Leaders of South East geo-political zone, have been called upon to support the ambition of President Tinubu’s second term quest.
Minister of Works, David Umahi, who made the call while cutting the tape to declare open the 15-kilometre portion of the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway in Enugu on Thursday, said the president had done so much for the South East and deserved to be supported to continue with his good works.
Umahi called on the governors, especially the chairman of the South East Governors Forum, Hope Uzodimma of Imo state to galvanise his fellow governors and other Igbo leaders to support the president.
He said that under the leadership of President Tinubu, federal government has embarked on several road projects in the zone to the extent that the zone has no need to be agitating against perceived marginalisation.
“President Bola’s administration is reconstructing roads and infrastructure in Southeast Nigeria, marking a significant development for the region.
“When we came on board in 2023, you are witnesses that it was taking over 7 hours to ride from Enugu to Onisha.
“The most important road in the entire Southeast is this road. Our people were aware of the nature of this road, and we inherited this road under tax credit of MTN which is being done for them by RCC,” he said noting that everything was at a standstill until, he, Umahi pleaded with the President as the Minister of Works to do something.
“Everything was on stand still until I went to cry out to President Bola.
The president did not only give acceleration to the construction of this road, but he directed that at least 50% of it should look like Lagos Calabar Coastal Highway.
“Because the project was awarded before 2023 and has stayed for eight years with no meaningful progress made. And so what we did was okay, this project was 202 billion, so we decided to review it.
“And so we reviewed it and allowed MTN being done by RCC to continue with their contract sum of 202 billion excluding 72 km. And is this 72 km that we are doing with the quality, the texture of Lagos Calabar Coastal Highway being done by RCC reinforced concrete road pavement,” he declared.
He said that to make the road durable, they had to buy the idea of concrete finishing.
