Abuja — The $8.3 billion (N980 billion) railway contract awarded to a Chinese firm by former President Olusegun Obasanjo was stopped by President Umaru Yar'Adua because it was illegal and due process was not followed.
Chief Economic Adviser to Yar'Adua, Tanimu Yakubu Kurfi, disclosed on Thursday in Abuja at the Abuja Business and Investment Roundtable.
Kurfi explained that the rail project and its budget was never presented to the National Assembly, and could not be retained by Yar'Adua because of his insistence on the rule of law and due process.
"For an administration that prides itself in the rule of law, I don't see how an illegality will be strictly adhered to in the name of continuity", he declared.
The contract has now been transferred from the Presidency to the usual custodian, the Federal Ministry of Transport which has now factored the project into next year's budget.
He added that "the 2009 budget has paraded sufficient allocation for dredging of the lower Niger, and that there will be rehabilitation of East-North and West-North rail lines as well as the Warri-Ajaokuta route which will be completed in 12 months.
"This is intended to reduce the burden on road transportation".
The Adviser also disclosed that 91 per cent of the capital expenditure in the 2009 budget will expended on developing critical infrastructure because Yar'Adua believes that inadequate infrastructure has adversely affected the cost of doing business in Nigeria.
According to him, "this administration did not just stumble on the seven-point agenda. It is a well thought out set of solutions to address micro and macro economic challenges in the country.
"Our problem has for long been lack of competition with cost of doing business in Nigeria higher than in other places. Businesses have had to provide their own infrastructure. The seven-point agenda is a response to the dilemma."
He added that investment in gas pipeline projects is predicated on the belief that availability of gas would transform the nation's economy, with an expected investment of over $1.5 billion.
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It took him 18 months to realize that due-process was not followed and by the time the said due process is lined up, say in another 2 years, given Malam Tarry-A-Doer's go-slow approach, the total value of the railway project would've doubled up from $8.3Billion to maybe $16 Billion if annual inflation factor is applied to Labor Cost, and Other Direct Costs such as materials and parts.
With the current global financial crisis, where is he going to get the fund to finance the project when the price of crude-oil would dropped into the tens or 20 (if we are lucky) dollar range per barrel, if the decline continues at the current fast rate? I guess Nigerians will just have to wait another 10 years for rail transportation.
What else has Baba Go-Slow accomplished so far in 18 months of his presidency? Zero, actually:
1) Power Emergency declaration is dead in the water - the word "Emergency" should be deleted because after 18 month, its no longer applicable.
2) Healthcare facilities in every local govt areas that OBJ planned for, was also cancelled by this callous man, with no reason given, as long as this sickly man and his family can travel to Germany and/or Saudi Arabia at the public expense for his flu treatment while the poor may as well die in the street - Malam Tarry-A-Doer doesnt give a damn.
3) Niger Delta crisis resolution - totally lost - the said Master Plan that he has been touting since he returned from the Lesser-Hajj (code word for hospital stay in Saudi A or is it Germany) is yet to be released for public consumption and for the Legislature to consider appropriate legislation to give teeth to the plan (that is supposed to the Rule of Law approach, unless Malam Tarry wants to fool us into imbibing his oath -taking approach of his secret society of fellow dunces).
4) Large-scale, hi-tech farming is dead in the water as well and replaced with massive imports, thereby exporting our scarce resources - foreign exchange earnings that should have been used to finance his infrastructural development projects.
I could go on but who has time for this one-eyed doofus that is just warming the seat of the Presidency for another blind Northerner to take over from him.
Perhaps he could learn a thing or two from another proactive and brilliant in the person of Governor Oshiomhole, as Prof Shilgba recommended. We all know what Malam Tarry did to another Governor's accomplishment - he mothballed Donald Duke's Obudu-Tillapia's project in Cross Rivers - is it jealousy or is another one of the "Ruse" of Law?
If yaradua cannot be an agent of our problems-resolution, at least. he should not be the main part of our problems. I am sure that VP Jonathan can do much better than this doofus.
You lament that "the total value of the railway project would've doubled up from $8.3Billion to maybe $16 Billion if ..." What else do you expect from those far-North lazy drones (Babangida included). They were brought up in a feudal environment and know nothing else. Nation building to them means something completely different from the rest of the world. It means siphoning away the nation's resources with impunity, strengthening the oligarchy and impoverishing the rest. They keep laying claim to the leadership of Nigeria but all they have accomplished in almost 40 yrs out of 48 yrs of independence is to draw the country back. I sometimes imagine where we could have been without them. We would be competing with Brazil, India, Malaysia and the like. As long as they remain in Nigeria and in control, you can forget dreaming about development or nation building.