Why Tinubu deserves accolades – Umahi

By John Alechenu

Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi has said President Bola Tinubu deserves all the accolades he is getting because no section of Nigeria was left behind in his infrastructural transformation.

He enjoined the people of the South East to be grateful to the president for ending decades of marginalisation and isolation of the region by successive governments.

Umahi said this during a media briefing on road projects being executed as part of President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda in Abuja on Thursday.

The minister explained that the four legacy projects of the administration were investments designed to cut travel time, interconnect parts of the country and ultimately grow the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) through improved commercial activities.

The minister said, “..And I think that the entire Southeast people should show deep appreciation to President Bola Tinubu. This is very important. And so the entire four legacy projects of the president are interconnected, and all the geopolitical zones are involved.

“We have the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. We also have the second legacy project of Sokoto-Badagry. We have the third one that is the Trans-Sahara, and the fourth one that is Akwanga to Maiduguri.

“If we start with the first one, and that’s Lagos Calabar, 750 kilometres. We have Section 1, which is from a Victoria Island to a local village, 47.47 kilometres. Two carriageways, with 25-metre train track at the middle.

“That project is a beauty to behold. And that highway is named President Bola Tinubu Coastal Highway. And that’s what we have named the entire coastal highway.

“And then you come to Section 2, that is about 55 kilometres from that village. It goes to the border between Lagos and Ogun. That project is about 60 percent done, and we believe that by the end of November, we will have finished that project.

“But you will be seeing some bridges going on in Section 1. Those bridges are part of the procurement of Section 2. So, if there will be anything left of Section 2 by December, that will be some of the bridges, because we have audacity of the kind of bridges we are doing.

“For example, at the corridor of the Dangote Refinery, we had to take into consideration the kind of trucks and the frequency of trucks there. And so we have a span of 80 metres.

“The traditional span of bridges has been 15 metres. We have this 80 metres, and then counterfort span of 40 metres, and then you have small, small span, 23 metres, as it goes down to level zero. And so that is going on.

Sokoto-Badagry, 1,068 kilometres, with starting in Ilela in Sokoto State, 120 kilometres by two, 70 percent completed in spite of the security challenges. Work is ongoing, tree planting, solar light, and CCTV.

“And then you now move to Kebbi, 258 kilometres. That section is like, you know, 258. That’s the longest by two.

“That’s over 500 kilometres of road, you know. And so that project is over 40% done. And work is ongoing day and night.

“And then that’s section one, section two. And then you move to section three by the tradition of starting from the beginning and the end. And that is, you know, the Badagry section, 162.35 kilometres, dualised.”

Umahi further said, “Trans-Sahara road passes through my state, passes through the Southeast. Southeast people should be very grateful to the president. Again, that which we’ve been expecting has just come to pass.

“Integration of the people of Southeast. Full integration. And that’s what this president has done. We have a president that loves the entire nation.”

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