By Francis Wilfred
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has hailed leading engineering construction company, Julius Berger Nigeria PLC for the extent and quality of work done on the 35.7km Bodo-Bonny Road project, saying that at the end of the job, Nigerians will be proud and feel safer to ply the legacy road.
Represented by the Minister of Works, Engr Nweze David Umahi at the temporary opening of the road to ease transportation for residents in the communities along the route during the yuletide festivities, Tinubu said, the road has been a long journey with delays and challenges along the way, but through the patience and the cooperation of the community, we have finally reached this important milestone. And the contractor has continued to do a beautiful job here.
According to Umahi, on the reason for the temporary opening of the road, the President said to me, I want to see a different festive mood there. You know, the mood within the Bodo and the Kingdom of Bonny, and he directed me to come here with the National Assembly members, and of course, with the state government and the good people of Bodo and Bonny to temporarily open this route for the good use of Nigerians. That is why we are here today.
Stressing that the opening is a temporary measure, the minister said, the permanent opening is going to be done by Mr. President by himself. I know that the Niger Delta people are expecting Mr. President next year, and Mr. President is going to come to commission this road for the convenience of the people, for the safety of the people, for the economic values of the people and Nigeria in general.
However, he gave conditions for the temporary opening of the road pending full completion, to include: it will be in operation on daily basis from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and there will be no night journey on the road. Next is, there will be no heavy traffic on the road. The reason is that until we remove all the concrete obstacles, there will be no opportunity for big vehicles.
The minister said the measure is to prevent breakdown of big vehicles on the road while still under construction, even as he tasked Julius Berger to mount roadblocks on the road so that no big vehicles will pass.
Continuing, the minister said, no okada or keke will be allowed on this route for now. And I have a big commendation to Julius Berger, especially the current team. If we had them since, we wouldn’t have had all the fights we have had in so many places to the extent that this job here was threatened.
Julius Berger you have done very, very beautiful work. Many thanks to Engineer Tim Nippert and the Managing Director, Peer. They are very amenable to instructions, to discussions, to dialogue, and to details. And I think with the new Managing Director, Julius Berger can still relaunch in the face of construction.
He tasked the company on further works to do on the road ahead the completion of the job, saying, And I am tasking Julius Berger to plant trees, two sets of trees at 10 metres from the beginning to the end on both sides, and to put solar light at 30 metres on both sides. It has to happen before the final completion of the project.
Speaking earlier, the Project Manager, Julius Berger Nigeria PLC, Tim Nippert took the audience on the long journey of the construction of the road to near-fruition now, adding that the cooperation his team is getting from the ministry and communities, so far has helped a lot.
Well-wishers who spoke at the event joined in eulogising the federal and state governments for the project and Julius Berger for bracing up to the task. They also, included, members of the National Assembly on the minister’s entourage, traditional rulers from the project communities as well as Rivers State Government represented by the Secretary to the State Government.
