There must be transparency, accountability in Highway Management Initiative – Prof. Callistus Ibe

Professor Callistus Ibe, a Professor of Transport Management and former Dean, School of Management Technology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO). He is also a former council member of Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and council member of the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration (CIOTA), among others. In this interview, he speaks on the significance of Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI) and how the initiative would help in improving the nation’s road infrastructure?

How will you describe the Highway Development Management Initiative of the federal government to attract private sector funding in developing Nigeria’s road infrastructure?

It is an innovative way to fund the road infrastructure, by bringing private sector’s money into infrastructural development because we have a deficit in funding infrastructure which is about N30 trillion or so. So that is part of it. But then, if the government is doing that, there must be templates. There must be a performance bond, there must be performance monitoring and evaluation. One thing is to sign the agreement, the other thing is to monitor it to see whether the content of the agreement is implemented to the letter. So monitoring and evaluation is very key. Performance management bond is very key.

For me, it is good and an innovative way of raising funds for infrastructural development in order to actually facilitate the movement of people and reduce wastage resulting from dilapidated roads and release time for productive purposes and then save the lifespan of perishable goods that are delayed as a result of bad roads. That is key.

But then, the next thing is, how do governments select those who are going to do it? How do they select the roads they are going to embark on? So there should be traffic surveys to identify high traffic roads and those are the critical road infrastructures that are sensitive and can connect different states. So these are key roads that should be involved in this kind of arrangement.

Because it would be tolled and if it would to be tolled, the government must realise that the investor must get back his money. There should be alternative roads because those who don’t want to pass through the tolled roads must have a way of passing without paying the toll. So if the government is thinking of that, they must think of developing an alternative route that could end up being longer, but people may not want to pay the toll. So these are some of the things they should do to get it done.

So basically the government must be transparent in their planning?

Yes, the issue of transparency must be brought into it. Yes, the issue of corruption must, as much as possible, be removed if we are to realize it. Let it not be another conduit of siphoning government funds. Yes, so that is it.

Government has been talking about bad roads which informed the government coming up with funding models and other initiatives, how will you describe the state of Nigerian roads from your own observation?

They are all in a state of despair. This is caused by dishonesty on the part of the contractors, dishonesty on the part of the supervising ministry, and dishonesty on the part of the government. They are not honest. If you are going to give a road, you have to properly appraise the road, the cost of doing it and give it. But when you take the money, give them the contract, take about 70% of the money, what can the contractor do with 30%? You will do nothing.

So remember that this road, before it is being constructed, has quality checks. Soil checks, everything. Laboratory tests of the soil and everything is done. If these things are done, the road will endure. And then they use the right material for the right road because not all the roads use the same material for construction. So the soil stability of every environment should be taken into consideration. And it should be properly appraised because the cost of one kilometre of road in a swampy area is not going to be the same cost of one kilometre of road in a non-swampy area. There are cost variations. They should take that into consideration.

Again, they should take note of the weight of the vehicle that uses this road. This is one of the things that is destroying Nigerian roads. The vehicles are overloaded more than the combined hassle weight of the road. So they should do this. There should be weigh bridges to monitor the weight of vehicles moving on the road.

In terms of tolling, there would definitely be resistance, how do we manage this in a way to make tolling affordable to the motorists?

The toll is dependent on the tenure of the contract. The tenure will determine the amount of toll. They would have done their homework to know what it costs them and when they will recoup it. But then, they must develop alternative routes. Once they develop alternative routes, there is no argument. If you don’t want to use your own, use the other one.

How do we get the buy-in of the stakeholders especially the transport unions in order to make the new system of tolling work?

For you to do anything that concerns somebody, there must be stakeholders’ engagement. For you to do it and get it right,… You see, developing projects should be a bottom up approach. So that people will tell you what they need, and not top down approach. So if they tell you what they need and they buy into it, they accept it as their own project. But if you impose it on them, they will resist it. So there is a need for engagement. There is a need for them to agree. If they agree, they will even push for it, not you pushing for it. So they will push for it, because they will know the benefits they will get. There are a lot of benefits that will accrue to the operators if they buy into it. Because if the road is good, there will be a smooth flow of goods and services. Time wasted will be reduced. Accidents will be reduced. Cost of maintenance will be reduced. Cost of fueling will be reduced. And they will have more turnaround. As they turn around, they make more revenue than wasting more time on the road.

So the benefit will accrue to them if they actually get them engaged. If they engage them, there will not be resistance because engaging them means telling them what they stand to get.

What about the ancillary services that the Minister talked about like having rest stops, ambulance services like they are doing with the Lagos-Calabar coastal road, how important are some of these facilities on the highway?

Yes. When you are constructing a mega road like that, there must be safety issues that are incorporated in it. And these are part of it. The modern trend across the globe is that for each road, there must be safety incorporated in it, so all the things that can make it safe will be incorporated. The road requires an ambulance. In case of an emergency, there would be a quick response to the accident. Then there should be a resting place, so that a driver cannot drive more than eight hours. They can have a place where they can rest. Even passengers can rest.

So it’s a good thing if you construct good roads and put all these facilities by the side. We call them complementary facilities. There would be good use of the road and people would travel in comfort. Again, they must put up a security post. Nowadays, technology has been greatly deployed to monitor the road and send signals to control rooms on security breaches and threats. So you want to construct it and put sensors. It triggers if there are any untold things and they respond to it and there will be free flow of goods.

Now will you say the present Tinubu-led government is getting it right in terms of developing the road infrastructure?

Well, that’s a dicey question. I don’t know what you mean by right or wrong. The issue is that we need roads. Good roads, well constructed that will serve our purpose. And these roads must go with all the necessary facilities in terms of the average length of kilometre anybody can travel on the road. You can put security facilities in place, road safety facilities in place. And then, weigh bridges to checkmate the hassle load of the roads. All these things are the things. So whether they are getting it right or not is dependent on what the government wants. But what we need ultimately is good roads to facilitate our movement. I don’t know whether it is the right approach or wrong approach.

The right approach is that they need innovative funding which involves the private sector because they don’t have all the money on earth to do that.