told the world that he was in a haste to develop the state.
One of the major issues he tackled almost immediately was the
rehabilitation or reconstruction of the road network in the state. He
went to work with electrifying speed that most citizens started
wondering how he was funding the numerous projects.
Many contractors, who were largely unknown in road construction world,
were engaged by the administration to execute the projects. Several
roads were actually opened and this elicited high hopes and
acclamation from the people.
With time, some pictures started filtering in. Pay-loaders were seen
grading roads, preparatory to asphalting. Imo people equally started
hearing that some of the contractors were spending their personal or
borrowed monies to execute the road projects. The same was also true
of the numerous but unfinished gates in Owerri municipality.
Confirming this in a recent release, Okorocha's former media aide, who
now doubles as President, South East Progressives Assembly, SEPA, Mr.
Ebere Uzoukwa, described the scenario as part of Okorocha's "use and
dump and Almajiri politics".
His words: "Why did he (Okorocha) subject contractors to execute
government projects with borrowed funds only to dump and deny them at
the point of payment? Is Governor Okorocha unaware that some of those
contractors have miserably lost their lives and valuables to banks
that loaned them funds?", Uzoukwa asked. Okorocha, who did not want to
be drawn into the issue raised by Uzoukwa, however told journalists
that since he had the final say on who gets what contract, there was
no point going through the rigmarole due process.
The Minister of External Affairs 1, Professor Viola Onwuliri, and many
other critics of the administration, who were not amused by the
Governor's reply, accused Okorocha of awarding contracts for road and
some other projects verbally.
It was the considered opinion of the fiery Minister that the situation
explains how and why most of the road projects do no have engineering
drawings or pass through the state tenders board, as well as get
abandoned midway or sub-standardly executed.
Delivering a lecture organized last week in Owerri by Rotary Club of
Owerri Metropolitan, on why roads fail in Imo State, Engr. Jude Ujah
identified lack of engineering design and proper supervision of all
road projects awarded to contracting firms by the administration as
being largely responsible for the short life span of the roads.
"The construction of any road must pass through three critical stages.
These include the designing, the construction and the usage. Our
problem in Imo is that we got the first phase wrong because two thirds
of the roads constructed by the state government are not designed",
Ujah said.
He said that the design gives the specification, which he said "varies
from a portion of the road to the other".
Continuing, Ujah explained that the soil strata has to be studied,
adding that samples are supposed to be taken to the laboratory, so as
to determine the constituent materials that would be used for the
construction of any road.
He expressed shock that "from the speed with which these new roads
started failing in the state goes to show that the existing drainage
pattern, among other parameters, was not studied".
His words: "The problem we are facing now is that the design is not
there. What we have always seen is a bulldozer laying out the road. If
the design is there it would determine the depth the machine would
scrape the soil".
He also identified lack of compaction as another area the state
government gets it wrong, stressing that roads are usually in compact
layers.
"What happens is that the contractors lay the same day and apply the
asphalt. Most of the roads that are having problems now do not have
stone base and some of the ones that have stone base, do not have the
required thickness", Engr. Ujah said.
In his own remarks, the President, Rotary Club of Owerri Metropolitan,
Rotarian Kelechi Anyanwu, thanked Ujah for the lecture.
"We were already wondering why a good percentage of the roads have
been washed away with the first rain. I think it is better to
concentrate and complete two or three roads that would serve the
people for years, like late Sam Mbakwe did, than build several roads
that won't survive one rainy season", Anyanwu reasoned.
-Culled from Vanguard.
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