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JUST IN: FG Terminates Julius Berger’s Abuja-Kaduna Road Contract, Gives Reason
Published
8 months agoon
By
Editor
The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Works, has directed Julius Berger, the contractor handling Section One, the rehabilitation of the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Dual Carriageway, to evacuate the project site.
This followed a 14-day final termination notice issued to the company on Monday, dismissing any possibility of further negotiations.
It said the termination was based on non-compliance with the reviewed cost, scope and terms, stoppage of work and refusal to remobilise to the site as directed by the ministry.
It noted that negotiations had been ongoing for several months without any significant progress.
A statement by the Director, Press and Public Relations, Mohammed Ahmed, disclosed this information on Monday in Abuja, stressing that the decision was reached during a management meeting of the ministry at its headquarters.
Recall that the Works Ministry has in the last 13 months been in constant talks with the company in order to reach an agreeable position on the said alignment but to no avail.
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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 penultimate week, Umahi accused Julius Berger of playing politics with the highway to make the current administration look bad.
Despite these efforts, an agreement was not reached between both parties, with the construction company not attending the scheduled meeting on Monday.
The statement said, “Based on non-compliance with reviewed cost, scope and terms, stoppage of work and refusal to remobilise to site, as directed, the Federal Ministry of Works has issued a 14-day Notice of Termination to Messrs Julius Berger Plc for the Rehabilitation of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Dual Carriageway in FCT, Kaduna and Kano States, Contract No. 6350, Section I (Abuja-Kaduna), today, 4th November, 2024.
“Nigerians may wish to know that the contract for the rehabilitation of the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano dual carriageway, which was divided into three sections, was awarded to the company on 20th December 2017 and flagged off by the former Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, at an initial sum of N155.75bn on 18th June 2018. Sections II (Kaduna-Zaria) and III (Zaria-Kano) were partially completed and handed over during the twilight of the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR.
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“Since then it has been one variation and augmentation or the other, and finally, the present Minister of Works directed for the redesigning and re-scoping of Section I of the contract.
“The alignment was divided into two, with one phase redesigned to be on continuously reinforced concrete pavement, while the remaining with asphaltic pavement. Approval for Section I, Phase 1, for a length of 38 (thirty-eight) kilometres on the concrete pavement was given to Messrs Dangote Industries (Nig.) Ltd., while the remaining 127 (one hundred and twenty-seven) kilometres remained with the substantive contractor.
“Phase 1 was flagged off on 17th October 2024, with a 14-month completion period.”
Mohammed further explained that a request to rescope the project was approved by the Federal Executive Council, but the contract’s terms were not agreed upon by the contractor.
He added, “Due to the stalemate of the contract and, most importantly, the desire of President Bola Tinubu, as encapsulated in the Renewed Hope Agenda infrastructure initiative, to see to the completion of this laudable project and also to alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians plying the road, the Ministry re-scoped it and got the approval of the Federal Executive Council.
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“The award for the Re-scoping and Downward Review of Contract for the Rehabilitation of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Dual Carriageway in FCT, Kaduna and Kano States, Contract No.6350, Section I (Abuja-Kaduna) in favour of Messrs Julius Berger Plc from the sum of N797.26bn to N740.79bn was granted by FEC on 23rd September 2024 and conveyed to the company on 3rd October 2024.
“Due to the socio-economic importance of the road as a vital artery connecting Abuja and the FCT to the North, the Ministry conveyed the approval for a final offer on the Abuja-Kaduna Dual Carriageway to the company on 23rd October 2024, stating that it should agree, in writing, to accept the reviewed contract sum of N740.79bn within seven days or risk the termination of the said contract.
“It is a sad commentary on the company that rather than accepting the offer, they tinkered with the bills of quantities as well as that of engineering measurements and evaluation via a letter to the Ministry dated 29th October 2024.
“The company was summoned for a meeting with the Management of the Ministry today, 4th November, 2024 but refused to show up, hence the termination of the contract based on effluxion of time and non-performance.”
With the latest development, this means the Works Minister, David Umahi, has revoked 11 contracts in 16 months.
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News
Arson: Man To Pay N150m For Burning FRSC Patrol Vehicle In Bauchi
Published
3 hours agoon
June 27, 2025By
Editor
A man, Nasiru Gwallaga has been found guilty of committing a crime of burning down a patrol vehicle of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Bara village of Kirfi Local Government Area of Bauchi state in 2023.
The Sector Commander of FRSC in the state, Istifanus Ibrahim who disclosed the development in an interview with newsmen on Friday, said that the convict was charged to pay the sum of N150 million representing the value of the burnt vehicle to FRSC in the state.
According to him, Gwallaga and two other accomplices were also sentenced to one year imprisonment or a fine of N15,000 respectively for conspiracy to commit obstruction, obstruction of civil servants and assault of public servants while on duty.
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He explained that the trio were convicted and sentenced by Justice Safiya Doma, at the Chief Magistrate Court, Fadama Mada, Bauchi State on June 23, 2025.
The FRSC boss added that Gwallaga was also found guilty of causing bodily harm to FRSC staff and was to pay the sum of N170,000 for damaging samsung galaxy phone of the then Acting Unit Commander (UC).
“All the convicts were ordered to pay N50,000 representing the cost spent in prosecuting the case by the nominal complainant.
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“The Judge ruled that they have a right of appeal to the High Court of Justice within 30 days of the Judgement.
“This will serve as a deterrent to those who take the law into their own hands.
“Members of the motoring public are advised to be law abiding as we are not enemies, but compatriots on the road to save lives and property,” said the Sector Commander.

Tunde Odesola
When two or more words combine to form a new word, what you get is a compound word, which is also called a portmanteau. An example of a compound/portmanteau word is brunch – a combination of ‘breakfast’ and ‘lunch’; motel: ‘motor’ and ‘hotel’ – a roadside lodging where motorists park directly outside the rooms to rest; podcast is a word coined from ‘iPod’ and ‘broadcast’, just as sunlight is forged from ‘sun’ and ‘light’. Even the word ‘portmanteau’ itself is a portmanteau word, combining ‘porter’ (to carry) and ‘manteau’ (a cloak).
Did you know there’s a compound side to food? Come take a bite. A balanced diet is a healthy meal that nourishes the body with essential nutrients in the right proportions. Adalu is a Yoruba delicacy consisting of corn, beans, and palm oil, popular in Benin and Togo. Abula is a classic Yoruba soup of ewedu and gbegiri that caresses amala on the descent journey to the belly. Oyinbo people, too, have their own compound/portmanteau meals. They have croffle – a combination of croissant dough and waffle; meatza – a pizza crust made from meat; turducken – a roast dish consisting of a boned chicken inside a boned duck, which is placed inside a partially boned turkey.
Is my tale getting more delicious? Good! “Give me second base, jare,” Fela Anikulapo-Kuti would say when he diminuendoes his tune to change musical notes. I’m just about to change to the second base of this literary offering and enter into the underground spiritual game. Hahaha! Just sit back and enjoy, please.
Here we go. There’s a new compound meal in town. The new meal is a portmanteau of madness. It’s as disgusting as it’s disturbing. It’s crazy, irritating and sickening. It’s a food combination that the brainless are guzzling with gusto right now. It is Fufeyin, a meal of fufu and eyin. Eyin is a Yoruba word for egg – protein-rich, formerly a food on common plates, but now a permanent resident on the exclusive menu for executive plates. Fufu is the long-lasting starchy staple famous among the masses on 0-0-1 unsquared meal, enduring in the stomach from a.m. to p.m.
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Fufeyin is the new opium for the brainless. It’s an unhygienic food combination that leads to acidic farts and watery gastronomic leaks. Fufeyin is a metaphor for moral rot – a symbolic dish served hot by deceivers to the devoutly daft. It’s the burnt offering rejected by God, but guzzled by the gullible, eyes shut, wallets open. The ‘fufu’ in Fufeyin symbolises a poverty background, the ‘eyin’ in it symbolises craze for wealth. Fufeyin is evil. Fufeyin is a meal made for the ignorant and the stupid by an irritating chef who doesn’t know how to light a stove.
Can we spare 60 seconds to talk about brains, please? It could be less. Let’s place a grown man on a spot marked ‘A’ and place an ant on a spot marked ‘B’. In the heads of the man and the ant, the brains are of different sizes. Having studied ants for more than five decades, the moniker, “Ant Man,” perches fittingly on the laurels of James Traniello, a professor of biology at Boston University. A 2023 publication, “BU’s ‘Ant Man’ studies Ant Brains,” published in Boston University’s digital research journal, The Brink, says Traniello’s work ‘raises questions about how both insect and mammalian brain sizes evolved and about the relationship between the size of the brain and how much energy it requires’.
In a 2020 publication in The Brink, “From Ant Brains, Seeking New Lessons about Human Behaviour and Society,” Traniello says, “Human brains weigh only about 3 pounds, but use about 20 per cent of our energy. Brains are also metabolically selfish, potentially capable of demanding energy dedicated to other organs.”
Science says an ant’s brain is remarkably large in proportion to its body size and sophisticated enough for navigation, swarm intelligence, efficiency, chemical communication, memory and colony coordination. The size of an ant’s brain is 0.01mm, which is 15 per cent of the body mass, with an estimated neuron count of 250,000.
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The human brain is about 2 per cent of total body mass, with an 86 billion neuron count and measuring 1,200 – 1,400 cm in size. The human brain has faculties for reasoning, language, memory, creativity, emotion and consciousness.
Traniello, whose research attracted a $1.5m grant, says, “Some types of ants even work together to cultivate and harvest mushrooms for food,” adding that, “Like humans, ants are known for their extraordinary collective intelligence. Cooperating groups are better at problem-solving than individuals in both human and ant societies.”
Although the human brain is far more complex than the ant’s brain, the actions of some people show that a human brain not put to proper use cannot compare with the brain of an ant. Indeed, the irritable way many Nigerians worship glaringly deceitful religious and political leaders, fawning over fake miracles and political promises, shows that an ant’s brain is far superior to some humans’ brains.
Probably the vacuity in humans was what King Solomon noticed when he offered that timeless piece of advice in the Book of Proverbs, chapter 6: verses 6-11: “6. Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! 7. It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, 8. yet it stores its provisions in summer, and gathers its food at harvest. 9. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? 10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—11
And poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.”
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The Jewish Virtual Library says Solomon became the King of Israel in approximately 967 B.C.E, that is 2,991 years ago, yet he talks about the ants ‘gathering its food at harvest’, and Professor Traniello, in a 2020 research corroborates King Solomon, saying, “Some types of ants even work together to cultivate and HARVEST mushrooms for food.”
Because I’m not as wise as King Solomon and because I live in the digital age, I’ll depart from the ant metaphor and go after the spider and its web. The spider web holds a fascination for me because of its intriguing comparability with digital technology. So, watch me as I step onto the spider’s intricate web, gingerly avoiding the pitfalls of sticky strands.
Ssshhh! Silence! I’m on the cobweb now, trying to get my balance; it’s bouncy and shaky here, like walking on the slippery terrain of Nigeria. Ha! God, abeg o. Can you believe what I’m seeing? Ha!? So, spiders too write graffiti? Ise eniyan ni ise eranko o – humans behave like animals. Or perhaps worse. Wow, how lovely the spider writes! Can I read out some of the graffiti? OK. Here we go. “While ants build colonies and spiders design cobwebs, humans flock to charlatans selling spiritual fufu and eggs.” Wow! Word!
I can see more graffiti on the wobbly cobwebs. I’ll read them: “Fufeyin and co are a curse on humanity.” “Fufeyin will perish soon.” “There are a million Fufeyins littering different altars in Nigeria.”
Ise eniyan ni ise eranko o – humans and animals behave alike. That’s why life, like a cobweb, is a delicate weave – spun from dreams, sweat, fears, and faith. Like life, the cobweb glistens at its peak, masking its trap in its fragile form, lurking for the next victim. Wise up, brethren; Fufeyin is the trap, stop falling mugun.
Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com
Facebook: @Tunde Odesola
X: @Tunde_Odesola
News
Full List Of Schengen Countries Offering 5-yr Visa Programme
Published
16 hours agoon
June 26, 2025By
Editor
Nigerians with a strong travel history now have more incentive to explore European countries, thanks to the five-year multiple entry Schengen visa.
This long-term visa offers travelers the freedom to enter any of the 29 Schengen countries multiple times over five years: provided no stay exceeds 90 days within any 180-day window.
Designed primarily for frequent travelers, business professionals, and individuals with consistent international travel records, the visa eliminates the hassle of reapplying for short-term permits.
It reduces visa processing time, lowers application costs, and simplifies the documentation and interview requirements.
Approval for the five-year visa is still subject to the discretion of the issuing embassy or consulate.
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However, applicants with a higher likelihood of success typically meet one or more of the following criteria:
Previously held a multiple entry Schengen visa valid for at least two years within the past three years
Travel to Schengen countries at least two to three times a year
Demonstrated compliance with visa regulations, including no overstays and proper documentation
To boost their chances, applicants are expected to submit a compelling cover letter stating the purpose and need for long-term travel, show proof of financial stability, and provide valid long-term Schengen travel insurance.
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Eligible Countries under the Five-Year Schengen Visa
Holders of this visa can travel freely to the following 29 Schengen member states:
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Italy
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
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