Dikwa-Gamboru road: A lifeline

One is relieved that at last some attention is returning to the highways in Borno State. This is the perfect complement to the success achieved from the ongoing military action against the Boko Haram insurgency.

There is no gainsaying that, despite the relative peace that has returned to the state, trade and industrial activities have not picked up due to the obvious lack of good roads into and out of the state. Over time, we have bemoaned the fact that the only passable highway linking Maiduguri, the state capital, to the rest of the country is the one that runs through Damaturu. And even that, travellers on it run the risk of being waylaid by Boko Haram insurgents, as it has happened many times.

The alternative route through Damboa has been in a state of disrepair for as long as many of us can remember. And since the Boko Haram insurgents have long gained a firm foothold in that zone, motorists generally kept away from it. Those who had to go through Damboa always did so in protected caravans.

The highways leading to the neighbouring countries are even in a sorrier condition. The road to the Cameroun Republic, from Maiduguri through Bama, leading either to Kirewa or to Banki on the border, has been in poor condition for quite a while. The nefarious activities of the insurgents on the Mandara Mountains add to the travelling woes along this route. As for the Gamboru road, its poor state predates Boko Haram, but, happily, it is now being addressed. Going to the Niger Republic is another difficult exercise for motorists. Whether one is getting into the Niger Republic through Kukawa or Damasak, the horror story is the same. That partly explains why trading activities have failed to appreciate across the state.

Maiduguri had been the hub of trade in that entire region, with goods and services toing and froing not only with Cameroon, Chad and Niger but also reaching much further into Central Africa and Sudan. The Dikwa-Gamboru highway is the main artery into Kousseri in Cameroon, and onward to N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, and beyond. The highway is the lifeline. But since Boko Haram struck about two decades ago, and with the roads unmaintained and unsafe, trade has been largely grounded.

That’s why it was cheering to witness the ceremony held on the penultimate Saturday to flag off the construction of the Dikwa-Gamboru and the Bama-Banki roads. I would have waved it away as an election gimmick. After all, it is election year and stunts like this are commonplace. Besides, road construction contracts have always been the easiest ploys with grand ceremonies but with no real intention of carrying them out. And to give credence to my misgivings, the contract to construct the Dikwa-Gamboru has been awarded many times in the past. The last time it was awarded was in another election year, 2022. The outgoing Buhari administration awarded the contract, but it never took off.

However, what gives some comfort that it is for real this time around are some of the reasons proffered during the ceremony. We have learnt that the two contracts fall under the Road Infrastructure Tax Credit (RITC) Scheme. This is an innovative Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement introduced by the Buhari Administration in 2019, which allows corporate participants to deploy their own working capital and financial resources to fund the construction of eligible road infrastructure projects nationwide.

The federal government then refunds these investors through a tax credit that can be used to offset their annual Company Income Tax. This scheme, which is administered jointly by the Federal Ministry of Works, the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), and the Federal Ministry of Finance, has been actively participated in by conglomerates such as NNPC, Dangote Industries, BUA Group, and MTN to fund critical national highways through tax credits.

Both the Dikwa-Gamboru and Bama-Banki roads have been contracted to Dangote Industries, with a six-month completion period. This is laudable, as Dangote Industries has been part of the RITC Scheme since its inception, and has reportedly performed satisfactorily on all the projects it has handled. In addition, one clear advantage of this scheme revolves around its financing arrangement. For the entire duration of the contract, it would not need to wait for funds from the Federal Ministry of Finance.

Another reason that gave hope for the realisation of the two roads was the presence of Vice-President Kashim Shettima, representing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, at the ceremony. He was the governor of the state and later the senator representing the district where the two roads are located. I guess he must have agonised over the conditions of the roads for years, and he would want to see it through as a legacy project.

Hopefully, the roads will see the light of day within the next six months. To do that, the government must also attend to a critical component of the project. The government will need to develop a comprehensive security backup plan for those working on site. Many times, road contractors have been forced to abandon projects due to lack of security backups, particularly in places considered unsafe. The Dikwa-Gamboru and Bama-Banki highways are in one of the most volatile regions of the Boko Haram insurgency. A robust security reinforcement will be indispensable to the project’s success.

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