VP Osinbajo Visits Delta, Commissions One Of The Biggest Central Secretariats In The South South

Prof. Osinbajo landed the Asaba International Airport, at around 2pm, surrounded by a welcome party, led by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa. Also present at the project site, at Mariam Babangida Way, Asaba, was Governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri and Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philips Shuaibu. Others included senators, members of the House of Representatives and prominent elective and appointive political office holders from Delta State and beyond.

The Vice President, who also commissioned the Independent Power Project (IPP), built by the Okowa Administration, described the two projects as worthy dividends of democracy, which has put Delta State among the states with the greatest conducive environment for service delivery, as well as human development.

The civil servants, who were already at work at the new Secretariat Complex, were the happier for it, as some of them, who spoke to News Crackers.com, said they were no longer in a hurry to go home, given that the new secretariat is a world class environment.

Major Highlights

Interviews:

“Delta Was The Only State In the South South Without A Central Secreatariat- Ifeadi  

Architect Kester Ifeadi, Delta-born world class architect, who designed the new Central Secretariat in Asaba and whose company, Contemporary Group, served as the project manager, spoke on the structural design, composition and other details pertaining to the secretariat complex. Excerpts:    

 Q: We are here to know about the role you played in the execution of the new secretariat?

A: We were the consultants. We were the architects that designed this massive building. We are consulting architects and project managers.

Q: When His Excellency called you in to design a project this massive, what was your first impression? Did you think it was possible?

A: Of course, it was very possible and neither I nor the Governor had any doubts about that. It was an interesting challenge and an interesting engagement for us. It was the uniqueness of the project that made it quite interesting. It was a unique project, which showcased our ability to put together, a structure that today houses all the 29 ministries in Delta State.

Q: People would expect that there must have been initial challenges.  That is, areas where you didn’t quite agree with the government. Was this the case?

A: No, not at all. There was none of that in any form. This is the vision of the Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa-led government. So, the issue of having challenges was out of the question, because we had a common vision. And as consultants to the project, we were quite fortunate and appreciative that we had opportunity to be part of that vision. Clearly, we can see today, that the vision was a good one and by the special grace of God, it is fully realised.

Q: Will you take us through your experience because it must have been quite an experience from the design stage to the architectural processes and bringing in the real construction people. What was it like?

A: Due to the nature of the work we do, it was a fairly regular and standard experience, to put the concept together, following it up with construction and getting companies on board. In this case, our role was fairly cut out from day one: provide the concept for the project, go ahead and develop the detailed working plans and provide supervisory  and management role, making sure that every single person at every level- the contractors, the sub contractors, the suppliers, the government and everybody worked together in harmony to realise the project. So, those were the processes. We developed the initial concepts and got approvals on behalf of our client, who is the Delta State Government. Once the approval was given, we got to the next stage, which was documentation and drawings for construction to take off and of course, in the process, we put the documents together to enable the contractors selected for this project to take off. When government finally concluded the process of engaging a contractor, our role was basically to follow up on the drawings that we had done, to make sure that everything went on, in line with what we have, as the vision of the state government. And from that time till now, we were busy managing everybody, to make sure that whatever was put together, is in line with the vision and the concept of this great project.

Q: The average Deltan has heard so much about this project and to many of them, it is a mystery. Can you take us through the project, room by room, flat by flat? What is the structure, what is it really like?

A: It’s basically a project, which is simple in nature, in terms of design, but complex in nature to accommodate all the ministries. We have 29 ministries here, with all the commissioners, permanent secretaries, all the civil servants.  For us, it was a simple concept. If not being a simple concept, we could not have dealt with it like this. Basically, we have five court yards; you can see Cluster A, Cluster B and so on. They are arranged in clusters. There are four major floors and three upper floors, bringing it to a total of seven floors. Where the ministries are located is basically from the ground floor to the sixth floor. When I say seven floors, I mean the ground floor and six floors. We have all the ministries arranged around clusters in different floors. We provided the necessary lift/elevators because if you’re going up, you need to have vertical movement. We have six lifts; there is a crèche for civil servants’ children, it has a clinic, banking facilities and business centres. It has restaurants, indeed, it’s a one-stop shop really. It is a small city. It has over a thousand car parking spaces. It is a 5, 000 workers’ facility.

Q: You said it’s a unique project; was there any point in time you felt that it was impossible to accomplish?

 A: No. You see, when you’re working for a Governor like the one we have, I do not think there was plan in any way to abandon the project because from what I’ve seen so far, he doesn’t abandon any project. So, the fear of not finishing it was out of it because he made it clear that this was his vision, his commitment and we were just fortunate to have a Governor, who gave us a free hand. All the while in this project, from the beginning till the end, he did not get involved. Once he gives you an assignment, he gives you a free hand and no interference. I’ve worked for the Federal Government and other state governments, but in Delta State, I’ve not seen a Governor, who gave us the kind of free hand we got in this project. The level of confidence was too much. We are humbled and really grateful to him. It’s not easy to put together a construction like this without political interference. He never got involved in what we were doing at all. Any time we had issues, he eagerly resolved it.

Q: How long did it take to complete this project?

A: We are talking about three and half years.

Q: Can you tell us about  the impact of this project on the productivity of the state

A: The impact is huge. This project has almost the same impact as the airport. Of course, you can imagine having the entire government structure in one place. Government businesses will be flawless, in terms of service delivery. It would help and enhance government business. It will have positive impact on the real estate business and be highly impactful to the immediate environment in different forms. It is a landmark project that has come at the right time, because it is going to transform the state’s economy. For example, the government was paying rent. Most of the ministries, almost half of them, were paying rents everywhere, so you can imagine the savings that will come out of no longer having to pay rent. Plus, you have steady power supply. This project is connected to an Independent Power Project (IPP), which is functioning perfectly. Imagine people working in an environment, where there are no generators, with all the noise, hence, the level of productivity would be unimaginable.

Q: Those on the other side of the divide say that this is a monumental abuse of funds. Was the project a priority?

 A: It’s like somebody saying that the Asaba Airport was not a priority. When you come to a state like Delta State, the number two oil producing state in Nigeria, for over 20 something years after creation, they don’t have a secretariat, apart from those small ones that had four ministries, three ministries, it was unbelievable. I feel that I need to open your eyes to something. Before this project was commissioned, Delta State was the only state in the whole of the South-South, without a central secretariat. Rivers, Ondo and Enugu, all have central secretariats. People find it difficult to believe this. I’ve done my research on this. Bayelsa have a huge central secretariat. That’s how bad it was with Delta State. Many of the government offices were not better than boys’ quarters in your house. It was unbelievable that Delta descended to that level before the Okowa administration decided to change the narrative for good. And what we have today, the result speaks for itself. I don’t think that there are any state governments with this type of secretariat, maybe apart from the Federal Secretariat, Abuja. So, it is a monumental achievement of this administration. The issue of waste of funds, does not come in here, because if you look at the value of what has been put here, the savings from past rents; with the current exchange rate, we thank God that this decision was made at the right time. If it was now, you can’t even think about such a project. So, it has a huge impact because a lot of these things are actually important.

Q: You would admit as an architect that there are security and environmental risks attached to such a massive collection of people at the same place. Don’t you think so?

A: We are very conscious of that. The government is also putting a security structure in place to deal with that aspect and it is working on maintaining and keeping the construction in a great level. It is bringing a world class facilities’ manager to deal with this place, so everything is going according to plan.

Q: The maintenance policy in Nigeria is very poor. What precise arrangement do you have on that?

A: The government of Delta State is conscious of how to keep this place in good condition for a very long time. There’s a process that is ongoing, in fact, adverts have gone out to engage international, high level facility managers, who can come in here and handle it up to a level we expect. You can’t expect a government, who has put this together, up to this standard, not to think of that. And the Governor is someone who is a stickler for clearly finishing things and maintaining them.

Q: Let’s take it back to the beginning. When his Excellency called you to discuss this project, what did you feel was his inspiration?

A: As a Deltan, I really we share his passion and I discovered very early in his administration, that he had a very clear passion to change the narrative. I’m not here to speak for anybody, but just across the River Niger, it is a different world from where we are. Besides physical development, having a system where we see a government that is so focused, security wise, you can see that people sleep soundly here. Across the Niger, it’s a different story. That shows you the level of effort that has been put together here, from security, the ambiance, the economic environment; you can see that a lot has turned positively in the state. With this type of massive structure, there are cleaners and service providers, So many people are going to be engaged here. That’s one of the economic benefits and I want to plead with every Deltan to support the Okowa Administration, for continued delivery of his legacy projects across the state.

Q: Before now, we used to find Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government holding conferences and various events at hotels. Is this going to change?

A: We have lots of seminar rooms and conference rooms here. So, there is no longer need to patronise hotels. Every floor here has about three or four conference rooms. There are enough for the 29 ministries. Every ministry has a meeting room and there is a conference room that serves everybody.

Q: If you look at the old secretariat, you see a lot of hawking, a lot of outdoor markets. Would we find the same here?

 A: You can see clearly, the ambiance that the government has created; I’m sure the government, in its infinite wisdom, has plans to deal with that problem of the old secretariat and organise people.

Q: What inspired the design, have you done something like this before?

 A: The company I represent and run: “Contemporary Design Associates” is 31 years old this year; we are architects and we do consultancy work. We work for both private sector and government clients. We’ve been all over the country. We’ve been in this business- we designed the Asaba Airport. I am the Founder and Principal Partner. It’s not as if we are new to such projects, but the uniqueness of this one is that, it is one of the few projects where we had a free hand to really express ourselves as consultants. That was one of the things that inspired us to go the extra length to produce this masterpiece. That is how it should be. The professionals should be given the opportunity to do things the way they see it. I want to plead with the government of Nigeria to allow us to do things our way. It’s just that in Nigeria, we seem not to believe in professionals. But when professionals are given the opportunity to deal with issues, without interference, the result will be good.

Q: What did it cost the government to fund this project?

 A: The total project cost was about N20 billion, but the present day cost would be in the neighbourhood of N60 billion, due to the skyrocketing exchange rate. Hence, Delta State is so fortunate because it would have been difficult to put up this kid of structure presently.