Prince Clem Agba, the former Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, recently expressed his concerns about the incomplete Benin-Auchi-Okene-Obajana Road project. He attributed the delay to a lack of sufficient funding.
During a grand reception and dinner night held in his honor by the Edo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Benin, Agba shared his insights on the road project. He pointed out that the budgetary allocations for such projects were often thinly spread due to the insertion of additional projects by the National Assembly, resulting in inadequate funds for their completion.
He stated, “with the national budget, there had been a lot of challenges. Yes, there had been improvements in terms of the cycle, but particularly as a person, I am not very happy with the content because we seem to spread ourselves so thin that we don’t have enough to do work.”
Agba further explained that the common perception of the National Assembly padding the budget was inaccurate. Instead, he argued that they were “un-padding” the budget by reallocating funds to other projects, thereby spreading the resources too thin.
He identified this issue as one of the factors affecting the Benin-Auchi-Okene-Obajana road project, which began 15 years ago. Despite serving as a minister for only three and a half years, Agba felt responsible for the road’s condition as he had attempted to find a solution.
He discovered that the road’s main issue was insufficient funding. Whenever budgetary provisions were made, the state’s representatives failed to safeguard the allocated funds. As a result, the returned budget had reduced amounts, insufficient for the project’s completion.
Agba mentioned the use of SUKUK funding, an Islamic interest-free loan, to finance the project. However, the funds had to be distributed across the country, leading to rapid progress on projects like the second Niger Bridge, the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, and the Kano-Kaduna road.
He also mentioned the presidential infrastructure development fund and the sovereign wealth fund, which contributed to these three projects. Funds recovered from corruption cases, such as the Abacha loot, were also channeled into these projects.
Agba believed that similar measures were needed to expedite the work on the Benin-Auchi-Okene-Obajana road, which has been under construction by three contractors for the last fifteen years. He proposed the use of tax credits and collaborated with the Chairman of the FIRS and the NNPC Ltd. However, the initial report from NNPC Ltd did not include the road, leading to a struggle to include Edo State in the project.
He expressed his gratitude to his colleagues, Mr. Sunday Dare and Prince Goddy Jeddy Agba, for their support in lobbying for funding. Eventually, each section of the road received an approval of N25 billion, totaling N75 billion. Additionally, Agba secured another N10 billion in the 2023 budget for two sections of the road.
