…It Appears It Doesn’t Matter to Government – Community
By Substance Udo-Nature
UYO, NIGERIA
Commuters, residents and others have expressed deep displeasure over the poor handling of the Tabernacle-Afaha Ube-Calabar Road, near the popular Etaha Itam Market, describing it as a disgrace considering that the road is one of the major entry and exit points from Uyo, the Capital City of the State.
The people also wondered what might have been the terms or bargains between the contractor handling the project, Nsik Engineering Ltd. and the Akwa Ibom State Government that the project is still lingering without any significant progress or hope of completion.
Today makes it approximately one year and six months since commencement of work on the project in March 2024. It would also be recalled that on May 20, 2024, the Akwa Ibom State Government, in a press statement, had announced complete closure to traffic of the section of the road between Nelson Mandela and Itam Market.
The reason, according to the release, was to enable the construction firm channel a 0.97 underground pipe-jacking system from Tabernacle road and adjoining streets across the main Calabar-Itu Road. The Statement accordingly advised motorists to use available detours in the meantime.
The closure had thrown commuters, pedestrians and residents into a prolong period of untold suffering, including property owners and businesses whose houses and shops were affected in the course of the project. process.
Our reporter who is monitoring project reported that the process of channeling the underground system across Calabar-Itu Road had lasted for the next 11 months until March 2025 when one lane of the road at stonebase level was open to traffic. It would take another six months, late September 2025, for the opposite lane, also at stone base level, to be partially open to small vehicles as it still stands today.
The stonebase, it was also gathered, had since started caving in, leaving deep gallops that presently are posing serious constraints to vehicles managing to ply the section of the road that witnesses heavy traffic jam, especially on main Itam Market days.
Speaking to our reporter who visited the site recently, a bus driver who gave his name simply as Abadsiubong lamented the prolonged situation has caused and wondered why government was doing nothing to ameliorate their suffering.
“This construction has lasted for too long. Haba! Since March last year? And Nsik is showing no seriousness or commitment to the job. It doesn’t seem bother him at all. Imagine that his so-called workers only come there to walk about with ordinary headpans and shovels”, Abadsiubong commented.
Residents and owners of houses that have seen lamented the relocation by tenants as well as shop owners who have lost full one year rents. They condemned the slow pace of work and government’s neglect and insensitivity to their plight.
A landlord whose house now squats dangerously on the tip of one of the gullies opened up as a result of the project, Mr. Effiong Udobang, said four of his tenants had since relocated and he and his family now have their hearts in their palms as they are uncertain when the house might cave in.
Udobang, a retired school principal, said, “We are still wondering what criteria government used in awarding this contract to this contractor. Does he have the capacity? Which road in this town has he ever built and completed? I don’t think this company has the capacity, if you asked me. Apart from that, why has government closed its eyes and ears to this shame on a major entry and exit road into the State.
“I had four tenants. But they’ve all parked out because at a point you cannot even walk along the sharp edges and muddy nature of the road Nsik has created in the process of digging for the underground or whatever he called it”
While the main road is still a challenge to the contractor, it was gathered that apart from the underground drainage system, Nsik was also awarded contract to construct the adjoining streets in the area, totalling 2.3 kilometres. Some of the streets, according to findings, include Nelson Mandela, School Road, Aka Hall, etc.
A concerned indigene of the area residing along Enen Mkprong, one of the adjoining streets, expressed fears that such will never see the light of day. “It’s like government is playing politics with this project. Awarding the contract to Nsik Engineering to construct Afaha Ube, Tabernacle, Nelson Mandela, etc means the roads will never be built till Umo Eno leaves office. Just look at what’s happening at the said underground channeling. More than one year now, they are still struggling. These streets have become so bad because they were used as detours when Calabar-Itu Road was confined off”
Our Special Projects Desk recalled that in October 2024, following rave media reviews, the State Government had led a delegation on inspection of the project.
Speaking during a press conference, the Commissioner for Works and Fire Service, Prof Eno Ibanga told Journalists that the cause for the delay was rain, that as soon as the rainy season was over, everything shall be done for the job to be delivered latest January 2025. But this is October 2025.
The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, in November 2024, also undertaken sight inspection of the project, giving promises of completion.
Because government has been cautiously quiet over this period, many are wondering about government’s hidden intentions or what secret it may be sharing with the contractor. But respondents have called on the government to act promptly to compete the project.
Text messages sent to Prof Ibanga by our reporter for comments were not replied as at the time of going to press.
