BY JOSEPHINE BELLO

SINCE the publication of Hon. Josef  Omorotionmwan’s article on “Stealing by Sign Posts” on 29 December 2011, there have been raging debates and comments on the issue.  The latest is the rejoinder titled, “Who is Stealing by Sign Posts?” by one Aliyu Jattu from Agbede (Vanguard, 18 January 2011, p. 19). Also, see paid advertisement titled, Oshiomhole: “This Madness must stop” (Vanguard, 5 January 2012, p. 25).

Even the Hon. Minister of Works, Arc. Mike Onolememen weighed in on the issue. In an interview in the Sunday Vanguard of 1 January 2012 Arc. Onolememen had revealed that he decided to fast-track the road construction because of appeals made to him by the Oba of Benin.

In essence, but for the Oba’s plea, the commencement of the execution of a contract that was awarded as far back as 2009 would have still remained in limbo. The idea of a Minister waiting for the massaging of his ego at the detriment of the job that he is paid to do is certainly an unhealthy attitude to bring to public service. We now know why virtually all the Federal roads everywhere in Nigeria will forever remain in a state of permanent decay. The people whose duty it is to fix the roads must be waiting to be begged. What a shame!

Onolememen errs further: “…the Federal Government may be forced to review its Federal Highway Act in such a way that all urban roads will be left to the State governments because many of the governors are hiding under Federal Government projects….”

This is a most myopic view of intergovernmental relations. A senior Cabinet Minister should have known that government everywhere is about the people’s needs, the satisfaction of which is the sole justification for government. This strict constructionist and escapist view of government may soon restrict Federal Government activities to Abuja , oblivious of the fact that the Federal Government also has the entire federation as its constituency.

Taken together, the struggles of Jattu and the sponsored adverts to promote the Federal Government efforts to “rehabilitation/reconstruction of big road projects” and reduce the involvement of the Edo State Government to “gutter and walkways on the side of the road” are totally misplaced.

The facts on ground speak volumes. Those gigantic drainages provided by Edo State Government, meant to protect even the road and the entire environment, are needed to save Benin City from the type of ecological catastrophe that beset Lagos, Ibadan and other places recently. Who wants to compare them with the “patch-patch” work that the Federal Government is doing on the road?

Jattu soon descended to innuendoes and insinuations, when he stated that “One man that should give an answer to the above question is Josef Omorotionmwan who at his age….” This is ageism. Much as I do not know the ages of the writers, I am also unaware of when it became an offence for old people to comment on public affairs. Freedom of expression as guaranteed under our 1999 Constitution is, to my mind, not exclusively reserved for “eaglets”.

In fact, this is argumentum ad hominem (argument against the person, instead of addressing the issue). Even at that, I have closely followed Omorotionmwan’s writings over the years and from his progressive thoughts, it is easy to deduce that, in age, he might pass for the grandson of many a godfather. His position as a knowledgeable, courageous and fearless commentator on national affairs cannot be faulted.

Jattu wonders “why the State Governor awarded his contract to the same Contractor the Federal Ministry of Works had earlier awarded the road rehabilitation contract” Jattu portrayed grave ignorance of the fact that, in Edo State, it is the dawn of a new era. In an Administration that believes in development instead of “sharing the money”, every effort is made to cut cost.

It is economically efficient and financially prudent to have the same contractor handle the jobs. In this way, the cost of up and down movement of equipment is drastically reduced. In any case, how does it become an issue or the business of anybody, who the Edo State Government decides to award its contracts to, other than those possessing the type of “busy body”, which is the stock-in-trade for loafers?

Jattu admits,  “It is true that former Ministers did not only disappoint in fixing the road in the past… and it now takes about four hours from Benin to Lagos against the ugly situation of the past when it took travellers almost two days due to the very bad nature of the Ore axis of the road.”

Meanwhile, he maintains that it is incorrect for Omorotionmwan to assert that “the Federal Government has been an absentee landlord who has ignored or neglected its roads in Edo State .” What an obvious contradiction!

People may not be living in the past but there is still a lot of pent-up anger and disappointment in Edo State that for many years, a journey from Benin City to Lagos that should take only about four hours took two days. And whatever happened to the annual appropriations to this road during the years of the locust?

The Federal Government must wake up to its responsibilities instead of engaging in unnecessary polemics. It is only fair to remind the Federal Government of its tardiness all over the place. A case in point is the Benin-Abraka Road project, which was flagged off with a lot of pomp and celebration almost two years ago and is still in a comatose state waiting for proper work to start. Why else would the Omorotionmwans not speak out?