APC’s Federal Executive Council and the Minister in David Umahi
A few days ago, the APC-led Federal Government of Nigeria swore into office a new league of Ministers with the immediate past Governor of Ebonyi State, Engr David Umahi becoming the Minister of Works. Such a powerful ministry second only to the Petroleum ministry or sector. It’s no doubt that Engr David Umahi is some sort of experienced construction engineering personality, but some qualities lack in the ways he administers any office he finds himself in every material point in time. I’m from Ebonyi State; a direct witness to how he ran the works sector as Governor of the state of Ebonyi for eight years.
Two cardinal analyses of those who know the Minister of Works, Engr David Umahi about his nomination as Works Minister are that he’s going to adopt the direct labour mechanism in delivering projects as was the case when he was governor of Ebonyi State. Another is the assumption that he’s going to make more money as Works Minister than he must have made as Governor for eight uninterrupted years. During his inglorious reign as Governor of Ebonyi State, hunger reigned supreme in the state. His projects still suffer dilapidation just a few months to, and after leaving office. One of the shocking failures recorded on his self-supervised projects was the collapse of some buildings inside the Abakaliki International Market construction of which he personally supervised. When the buildings fell completely, Ebonyi people and residents were shocked. Their shock came from the fact that the Governor as he was bragged allowed that his direct labour projects would stand test of longevity for as long as fifty years.
Umahi runs a one man’s show. I read that the contractors handling ongoing federal projects under the Federal Ministry of Works have issued warning notes against the minister whom they accused of trying to revoke and reaward already contracted projects that are currently being executed and refusing to sign documents that could see to the release of funds to shoulder the costs of the ongoing projects. I read also from the news that his handlers were planning to enforce his decision of appointing 37 Special Assistants, one for each state who would assist him carry out his soul administrative running of the lofty ministry. We who know Mr Umahi can explain how he’s going to run the ministry without mincing words. He’s a despot, dictator and everything unsuitable for a leader with approval power. He has already begun to marshal out ways of executing projects using direct labour means. How he does it is that after contractors have bidded for such projects, attaching costs effects on them, he now bypasses the due process and begins to deliver them using direct labour. That’s how he executed all the now stuttering projects he carried out as Governor.
It’s without doubts that he has reached a pact with some cement manufacturers from whom he buys at a wholesale rate. In fact, he uses his immediate younger brother, Austin Umahi to carry out the nefarious contract execution who he mandates to manage the cement and iron supplies. Delivering the shabby projects, he converts the Works ministry’s civil servants into mere site labourers. He harvests sand and chippings free from the many mines around using his executive fiat to commandeer handlers into granting free excavation to the different project sites.
Attached to this article are several road projects he delivered in Ebonyi which began depleting immediately after delivering them. A greater portion of his projects in Ebonyi have begun suffering depletion as can be seen in the pictures below. If anyone was, or is thinking that Umahi would deliver quality projects to Nigeria as Works Minister, such a person is daydreaming. Umahi has come to pursue selfish agenda. Once he has settled the powers that be inside the presidency, everyone else working at the Ministry is on their own. He’s at best a lone ranger. He doesn’t consult as much as he doesn’t take corrections or caution. Using concrete pavement mechanism on federal roads is one of the losses the APC-led Federal Government would be incurring from the nomination of Umahi as Minister of Works, and by extension the Nigerian public.
The singular agenda of Mr Umahi is to amass more wealth. His choice of concrete pavement technology over asphalt is to have a faster means of amassing money as such is way too cheaper than asphalt technology. It’ll take the National Assembly or the President himself to dissuade him from applying direct labour and concrete pavement technology on all the construction projects his ministry is going to undertake. While the projects are ongoing, depletion on the other hand is taking place on them. The threat from the contractors won’t dissuade him either. The contractors have got to take the campaign seriously by reporting him to the superior authorities. He’s for sure going to render the administrative and field staff of the ministry redundant as he shall be importing his own team who’ll help him in amassing wealth through direct labour. Umahi is slow in knowing that he’s handling a federal office, not state one for which he acts as a soul administrator.
In nutshell, Nigerians should begin to zero their minds towards the expectation that Mr minister of Works is going to replicate his “giant strides” in Ebonyi on federal works. What many misconstrue to mean giant leap in Ebonyi is not actually one. Umahi’s projects are all gradually failing. One can’t imagine having him replicate such high level of shabbiness in the delivery of federal projects. Nigeria will regret having him doing that; and if any Minister should be monitored closely, it’s the Minister of Works, Engr David Umahi as his trajectories speak volumes in the area of projects determination, administration and execution.
•Nwoba Chika Nwoba.
