24022021 - Banditry designed to 9 destroy Nigeria — GOVS

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Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2021— 5
POCKET CARTOON
private sector
investment will flow into
the highways, while no
fewer than 50,000 direct
jobs and 200,000 indirect
jobs would be created by
the concessioning of the
highways to the private
operators.
UZODINMA IN ASO ROCK—President Muhammadu Buhari receives Imo
State Governor Hope Uzodinma in State House, Abuja, yesterday. Photo:
State House.
FG concessions 12
highways to investors
•Expects N1.34 trn investments, 250, 000 jobs
to be created•Obtains nod from ICRC to
proceed with project
By Soni Daniel,
Northern Region
Editor
ABUJA—In its bid to
ensure regular
maintenance of road
networks across the
country, the Federal
Ministry of Works and
Housing plans to
concession no fewer than
12 federal highways to
private entities to
manage.
The arrangement will
enable the private
companies introduce toll
gates on the 12 highways
and generate revenue
which they would use to
regularly maintain such
roads.
This information is
contained in a
document, which
Vanguard obtained,
yesterday, from the
Federal Ministry of
Works and Housing in
Abuja.
The 12 highways to be
concessioned under the
Ministry’s “Highway
M a n a g e m e n t
Development Initiative”,
HMDI, are: Benin-
Asaba, Abuja-Lokoja,
Kano-Katsina, Onitsha-
Owerri, Shagamu-Benin
and Abuja-Keffi-
Akwanga.
Others are: Kano-
Shuari, Potiskum-
Damaturu, Lokoja-
Benin, Enugu-Port
Harcourt, Ilorin-Jebba,
Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta and
Lagos-Badagry-Seme
Border.
The roads, according to
the ministry, come under
the pilot phase of the
HDMI to be managed by
selected private sector
investors under its
V a l u e - A d d e d
Concession, VAC,
arrangement.
The 12 highways,
according to the
document, reviewed by
Vanguard represent
merely 5.6 per cent or
1,963 kilometres of the
country’s 35,000 km
federal highway
network.
The document
estimates that not less
than N1.34 trillion of
Not about revenue
“It’s not really about
revenue, it is about the
expected injection into
the economy. The
estimated private sector
investment required for
the development and
maintenance of the 12
routes is N1.34 trillion
and the impact such
investment will have on
the economy cannot be
overstated.
“The anticipated
private sector
investment will stimulate
thousands of job
opportunities for
Nigerians as the
Highway Economy
comes alive along
federal highways.
“A minimum 50,000
direct jobs and over
200,000 indirect jobs are
envisaged to be created,
spanning construction
works, installations,
steel fabrication, security,
hospitality, vehicle
repairs, waste
management and
administrative work as
the value chain along the
Highway Economy is
activated.
“The combined impact
of this mini economy
will be a significant
boost to our national
GDP as productivity and
earnings are enhanced,”
the document read.
Beyond the Value-
Added Concession, VAC
arrangement, the
FMWH is also planning
to use another vehicle,
known as the Unbundled
Assets Approvals
initiative, UAAI, to
maximize the use of its
assets on the highways.
Under this category,
the ministry plans to
issue approvals/permits
to individuals to use
assets on the right of
way on a Build, Operate
and Maintain basis.
Both the VAC and the
UAAI, according to the
ministry, aim to provide
adequate highway
services through the
development of
revenue-generating
assets along the
highway.
“This is key to
maintaining the
functionality of the
highway as well as
engaging and
generating wealth for
indigenous small and
medium enterprises,” it
says.
Approval obtained
The ministry explained
that it has already
obtained the approval of
the Infrastructure
Concession and
Regulatory Commission,
ICRC, to go ahead with
the implementation of
the HMDI which
incorporates the
concessioning of the
highways and the right
of way to private sector
operators.
Explaining the
objectives of the HMDI,
the ministry said: “The
objective is to develop
an eco-system along the
federal highway
network by bringing
multi-dimensional
resources of skills,
manpower, finance,
technology, and
efficiency into the
National Highway
governance.
“Ultimately, this homegrown
initiative will be
the lasting solution to the
development and
management of federal
highways by introducing
order, accountability and
p r o f i t a b l e
entrepreneurship to the
operation, management,
and maintenance of
Nigeria’s 35,000 km
federal highways.
“The Initiative is
expected to be anchored
on private sector
engagement via
concessioning of
economically viable
routes to technically and
financially capable
private companies,
through
the
management and
development of the rightof-way.
“A major hindrance to
highway development
and management has
been paucity of required
funds to service the vast
and ever-expanding road
network. To negate this
handicap, the FMWH
proposes
engagement
Continues on Page 35
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By Yinka Latona
Should FG grant amnesty to bandits? (3)
Lemony Snicket was right
when he said: ‘Criminals
should be punished, not fed
pastries.’ When you pardon a
criminal, you have just
encouraged him or sent a
message to some people
somewhere that they can
always go Scot-free whenever
they break the laws. Bandits
are criminals. They have no
good intentions. They don’t
deserve amnesty. They
deserve a visitation to the
gallows.
—Folorunso F.Adisa,
Mediaprenuer
Bandits are threats to
national security and
if a country cannot allow
peaceful protesters to
have their way, they
shouldn’t in any way
negotiate with anything
that threatens the peace
of the nation. In my
opinion, several innocent
untried individuals in
prison need amnesty.
Adeleke Kehinde,
Content creator
I
actually do not believe
amnesty should be
granted to bandits. Besides,
more people will see it as a
shortcut to success looking
at how past repented
criminals are treated when
granted amnesty. If they can
take weapons and start
killing people for no reason,
I don’t see any reason why
they won’t keep going back
to the same crimes when
their demands are not met.
—Sunkanmi Ade,
Make-up artist
Bandits don’t deserve
amnesty. Why should
they be granted one? I
support what Gov El-Rufai
said on BBC Hausa Service.
If they are granted amnesty,
they will never honour it.
Then the government will
have to be meeting with
different groups and new
ones will continue to spring
up here and there.
—Odunayo Ayobami,
Student
I
don’t think it’s the right
step. Those who commit
crime should be punished;
it’s strange to be thinking of
granting them amnesty. It’s
high time we started
implementing our laws
religiously. The law says that
if you offend, you face the
consequences. Should we
grant amnesty to people who
had killed and maimed us?
It's unfair.
—Mrs. Shokoya Yetunde,
Businesswoman
The northern elders
based their requests on
the fact that Niger-Delta
militants got amnesty.
Comparing that struggle to
this one is baseless. That
struggle was based on
resource control,
environmental
degradation of a resourcerich
region. They had
regard for human lives
unlike the bandits who kill
at will. What economic
reason is their struggle
based? They are terrorists
that should be treated as
such . —Aremu Precious,
Entrepreneur