By Maiwada Dammallam
But for the so called concern of some commercialized briefcase civil society organizations, one wouldnβt waste time explaining whatβs clearly an administrative procedure normally adopted to avert foreseeable mishaps that may lead to preventable loss of socio-economic opportunities for millions of citizens beside losing scarce resources to dubious businessmen especially in the processes of awarding contracts.
For background, the Katsina/Dutsinma/Kankara road is a dilapidated roughly 160-kilometer stretch of road which was built some 30 years ago and has unarguably remained a death-trap and a horror to commuters for more than two decades as to attract the sympathy and pledges of rehabilitation by successive administrations and individual politicians. The road remained decrepit nonetheless.
Determined to change the sorry narratives of roads in Katsina State, Governor Radda, in fulfillment of his campaign promises, hit the ground running immediately after heβs sworn-in. He promptly went to work; touching every touchable button in the Abuja corridors of power to actualize his promises to rehabilitate roads and or provide where there are none in Katsina State. Itβs in fulfillment of this ambition that he recently awarded contracts for construction of state roads amounting to some N74 billion which at the moment turned Katsina State into a giant project site and home to reputable construction companies.
To respond to the decrepit condition of long neglected federal roads, Governor Radda used his Abuja connections and experience to lobby for the reactivation of stagnated federal road projects in Katsina State like the dual lane 170-Km Katsina/Kano road, the Malumfashi/Kafur/Dabai road and the Katsina/Dutsinma/Mararrabar Kankara with the last one being the subject of this review.
Itβs as petty as itβs surprising the, to read a clearly syndicated and obviously sponsored attack on the person and office of Governor Radda for the revocation of the Katsina/Dutsinma/Mararraba Kankara federal road project contract by the federal executive council.
A somewhat confused so called Civil Society Group, βCOALITION OF NORTHERN GROUPS (CNG)β went to press accusing the governor of βrevokingβ the Katsina/Dutsinma/Mararrabar Kankara road project. It begets the question how a governor (any governor at that), could revoke a federal road contract which he didnβt and couldnβt statutorily award anyway? This, the CNG need to clarify to the public to justify their amorous romance with VIPAN GLOBAL RESOURCES LIMITED; a romance in absolute conflict with the progress and development of Katsina State.
Pertinent questions begging for answers from the so called civil society organizations led by the COALITION OF NORTHERN GROUPS (CNG) are:
Of the 3 multi-billion Naira federal roads projects awarded by the federal government in Katsina State I mentioned earlier, why is Katsina/Dutsinma/Mararrabar Kankara the only one βpoliticizedβ and revoked? For the sake of argument, letβs assume Governor Radda has usurped the powers of the federal government to revoke a federal road contract, why is he only interested in revoking the Katsina/Dutsinma/Mararraba Kankara road while allowing other ongoing federal roads projects in the state to flourish?
Even more interesting, why is the seemingly inebriated CNG shy of mentioning the name of the βbusinessmanβ behind the VIPAN GLOBAL RESOURCES LIMITED originally awarded the road project contract but which subsequent post-award processes discovered to have duped its way to win the contract? Is CNG afraid to attach a face to the company doing which will undeniably prove the dangerous track record of the sponsors of the company while convincingly proving the potential abandonment of the very important contract?
In the entire syndicated verbiage uploaded by the so called civil societies led by the CNG, the coalition conveniently failed to provide a single document to prove the company win the contract fairly and squarely. Perhaps, because thereβs none.
Just as much, these pallbearers failed to prove their allegations with pictorial proof or history of previous performances to prove Vipan Global Resources Ltd has the capacity, track, competence, integrity and reliability to execute the critically important Katsina/Dutsinma/Mararrabar Kankara road project.
By the way, if it makes sense as being bandied in some quarters that a defeated Katsina State PDP gubernatorial candidate in the last gubernatorial elections influenced the award of the multi-billion contract by an APC-led federal government, what stopped him to prevent the revocation of the contract?
The answer is simple. The contract is entirely an APC affair β pursued by Governor Radda and approved by President Tinubu in line with their pledges and in appreciation to the huge support they enjoyed (and still enjoying) from the people of Katsina State.
To put the records straight, the Katsina/Dutsinma/Kankara federal road was awarded by the federal government and was revoked by the federal executive council having discovered the contract was awarded to a quack construction company which SOMEHOW managed to scale through the contract award processes. More details of the whys and hows of the contract award and revocation will emerge in coming days.
For now, letβs agree the contract award is a regrettable phenomenon which was discovered early enough to avert the risk of jeopardizing the successful completion of the road which will translate into a denial of the socio-economic advantages of the road to the people of Katsina State and the Northwest in general.
This is an open challenge to CNG-led so called coalition of civil societies to organize another press conference (at my cost) to provide details of the integrity, competence and suitability of Vipan Global Resources Ltd.
Rather than invade the social media with cyber mercenaries to condemn the revocation of the contract, CNG and its allies should avail the public pictures and locations of road projects executed by the company to justify the obviously sponsored syndicated rantings intended to confuse the public and gain unearned sympathy for the company while encouraging fraudulent tendencies β the type Nigeria is battling to cure itself of.
