…Commends Tinubu on infrastructure rollout in S/east
By Dele Ogbodo
The Minister of Works, Engr. David over the weekend advocated for the proper integration of the Igbos in the affairs and mainstream of the Nigeria project.
While commending President Bola Tinubu for the massive rollout of road infrastructure deployment, he said the South-east region will not be coerced to join protest.
“We are not going to protest. We want proper integration in the affairs of this country, and President Tinubu has started it by giving an Igbo man the Minister of Works, first in history.
“We had been excluded in governance and in development in the past.”
The Special Adviser to the Minister of Media, Barr. Orji Orji, in a statement made available to the media, said: “We want proper integration in the affairs of this country, and Tinubu has started it by giving an Igbo man the Minister of Works, first in history.
“The Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi, has commended the synchronizing synergy between the governments of the States of South-east and Federal Government under the Renewed Hope administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which has resulted in the wave of infrastructure development witnessed in parts of South-east under the current governance regime.”
According to Orji, Umahi, made this known during his inspection visit to the ongoing reconstruction of the collapsed bridge at new artisan market, near NNPC Mega Filling Station, Enugu State on Sunday, 4th August 2024.
He said: “The Minister, who was in the company of the Governor of Enugu State, Barr. Peter Mba, commended the Governors of South-east highly for their unwavering support and synergy with Mr. President’s Renewed Hope agenda for national development, especially their efforts in the development of road infrastructure for the economic advancement of the region.
“I want to commend you for the numerous jobs you are doing in Enugu State.
“The economy of your state is going to boom by the strategic and noiseless infrastructure that you are putting in place.
“By the time you complete this infrastructure, it’s going to be a lot of noise.”
He further said, “I commend you very highly and the other Governors of South-east, including my own Governor, the Chairman of South-east Governors’ Forum and Governor of Imo State, the Governor of Abia State and the Governor of Anambra State.”
According to him, the projects he visited include the construction of 23-span twin flyover bridge at Eke-Obinagu Junction, Emene handled by Reinforced Global Ltd, the reconstruction of the collapsed bridge along Enugu-PH Expressway at New Artisan Market, near NNPC Mega filling station handled by CCECC Ltd, and the dualization of 107 km section of Enugu- Onitsha Expressway handled by RCC Ltd.
Umahi, he added thanked the Governor of Enugu State for the initiative to handle the dualization of 24km of Enugu axis of the Enugu-Abakaliki-Ogoja Trans-Sahara Highway and noted that the intervention had closed the gap in the road infrastructure intervention efforts of Federal Government in the State.
“He expressed the readiness of Federal Government to collaborate with Enugu State Government in the construction of a flyover bridge at Abakpa junction in Enugu Capital City to minimize traffic challenges and enhance the business fortunes of the State.
“He directed immediate soil tests and design of the bridge for consideration by the Federal Ministry of Works. It is expected that the State government will fund the execution of the project and afterwards get a refund from Federal Government through the MTN Tax Credit Scheme
“The Minister commended the contractors handling projects he visited for the quality of job being done but directed RCC Ltd to remobilize immediately to the site and free the roads to reduce the hardship suffered by the road users because of the uncompleted section of the road.
The Minister said: “Only a businessman background will understand the importance of that address. The address is laden with a lot of hope, laden with a lot of economic activities and a lot of relief packages for our people.”
He further said, “I thank the people of South-east.
“I thank the Igbo communities all over the country for not protesting.
“We are not going to protest. We want proper integration in the affairs of this country, and Tinubu has started it by giving an Igbo man the Minister of Works, first in history.
“We had been excluded in governance and in development in the past.”
In his response, the host Governor noted the synergy between the state government and Federal Government as a governance imperative for the development and progress of the State.
He said,” Let me start first with expressing on behalf of the government and the people of Enugu State our profound gratitude and our deep appreciation to the President and commander-in-chief of the armed forces of this country, and also to the Minister who has shown tireless commitment since we had this incident last year.
The Minister must have visited here over ten times. From the onset, he has expeditiously came to the site and assessed what was happening immediately we called on Mr. President to assist because this is indeed a major gateway.
And we all know the value of having a seamless transportation system. The road is one of those seamless transportation systems. On the critical value of the road, he said, “So this major gateway would have not only affected just the people of Enugu but indeed the entire people of South East and also those from South-south. If you are driving from Port Harcourt to parts of Northern Nigeria, you would have to travel through this route.
So the minister and indeed Mr. President, understanding the importance of this road immediately deployed.” He further called on the people of South East to remain undaunted in their resolve not to protest against Mr. President’s economic recovery policies.
“Again, we want to continue to call on our people to go about their business and know that if we do destroy our assets, we’re going to also still use the wealth of our common patrimony to fix those assets. So we must remain focused on our work and continue to do our work.
“Finally, we cannot end this without commending what the minister is doing, not just to the South-east, but to the entire country.”