Kwara State Commissioner for Works, Dr. Abubakar Kannike, in this interview with ABDULLAHI OLESIN, explains the milestones that the administration of Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed has recorded in roads construction and rehabilitation in the past one year.

Can we know what the government has done in the area of road rehabilitation in the past one year?

What we have done since assumption of office at the Ministry of Works and Transport is to make sure that all ongoing projects we inherited from the last administration are completed. We set for ourselves, as a target, to complete some of the road projects we inherited within our first 100 days in office. We were able to complete quite a number of them. Some of them include the Sulu Gambari road, the Olaolu-ITC road started in the last administration. We also did one in Isin, that is, outside the state capital. We did another one in Aiyedun, Ilale area, and we also started new road projects that were urgent even in the first 100 days. They include Pakata-Sooto road in the Ilorin metropolis. We extended the Zango-Oyun Bridge to remove the traditional traffic gridlock along the Kwara State Polytechnic. We have done traditional roads that people have been complaining about for decades; they are the Olaolu-CBN Quarters road, the Zango-Akerebiata road, including the huge bridge, the Obaro road in the GRA. That is in the area of state roads.

We also intervened in federal roads. The Ohan Bridge initially constructed by the corps of army engineers over two decades ago gave way and we invited the corps of army engineers to rehabilitate it. We spent close to N60million to re-establish movement on that bridge. We equally intervened on the Enyenkorin road. Another major one is the Eyenkorin-Afon road which we have rehabilitated. We are currently rehabilitating the Obbo Ile-Oko road.

We budgeted over N2billion for the rehabilitation of feeder and rural roads. The essence of this is that the state had adopted agriculture as the driver of its economy. Therefore, we must provide roads that will ensure transportation of farm produce from the rural areas to the urban centres and vice versa. There is no local government area that we have not touched as far as rural road projects are concerned. We also embarked on the rehabilitation of feeder roads in the state capital. With urbanisation, a lot of settlements hitherto cut off from the central road networks can now heave a sigh of relief.

In Ilorin East local government area, we rehabilitated Adualere-Duma road. Despite the fact that the community is in the state capital, it has over the years been cut off from urbanisation. We did Rex Bello road, Tanke, Lao-Airport road - that has also taken care of the dense population in the area. We also did the Iwo in Offa Garage and we also did the Agbaja street in Adewole estate.

The Moshe-Bunni road we did in Kaiama local government area is a long stretch of road meant to link the rural people for agricultural purposes. We also constructed the Obbo-Ile-Ora-Aiyetoro-Ejio-Obbo-Aiyegunle road. This has two bridges and it links a lot of farming communities in that axis. We have the Ilesha-Gbereru-Banni road which is 36 kilometres in Baruteen local government, andthe Lafiagi-Seweru road which is 10 kilometres. We did Patikesan road which also 10-7 kilometres and then Owode-Ofaro road in Oyun local government, Oro-Ago-Oke Oyo. Thirty percent of these roads are fully completed. We have another 70 percent that are ongoing. None of them is below 60 percent from completion and the good thing is that dearth of funds has not stopped the projects because of our commitment.

How do you intend to maintain these roads?

We have also adopted the culture of preventive maintenance. We know we don't have enough resources - we cannot continue to award new contracts, so we must be able to preserve what we have and we have reinvigorated Kwara Road Maintenance Agency (KWARMA) and that is why we adopted a policy of zero tolerance to pot-holes. The policy was not for the 100 days (in office) celebration but for us it is a continuous process. One of the latest interventions is in Sabon-line. The edges of the road have been expanded to ease flow of traffic. The Opomalu-Ipata market used to be a very bad road, too. Right now, we are doing Adeta-Oloje. We have also created drainages to solve erosion areas outside of the state capital.

In Kwara, we have not recorded so much flooding. That is because KWARMA under my ministry has done preventive activities. We made sure we de-silted all our drainages and dredge all our river courses. When we created the waterways, we found out that flooding was not too much of a problem and this has prevented our roads from collapsing.

We have also created in the ministry a unit called road minders. They are road corps people. They will soon embark on enforcement and advocacy. The minders would be charged with the responsibility of educating people to de-silt the drains in front of their houses. They will also report potholes-ridden areas to KWARMA for quick intervention. Very soon the unit would be inaugurated and will place jingles on radio and television.

How much has the government spent so far on road projects?

For the rural and urban roads we have committed N2billion. We have between N4billion and N5billion for the completion of all ongoing road projects in the state. We have provision of close to N20billion for road rehabilitation.

On federal roads?

As I am talking to you, I have engineering submissions for those roads for intervention. The governor has also written a save-our-soul (SOS) letter to the president on the Ajase-Ipo-Offa-Oshogbo road. But there is a guideline now from the Federal Ministry of Works that you must comply with before intervening on federal roads, otherwise you will not get your money back. As I am talking to you, the Chikanda-Kosubosu which we spent over N6billion to rehabilitate in the last administration, over N3billion is being expected from the federal government.

In spite of this, we have rehabilitated the Ohan bridge, expanded the Kulende-Zango road - all these are federal roads. The Ohan bridge and the Kulende-Zango expansion cost us N60million and N200millio respectively and we are not expecting any return. But I cannot expend about N1billion on federal road without expecting reimbursement.

However, we are in discussion with Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and Federal Ministry of Works for assistance.