That the Second Niger Bridge is a critical national infrastructure that must be protected at all cost is a moot point. You do not build a 1.6km-long bridge at the cost of N336 billion and then leave things to chance believing that criminals would behave well – in a country where vandals would break up pipelines to steal crude oil even at the risk of being gulped by inferno.
This was essentially the point the then Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, was making in September 2021 at a stakeholders’ summit on the ‘Protection of Critical Infrastructure in Nigeria’ organized by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). At the event held at the NAF Conference Centre in Abuja, Aregbesola, who was represented by a Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr. Shuaib Belgore, harped on the need to secure the various infrastructure the federal, state and local governments were massively investing in to support employment generation, poverty reduction and the comfort and well-being of the Nigerian people.
“These assets and infrastructure would need to be protected. These aside, the FG is also very much aware of its responsibility to provide adequate security for the huge investment by the private sector. It is for this reason that every effort is being made to further support and strengthen the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps who has the mandate as the security agency with the responsibility for the protection of critical national assets and infrastructure in Nigeria,” he said.
That is not to say that the responsibility for protecting critical national assets and infrastructure lies solely with the Federal Government. Of course, those in whose domain such infrastructure or asset is located, governments as well as individuals, and those who make use of them have a responsibility.
To that extent, the Federal Government is not to blame if some criminal elements decide to vandalise portions of the Second Niger Bridge and cart away some sensitive metals without which the integrity of the facility – built to ease pressure on the existing old Niger Bridge and make movement, from the South East to especially the South-South and South-West and vice versa less cumbersome – could be compromised. It is also not the government’s fault that armed robbers have made the largely lonely bridge a sphere of influence, forcing drivers of heavy duty vehicles and commercial buses off that route, as reported by News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) last week. However, the government is entirely to blame if no security provision was made along the route.
Last week, NAN quoted the National President of Heavy Duty Drivers Association, Mr Uchenna Nebuwa, as saying that “drivers are afraid because there is no adequate security on the Second Niger Bridge”. Nebuwa also called on the Federal Government to “provide security to secure lives and property”.
“The bridge is not secure. It’s too lonely. You can’t even try to use it at night, even you inside the bus will be scared. Government should at least install light on the bridge, maybe that will help,” NAN reported a commercial bus driver who plies Asaba-Owerri road, Paul Osakwe, to have said.
On his part, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Mr Mahmuda Mamman, while inspecting the vandalised part of the Second Niger Bridge, also urged security agencies to beef up security on the bridge and surrounding areas.
It was, therefore, heartening to hear that the Federal Government has not only fixed the vandalized portions of the Second Niger Bridge but has also ordered regular security patrol on the bridge to ensure security for both the facility and its users.
Following this, the Anambra and Delta Police Commands have, rightly, taken it as a joint responsibility to send patrol teams to regularly patrol the bridge to keep off the vandals and make the bridge more motorable and secure for road users.
In addition to the Federal Government’s order and the action taken by the Police Commands in the two states contiguous to the Second Niger Bridge, governors of the two states, and indeed of the entire South-East states, must rise up to protect this national infrastructure that is poised to, among other economic benefits, improve transportation network, improve access to the Port of Onne, one of the country’s busiest ports, and reduce the time and cost of transporting goods on that axis.
In case the governors do not know, they are the direct custodians of that bridge even if it is a federal project. They must, therefore, not allow it to become another theatre of the insecurity that has been ravaging the South-East in the past few years which, so far, they have proved grossly unable to contain. Anything to the contrary will put the bridge at risk of being underutilized, and that will amount to a waste of all the resources poured into constructing it.
