Bodo/Bonny Road: Now, the people are ready to walk, drive with smile
“This is the first time a Nigerian government has tried to make us feel that we are Nigerians with the construction of the Bodo/Bonny Road, which has always remained on the drawing board,” Chief Jumbo
…With this road, the FG has taken us from an Island into Nigeria-Peace Committee Chairman
By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor
The joy and excitement on their faces know no bound. They openly rejoice and celebrate as people who have just won a major jackpot that has ended their misery and given them a new status in life. But that is not the case with the people of the Bodo in the mainland part and their Bonny counterparts in riverside of Rivers State.
They are already in a jubilant mood not because of any lottery win but due to the expected completion of work on the historic Bodo/Bonny Road, which will serve as a milestone in the history of the community, Rivers State and Nigeria upon commissioning in December 2023.
There has never been any road between the two communities since the advent of human existence. For this reason, the natives have always depended on swimming as a means of moving from one end of the community to the other.
Alternatively, the use of wooden boats and later, motorized ferries, have remained the main vehicles for transporting human beings, goods and services among the people of the area. Consequently, the large quantity of agricultural products, timber, wood and fish, which abound in the numerous communities that lie across the ocean, rivers, estuaries and creeks that straddle Bodo and Bonny, can only be used by the natives or transported at very high cost to other parts of the country with the absence of road.
Although three previous administrations in Nigeria tried to construct the Bodo/Bonny Road, they did not succeed. The road, therefore, remained largely as a conceptual variable and continued to feature in every federal government budget each year.
But help came the way of the historic project when the Muhammadu Buhari administration came on board and created a tax credit policy that encourages the private sector to invest in the construction of roads and the provision of other national critical infrastructure and be reimbursed by the government.
Under the policy, the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, is providing the sum of N200 billion for the construction of the road, while the Nigerian Government will return the cash by way of tax credit.
Work on the 37.9-kilometre road, which has reached about 70 percent level of completion, according to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, is expected to be completed within 74 months, and particularly, December 31, 2023 by Julius Berger Nigeria Plc. From the way the job is progressing by the contractors, it is evident that the road will be ready for use as planned given the fact that the major concrete, earthworks, culverts and drains have significantly been accomplished while the payment of compensation for demolished structures has since been completed.
When the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, visited the project site on Wednesday to inspect the level of work, he was told that the work had reached 70 percent level of completion and that the December 31 deadline was feasible. It is a major engineering masterpiece that requires quality and serious attention to details, given the fact that the road project passes through many rivers, estuaries and swamps.
That is why the installation of prefabricated vertical drains and geotextile membrane materials on the road alignment has become an integral part of the project as it progresses. The optimism of the road completion hinges on the fact that work on the major bridges at Opobo and Nanabie called the “Opobo Channel Bridge” and the “Nanabie Creek”, are progressing steadily while the construction of the Afa-Creek Bridge and nine mini bridges along the road are almost completed. Even as the work is progressing, the issue of job creation is being addressed by it. According to the Director of Highways (Bridges and Design) Eng. O.O Oyetade, the road project has provided direct employment to no fewer than 719 Nigerians and a total of 3050 indirect jobs to youths of the Bodo/Bonny communities.
While still under construction, the completed stretch, is said to have drastically reduced travel time to the Afa Creek Jetty (Patrick Waterside) from 40 minutes to five minutes and travel cost from N6000 to N2000 per passenger. In the same vein, the benefits accruing from the completed stretch have enabled residents to access their farms, schools and health centres in the respective communities with ease as well as opened access to the site of the ongoing Bodo Oil Spill Remediation Project being embarked upon by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Upon completion, the road is likely going to open up the length and breadth of Rivers State and beyond as there are already agitations by several communities within the state to be linked up with the new epochal road. First, among the agitators, is an urgent request by the people of Ataba in Andoni Local Government of Rivers State to be provided with a spur of about six kilometres followed by the people of Abalamabie in Bonny Local Government Area of the state, who demand a spur of about three kilometres to their own community. There is also a proposal to link the Bodo/Bonny Road to the East-West Road via Dere-Kira Junction to Section 3 of the East-West Road totaling ten kilometres.
Even as the Bodo/Bonny Road is under construction, it has already made history as the first ever road to be built to link Mainland Bodo with the Island of Bonny both in Rivers State, thereby changing the landscape of Rivers State in particular and redrawing the map of Nigeria as a whole. It is worth celebrating the breakthrough given the fact generations in that part of Nigeria have come and gone without knowing what a road is until this time in the history of Nigeria. The road may also pose a difficult challenge to those who had all along been accusing the Buhari federal government of ‘not doing any project in Rivers State’, as the N200 billion being invested in the work, is not a child’s play.
An excited Works and Housing Minister, who was on an inspection tour of the project site for the fourth time, could not hide his joy and satisfaction with the quality and progress of work being done by Julius Berger there.
Fashola after being briefed by JBN officials and those of his ministry on the state of the project, sauntered about like a man, who had just won a major battle. In a way, the minister fell short of thumping his chest and saying to the crowd that gathered at the project site, “We have done it”.
But he could not hide is feelings altogether and spoke glowing about the project and the commitment of the Buhari administration’s interest and commitment to get it done.
Fashola, who said work on the project had progressed on schedule, boasted that the road project had already taken thousands of Nigerians working there from poverty and given hope and help in the process.
The minister said that apart from showing the commitment of the Federal government towards the development of all parts of Nigeria, the Bodo/Bonny Road project has also restored peace and stability to the communities which had in the past been enmeshed in communal conflicts.
Fashola said, “I sometimes hear some comments that the Federal Government is not doing anything in Rivers State. But this project is a concrete evidence that the government has done something and will continue to do something not only in Rivers State but across Nigeria. This project will reduce poverty and we are using it to provide solution to poverty. We are building the road after three previous administrations had tried to build it but failed.
“Most importantly, two communities within one state that were once divided by water and could not connect to each other because of lack of road- Bodo on the mainland and Bonny on the island- will for the first time in human history and civilization be able to link up with each other by road next year.
“The road is costing the Federal Government of Nigeria N200 billion in one state. It used to take hours and money to travel between Bodo and Bonny and was also an inhibitor of productivity.
“So, our government designed this project to provide an alternative to water. There is nothing wrong with water but there is an efficient alternative that reduces travel time that will impact the cost of goods and services and open up this place for more development.
“This place was also engulfed in conflict but this project has brought about peace and stability among the communities that are now working together.
“I can say that for the first time in human civilization and in the history of mankind, people can actually walk on their way between Bodo and Bonny communities and it is almost done,” Fashola boasted as he fielded questions from journalists.
But the people of the area, who have had to contend with water for their entire lives, have a more interesting testimonies to bear as they gradually begin to see the coming into fruition of their dream-the Bodo/Bonny Road. When they heard that the Works and Housing Minister was visiting the project, the leaders of the communities, moved in their numbers to the site and were overjoyed as they heralded the Fashola into the makeshift grounds, which JBN erected for the day to host the entourage and the community.
The Spokesman for the Bodo/Bonny Community Peace Committee, Chief Salama Longjohn, made a moving speech that almost made the minister and his team emotional, by going memory land and recalling that it is the Buhari administration that has given life to the road project and turned it from a mere budget item to reality.
Chief Longjohn, who is the immediate past Chairman of the NLNG board, noted with delight that the Bodo/Bonny Road has made significant progress towards completion in their lifetime and praised the federal government for taking the bold step to complete the vital road to link them.
Chief Longjohn said: We are extremely delighted and grateful to the Federal Government of Nigeria for taking steps to build this important Bodo/Bonny Road in our lifetime. By completing this road, the Federal Government of Nigeria has taken us away from an island into Nigeria and given us a sense of belonging.
“Bonny is richly endowed by the Almighty God and we will never forget you the minister and the government of Nigeria for linking us up with the rest of Nigeria and to have a feel of how to walk and drive on a road for the first time in history. May the Almighty God bless you,” Chief Longjohn said.
In a similar tone of appreciation, the Secretary of the Bodo/Bonny Community Peace Committee, Chief Jasper Jumbo, praised President Muhammadu Buhari for mustering what he called the ‘political will’ to construct the road after all other administrations had failed to do it despite listing it year on year in their budgets.
“This is the first time a Nigerian government has tried to make us feel that we are Nigerians with the construction of the Bodo/Bonny Road, which has always remained on the drawing board,” Chief Jumbo said.
With the level of work already accomplished and the commitment by the Buhari government to write its name in history by making it work, there is hope that the Bodo/Bonny Road, which will on completion link the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas by road to Port Harcourt for the first time, will soon become a realism. That realization alone by the people of the benefitting communities in Rivers State and beyond, who have in their lifetime been married to rivers, swamps, estuaries canoes and paddles, will begin to drive and walk on a road, is something that gives them broad smiles. They seem to be ready to walk, drive and smile on that historic road as soon as it opens to the public next year.
Vanguard Media Ltd