FG issues ultimatum to Julius Berger on Abuja-Kaduna road

The Federal Government has issued a final seven-day ultimatum to Julius Berger to accept its proposal of N740.79bn to complete the rehabilitation of the 82km section II of the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road or risk contract termination.

The Minister of Works, David Umahi, said the project, which has lingered for too long on the negotiations table, must be resolved within the next seven days.

Umahi gave the new ultimatum when he was paid a courtesy visit by the new Managing Director of Julius Berger Plc, Dr Pier Lubasch, who was accompanied by the outgoing Managing Director, Dr Lars Richter, at the works ministry headquarters, in Abuja.

A statement signed by the Special Adviser (Media) to the Minister of Works, Orji Uchenna, on Wednesday, said the meeting was to introduce the new executive officer to the minister.

The latest development follows an earlier threat by the minister to revoke the contract which was awarded to the company in 2018 when former President Muhammadu Buhari was in power.

While the Kaduna-Zaria section has been completed and the Zaria-Kano section is almost done, the Abuja-Kaduna section has recorded 27 per cent progress in 6 years.

At an event last week, Umahi accused Julius Berger of playing politics with the highway to make the current administration look bad.

Speaking during the meeting, Umahi expressed concern that the delay in mobilizing to the site, despite the Federal Executive Council approving the funds, is causing significant hardship for road users and reflecting poorly on the government.

He said, “So if Berger is not doing it, then let’s have other people do the job and within the time that we can control price. We have had more than 20 letters from Berger on this. It is a ping-pong game from Julius Berger. The prices rose from N710bn to N740bn because of these delays. And if we continue the delays, it is the problem of the Ministry of Works.”

The minister expressed disappointment that Julius Berger Plc, a company that has enjoyed years of support from the Federal Government and state governments, is not being realistic with its contract pricing, particularly given Nigeria’s current economic challenges.

He, therefore, urged the contractor to accept or reject the approved revised contract sum for completing the section within seven days, or risk contract revocation.

He added that the government will not be held hostage by contractors’ demands for unrealistic pricing and additional costs.

He noted, “This offer is not subject to any condition. It’s not subject to any condition that is being dished out here. It’s taken as given after more than 14 months. I am sorry, I have to sound this way because there must be an end to negotiation. If anybody says there shouldn’t be an end to negotiation, then that person is not a business person. If you have negotiated for 14 months without any result, you should terminate the negotiation.

“Already several Berger projects have been terminated because the site has been abandoned. And we needed to do something about it because Nigerians are suffering. Nigerians are crying, and they are insulting the President. We can not allow that to be happening.”

The former Ebonyi governor emphasised that construction companies collaborating with the Ministry of Works must be prepared to make sacrifices regarding value for money and realistic contract pricing to foster the essential road infrastructure revolution needed for the nation’s economic transformation.

Responding, the new managing director of the construction firm promised to revert as soon as possible on the issues sought to be addressed and hoped that consensus would be reached for the project to take off without further delay.

The outgoing managing director, however, noted that the essence of the courtesy call was to introduce the new Managing Director of the company.