVES
Within the past two years, the Federal Ministry of Works under my
leadership has implemented a number of policy initiatives that
promise to positively impact on service delivery in the road sector
in the years ahead. Some of these policies include:
1. Abolition of the use of cut-back bitumen (MC-1) and its
replacement with bitumen emulsion, thereby freeing
kerosene for domestic usage and promoting environmentally
friendly construction methodologies in road projects.
2. Introduction of a new project management template that
makes provision for the valuation of only permanent works in
Interim Statements/Certificates, thereby deepening
performance management approach to road development,
and mitigating frequent augmentation of projects
consequent on wash-out of on-going road projects, and
3. Introduction of the of the “Safe Passage” policy that ensures
that road corridors on subsisting contracts are maintained
and made motorable by Contractors throughout the
duration of the projects.
ROAD SECTOR REFORMS
In the past two years, the Federal Ministry of Works under my
watch, has pursued relentlessly the reform of the Road Sector, to
bring it in sync with its counterparts in other parts of the World as to
fully professionalize road development in Nigeria, and provide
better services to road users in our country in line with international
best practice. Already, the National Council on Privatization
(NCP) has approved the proposed Road Sector Reform Bill and

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will be transmitted to the National Assembly after approval by the
Federal Executive Council.
It is pertinent to state here that once the Reform Bill is passed into
law, it will lead to the establishment of a Road Authority and a
Road Fund, which will help to ensure better funding of road
projects in our country.
CONCLUSION
Distinguished stakeholders, Ladies and Gentlemen, if the purpose
of Government is the pursuance of happiness for the greater
number of citizens, clearly, the Government of President Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, has achieved this purpose through the
transformation of the road sector these past two years. Today, our
citizens are able to travel happily on our roads from one part of
the country to another without the uncertainty of arrival that
hitherto marked road transportation in Nigeria by 2011 when this
Administration came into being.
Looking ahead, the next two years hold even bigger and bolder
promises for Nigerian road users, as the Federal Government
through the Federal Ministry of Works strives to deliver two new
bridges across the two great rivers that define our country – the
River Niger and the River Benue: I am referring to the 2nd Niger
Bridge at Onitsha-Asaba over the River Niger and the Loko-Oweto
Bridge across the River Benue. Not only that; the Government of
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, will also complete the
on-going dual-carriageway projects across the country that will
have the salutary effect of enabling our citizens to travel from one
part of the country to another, without regards to their geo-

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political zone of residence, in an un-broken chain of dual
carriageways.
Distinguished stakeholders, Members of the Media, Ladies and
Gentlemen, the transformation of the road sector in our Country, is
on an irreversible forward movement, and it is already yielding
good fruits. While many more dividends will follow as we make
more progress on this journey, I wish to state unequivocally that for
Nigerian road users, better days are here again!
I thank you for your attention.
Arc. Mike Onolememen, fnia; fnim; fnis
Hon. Minister of Works
Federal Ministry of Works
Abuja
3rd June, 2013