Help! Niger Bridge falling down
•The politics, pains of the second bridge
By ORI MARTINS
Wednesday February 01, 2012


A section of the Niger bridge
Photo: Sun News Publishing
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It is a tragedy waiting to happen. The Niger Bridge at Onitsha, Anambra State, has dangerously deteriorated and its collapse eminent. The bridge was built in 1965. It serves as a link between the old Eastern block and the then Western Nigeria through Asaba.

But the 46-year-old bridge is now old, weak and in a pathetic sight. Buffeted by rain, scorched by sun and weighed down by heavy traffic, the bridge is overdue for repairs.
A new one has been in the pipeline since 1992. That was when former military president, General Ibrahim Babanginda, muted the idea of a Second Niger Bridge. The design was undertaken by the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), via its subsidiary, NSE PREMS. Despite continued promises and pledges by successive governments, the bridge has remained a pipedream thereby causing untold pains and frustrations to the South-Eastern region.

Dilapidated bridge
A public affairs commentator, Pius Okigbo, noted that the Niger Bridge had reached an advance stage of dilapidation: “Many experts have warned that the Niger Bridge may not withstand for much longer the stress on it from the overwhelming flow of traffic that has placed dangerous strain on its frame.”

The question is: Why has been the bridge so neglected? Observers believe what the bridge suffers as neglect is not different from the plight of the South–East and South-South zones. An All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), chieftain, Chief Chekwas Okorie insisted that the dilapidation of the Niger Bridge was a manifestation of the Federal Government’s crass negligence of the old Eastern Region especially the South-East:

“The bridge was constructed in 1965 by the Balewa/Zik regime. It was blown up in 1968 during the civil war but was repaired after Biafra surrendered. That was the last time any meaningful work was carried out on the bridge. Right now, there are noticeable cracks on the bridge. Anybody that applies that bridge will confirm that the link between the South-East and the rest of the country is in total ruins, just as the entire former Eastern Nigeria has been completely neglected by successive federal governments.”

Anambra State Governor Peter Obi has continued to plead with the Federal Government to fast track its promise of repairing the existing bridge as well as constructing a second one. He argued that it was no longer in doubt that the Niger Bridge was decrepit and there was an urgent need for a second bridge. He regretted until the administration of President Jonathan Goodluck came, there was no substantial evidence to prove that any contract was really awarded on the Second Niger Bridge. He maintained that the assumption that a contract was awarded was a hoax.

EX-Minister of Works, Housing and Urban Development Hassan Lawal, confirmed that there was no plan by the Federal Government to build a second Niger Bridge in Onitsha. Ugochukwu Ejinkonye, another public affairs analyst made it clear that the bridge was a giant living on its glorious past: “Thank God, the Niger Bridge, though now a death trap, is still standing there like a well beaten warrior, still faithfully shouldering heavy vehicular and human traffic between Asaba and Onitsha. But experts are warning that if nothing is urgently done, that bridge would soon cave in and crash down.”

Second Niger bridge
The main objective of the Second Niger Bridge is to take pressure off the still in use Niger Bridge. At the time Babangida made the move to erect the Second Niger Bridge, the people of the South- East jubilated, believing that a major aspect of their numerous plights was to be solved. But they were wrong. Twenty years after, the Second Niger Bridge is still not in sight.

In the last April 2010 presidential elections, almost all the candidates promised to build the second bridge if elected. Even some South-East politicians who sought elections either to the Senate or House of Representatives pledged to work assiduously towards the realisation of the much-trumpeted Second Niger Bridge.
One bad feature about the second bridge is that the two regimes that have given it thought pretended to have done a good job just few days to the expiration of their respective tenures. For example, the Banbagida regime concluded all it could ever afford to offer on the bridge in July 1993 and by August he left office. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo claimed that he awarded the contract at the cost of N60billion. He rolled out red carpet to celebrate the foundation laying ceremony on May 24, 2007, five days to the end of his second term tenure. Can these late minute arrangements and approaches be the reason for its perennial take off delay?

Meanwhile, Daily Sun reliably gathered that a French firm recently sealed a contract deal with the Federal Government to construct the Second Niger Bridge. As at press time the details of the deal were still not clear. The dealed was allegedly concretised during a recent trip to France invovlving the President, Minister of Finance Ngozi Oknjo-Iwela and Obi.

Some Nigerian entrepreneurs had earlier made moves to partner the Federal Government on the construction of the second bridge. The old Niger Bridge was one of the national assignments the late Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa performed in December 1965, before he was killed on January 15, 1966.

Cost and contract firm
Babangida had wanted the Second Niger Brigde executed through the Public Private Partnership [PPP]. Under Obasanjo arrangement in 2007, when the estimated cost was put at N60b, the Federal Government would contribute 20 percent, Anambra and Delta states 10 percent each, while Diamond Bank agreed to bring forward the rest 60 percent. Obasanjo, however, hinged the failure of the Second Niger Bridge to take off on non availability of funds, explaining that his regime, was tackling so many issues that required urgent financial attention. Measuring 1,760 metres, the Second Niger Bridge is designed to have a six lane carriage way and a toll plaza meant for the quick recovery of its cost of construction.

Bridges that collapsed elsewhere
The history of the world is replete with cases of bridges that collapsed due to negligence. There was the Tacoma Narrows Bridge that collapsed in Germany on December 12, 1940. The collapse was caused by poor construction work. Also, so many Germans who were adults in 1945 would forever remember the fatal collapse of the bridge at Ramanam on December 17, 1945 due to previous damage on the bridge. Structural failure was the reason the Duplessis Bridge in Canada failed on January 31, 1951. In America, the Kanas Bridge caved in on July 2, 1965, and experts blamed structural deterioration for that ugly incident. There were other bridge failures in Hakawa, Japan in 1967 caused by lack of inspection.

God forbid bad thing, I ply this bridge every monrning, on it right now in heavy traffic snarl!