But for the so-called concern of some commercialized briefcase civil society organizations, one wouldn’t waste time explaining what’s clearly an administrative procedure normally adopted to avert foreseeable mishaps that may lead to preventable loss of socio-economic opportunities for millions of citizens, besides 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 that was built some 30 years ago and has unarguably remained a death trap and a horror to commuters for more than two decades, attracting sympathy and pledges of rehabilitation from 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 he was 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 provide where there are none in Katsina State. It’s in fulfillment of this ambition that he recently awarded contracts for the construction of state roads amounting to some N74 billion, which has, 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, such as the dual-lane 170-Km Katsina/Kano road, the Malumfashi/Kafur/Dabai road, and the Katsina/Dutsinma/Mararraba Kankara, with the last one being the subject of this review.
It’s as petty as it is surprising 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, “COALITION OF NORTHERN GROUPS (CNG),” went to press accusing the governor of “revoking” the Katsina/Dutsinma/Mararraba Kankara road project. It begs the question: how could a governor (any governor at that) revoke a federal road contract which he didn’t and couldn’t statutorily award anyway? This, the CNG needs 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 three multi-billion Naira federal road projects awarded by the federal government in Katsina State that I mentioned earlier, why is Katsina/Dutsinma/Mararraba Kankara the only one “politicized” and revoked? For the sake of argument, let’s 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 road projects in the state to flourish?
Even more interesting, why is the seemingly inebriated CNG shy of mentioning the name of the “businessman” behind VIPAN GLOBAL RESOURCES LIMITED, which was originally awarded the road project contract but later found to have duped its way to win the contract? Is CNG afraid to attach a face to the company, which will undeniably prove the dangerous track record of the sponsors of the company while convincingly demonstrating the potential abandonment of this 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 that the company won the contract fairly and squarely. Perhaps, because there’s none.
Just as much, these pallbearers failed to prove their allegations with pictorial proof or a history of previous performances to demonstrate that Vipan Global Resources Ltd has the capacity, track record, competence, integrity, and reliability to execute the critically important Katsina/Dutsinma/Mararraba Kankara road project.
By the way, if it makes sense, as is 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 from preventing the revocation of the contract?
The answer is simple. The contract is entirely an APC affair — pursued by Governor Radda and approved by President Tinubu in line with their pledges and in appreciation of the huge support they enjoyed (and still enjoy) from the people of Katsina State.
To set the record straight, the Katsina/Dutsinma/Kankara federal road was awarded by the federal government and was revoked by the federal executive council after discovering the contract was awarded to a quack construction company that 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 the coming days.
For now, let’s agree the contract award is a regrettable phenomenon that was discovered early enough to avert the risk of jeopardizing the successful completion of the road, which would 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 the 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 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 — the type Nigeria is battling to cure itself of.
Maiwada Dammalam is the Director General, Digital Media, to Katsina State Governor
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