In a scenario that would have been better described by my friends who studied economics as “opposition cost”, an opportunity presented itself. It all happened within a few minutes, an information of something I never knew existed erupted.
Boarding a flight to Abuja with the last ticket of the air-burn, I was given the just available seat, a couple of minutes later, a man came in, sat beside me and muttered something I didn’t hear very well; what? I asked; the phones, we can do without them for some minutes, he repeated; just then did I realize that the flight attendant had been announcing that everyone should off their mobile devices.
The man seated beside me went on to explain how studies have revealed that blue light exposure may increase the risk of macular degeneration. The fact that blue light penetrates all the way to the retina (the inner lining of the back of the eye) is important, because laboratory studies have shown that too much exposure to blue light can damage light-sensitive cells in the retina, he explained. We introduced ourselves; he told he work with J.D.P. Construction company, and how he and his colleague, he was traveling with were meant to sit at the business-class section, but they couldn’t confirm their tickets on time, which led to him being given a seat right beside me.
Furthermore, we talked about Nigerian politics and many other things and then he dropped the bomb – “we have a 75% completed water project in Aba, funded by the Fedral Government, but we stopped work since 2008 because Federal Government stopped funding it. The project, when completed would be able to supply good water to the entire Aba metropolis, he said. At that point, I was like, WHAAAAAAAAAT? They will not fix federal roads in Abia for us, why abandon a 75% completed water project? Hence, our discussion centered on the water project as I quizzed him to extract more information. He deep his hand inside his bag, handed me some papers and asked me to carry out my own investigations.
Abandonment of projects is one of the things that create bad image to government at all levels. Worse still, if the projects abandoned by previous government are not continued by a succeeding government. It becomes more worrisome when the projects so abandoned are the ones perceived to have direct bearing with the majority of the citizenry.
More so, when the abandoned projects are at completion stages or have reached a reasonable level of completion. It makes people lose confidence in government and governance general as the hope of such people are quashed when projects they expect to gain from as ordinary members of the society stop on the way.
Virtually in all the 36 States of the federation, there exists many abandoned projects. Most of the abandoned projects are the ones started by previous administrations while some are projects the present-day administration either of the Federal government or that of the States are handling.
One of such federal government abandoned projects in Abia State, is the Federal intervention water supply scheme known as the Rehabilitation and Augmentation of Aba Water Supply Scheme. The project was awarded to J. D. P Construction Nigeria Ltd. since the 16th day of February 2005.
The rehabilitation and augmentation of the Aba water scheme was designed to upgrade the existing dilapidated water supply in Aba town of Abia State. Of course, it is common knowledge that water is a very essential commodity to the people. And making water available eases life among the People more especially when it is water provided by government which good sources would always be vouched for.
Available information shows that the major component of the project has been completed until 2008, when the project suffered a set back owing to unavailability of funds in the budget of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Abuja. As it stands now, 75% of work has been done in the Aba water scheme, and further works are yet to resume there.
At this juncture, it is pertinent to appeal to the consciences of those concerned to expedite actions towards ensuring the water project in Aba is resuscitated.
My name is Ubani Newman Ubani (UNU)
29/11/2017
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