Recently, the Minister of Works, Engr Dave Umahi carried out inspection of various road projects in the South East and also opened the Enugu-Onitsha concrete road for ease of movement during the coming festive season, OKEY MADUFORO reports on his impression and what the geopolitical zone has gained under President Bola Tinubu
You are at the Enugu Onitsha expressway. What are your impressions?
When we came onboard in 2023, you all witnessed that it was taking over seven hours to ride from Enugu to Onitsha. The most important road in the entire SouthEast is this road and our people were aware of the nature of this road which we inherited under tax credit from MTN and being done by RCC.
But everything was on stand still until I went to cry out to President Bola Tinubu. The President did not only give an acceleration to the construction of this road but directed that at least 50 per cent of this road should look like Lagos Calabar Coastal Highway.
The project was awarded before 2023 and had stayed for eight years with no meaningful progress made and this project was N202 billion and we decided to review it and we reviewed it and allowed MTN being done by RCC to continue dealing with their contract sum of N202 Billion excluding 72 kilometers and it is this 72 kilometers that we doing with the quality, the texture of Lagos Calabar Coastal Highway being done by SPCC .
This reinforced concrete pavement and let me tell you it takes a man of courage to do what President Ahmed Bola Tinubu is doing. We must be very strategic at this point and this road is N202 billion one section of it and the second section is 72 kilometers which is N150 billion and so the entire road is at N354 billion and that is what you are witnessing today.
The first 50 per cent of reinforced concrete is about 97 per cent completed but the President directed me to come and open the road so that the people of South-East do not suffer during the Easter and we have come to open the first 50 km of the road. The second section of 18 kilometers of concrete road is being done towards Anambra State and the last section of the road is 39 kilometers and it is done from Onitsha head bridge.
And we have directed RCC that even though you are doing asphalt you have to do 23 kilometers just like SSCC is doing. The idea is that asphalt will always fail but concrete would stay between 250 and 100 years with almost never maintenance and with the completion of the project in 2026 by the special grace of God, it would be done by no other person than President Ahmed Bola Tinubu. Now the idea is that at the end of the day we will have 50 percent of the entire road on concrete.
Aside from this project, what other projects are going on in the South-East?
And this just one of it and when you look at the four legacy projects we have the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and incidentally South-East people must know that even this Lagos Calabar Coastal Highway Project is cutting the Ikwuano-Ikotekpene road into two which means that even the South East will be engaged in the project and the Ikwuano -Ikotekpene road is being done by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and if you just engage it you are on Lagos Calabar Coastal Highway.
That is not enough of the four legacy projects which is 465 kilometers running from the Calabar section coming through Ebonyi into Benue, going to Kogi, going to Nasarawa and ending in Abuja meaning that you can be from Ebonyi, from Enugu from Anambra if you engage that road you will be in Abuja in less than four hours. The first section is going on in the South East which is 123 kilometers which is N454 Billion and is being done with reinforced concrete pavement.
Only President Bola Ahmed Tinubu can do it for the people of the South East and that is not enough we have the Afikpo going to Abia that is Uturu and it is also going to Okigwe in Imo state which is 64 km and is being reconstructed under Dangote tax credit which is N193 billion concrete work is ongoing.
The Ikotekpene road when the carriage way is completed the second one is being engaged and the Umuahia Ikotekpene is being done and the Umuahia to Aba is being done by Arab Contractors and 99 percent done and you come to Owerri Aba road, being constructed by Arab Contractors, is 70. per cent done and you come to the Second Niger bye pass, which is 17.5 km with multiple bridges and flyovers in Anambra state is N174 Billion being done by CCC and work is ongoing and 30 per cent has been paid for. You come to the dualization of EnuguAbakaliki Road. It is N183 billion and 30 per cent has been paid for and it is ongoing.
When you come to multiple sections such as Enugu to Port Harcourt the first section is from Enugu being done by CGC and is 60 kilometers dualized and about seventy percent of that project has been done and we directed that the remaining section of that road about 54 kilometers should be done on concrete and that is being done by CGC and that 100 billion and you come to the section is 99 per cent finished and you come to the road from Umuahia done to Aba by Arab Contractors it is 99 per cent finished.
In fact, we have to change the last section in Aba to concrete and when you come to Aba to Port Harcourt it is being done by CGC and one full carriage way is done and the second one is being done on concrete.
Owerri to Onitsha and that project is ongoing and by CCC and you come to one of the biggest flyovers in this country at Eke Obinagu in Enugu State; the project is 99 per cent done and it almost one kilometer of flyover and you can see the quality and beauty of that project and Mr. President would be commissioning it soon.
What about the two bridges that collapsed at the Artisan in Enugu state and within nine months M.r President deconstructed them with solar lights and you can this Enugu Onitsha is going to be solar lights all through and that is exactly what is happening to Lagos Calabar Coastal Highway Project and in Sokoto Badagri.
But the South-East is still crying of marginalization?
I wish to state that the Biafra that we are looking for is here and that is President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027 the people of South East must be very strategic and we want these projects to be completed. God has spoken to me that his mighty hand is on President Ahmed Bola Tinubu and he will win again.
So, it is important that our people are strategic and we should be strategic and we will not go to the seat of Presidency by foul language, by mere wish and nobody will give it to us. We have to be strategic and I will not stop telling the people of South East about it and anything I tell you now, go and write it because it will come to pass and no matter who has the Presidential ticket of other political parties, South East people must be strategic to support the President.
The marginalization that we are talking about is over and for the first time your son is Minister of works. Social media was awash when the idea was mooted that I was going to resign to go for Senate and that is when the SouthEast now understood the importance of Minister of Works.
The same way we must also understand the importance of being strategic in our decisions and collective decision and we plead with the leaders of South-East; we need to be vocal about what Mr. President is doing for us and we need to be vocal about it and beginning to form engage our people about the good works of Mr. President.
Today there is no more marginalization and we never had Service Chiefs in the past administration but this administration we have two Service Chiefs, one before and one now. So, all the marginalization that we are talking about is over though it may not be a hundred per cent but Mr. President had just begun.
The South East still agitates for the Presidency of Nigeria?
The South-East deserves to be President and in 2023; we deserve that right of the Southern President, who is President Ahmed Bola Tinubu. We met in Asaba all the Southern Governors and we said it was our turn; Emilokan! The Emilokan will be over in 2031 and no matter what you think or say it is done.
Our people need to be wise and it is wrong for you to start attacking anybody that is not supporting who you are supporting and that is bad politics. What sort of politics is that? We must support our brother in the South-West and when it is our turn, they will support us.
That is why we must be strategic because all powers belong to God and nobody can take this power from us. You have to understand the kind of economy that Mr. President inherited but the microeconomics of this country are all breathing very well
