By Dr. Uche Diala
Channels Television hosted Minister of Works, Engr. Dave Umahi. The former governor of Ebonyi State said during the interview: In the South-East, we inherited almost no project, but today we have the Owerri to Onitsha road ongoing, the Enugu to Onitsha project is ongoing, and so is the Enugu to Abakaliki road.
‘‘The Second Niger Bridge, serving both Delta and Anambra states, is also progressing steadily.”
In his response, with a title, ”HIS EXCELLENCY ENGR DAVE UMAHI, PLEASE STOP INSULTING THE INTELLIGENCE OF INTELLIGENT NIGERIANS AND IGBOS,” Dr. Diala wrote
Dr Uche Diala
First, is there a pact that officials of the current administration must lie, and try to confuse, deceive and mislead Nigerians on almost everything? To achieve what goal exactly?
So, the former Governor of Ebonyi State and current Minister of Works, claims that the Tinubu administration “inherited almost no project” from the Buhari administration. He went on to say; “… but today we have the Owerri to Onitsha road ongoing, the Enugu to Onitsha project is ongoing and so is the Enugu to Abakaliki road”.
“The 2nd Niger bridge serving both Delta and Anambra states is also progressing steadily”.
I am wondering what he means by that and the intention.
However, this fits squarely into the wicked narrative and ‘strategy’ of the current administration of attempting to discredit former President Buhari, deny the undeniable achievements of his administration, and somehow deceive Nigerians into believing that the last administration did nothing while the current one is the messiah, even with nothing worthwhile achieved in two years. Well, not while some of us are still breathing.
This escapade of the honourable of works goes even lower as he is trying to deepen the mischief in some quarters that Buhari hates Ndi Igbo and did nothing for the South East, while deceptively trying to make it look like the current president loves Ndi Igbo and the South East more. Unfortunately, there is no proof or evidence of that thus far.
I want to respectfully jog the honourable Minister’s memory out of its willful and selective amnesia and in so doing address his mischief and set the records straight.
First, the landmark Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway that transverses Enugu, Imo, Abia, and Rivers States which the last administration did fantastic and extensive work on using tools like SUKUK bond and was ongoing when this administration came to power? So the current administration did not inherit that project? According to Engr Umahi.
Then, the 2nd Niger Bridge which the honourable Minister had to stress “serving both Delta and Anambra state” for emphasis (it is no longer South East).
Is it the same 2nd Niger Bridge that the Buhari administration completed and handed over that is “also progressing steadily”? Or is the Minister building another one? Because constructing adjoining and interconnecting roads (if he is) can not be presented as building “the second Niger Bridge”. That would be deceptive and mischievous.
Do I need to remind the Minister of the reconstruction and upgrade of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport Enugu, solar energising of the Ariaria International Market Aba, the completion of the Zik’s Mausoleum, all of which were delivered in the South east by the last administration under Buhari?
Do I need to remind him of the payment by the Buhari administration in 2017, after 17 years, of pension arrears of former Biafran policeman during the civil war who were granted presidential pardon in 2000?
Do I equally need to remind him of the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail Line, linking the Southeastern States to Northern Nigeria, which was progressing speedily as of the time the current administration came to power, but which has ‘entered voicemail’ since then?
Maybe I should go straight to the Minister’s home state of Ebonyi, to remind him that Ebonyi (under your watch as Governor) was among the first set of state governments to sign up for the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI), an initiative of the Buhari Administration. The result of that was the revitalization of the moribund Fertilizer Blending Plant in Abakaliki, which began supplying NPK Fertilizer to farmers in the State and beyond.
Permit me to stay in Ebonyi to equally remind the honourable Minister that Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike Ikwo, in his Ebonyi State was one of the first EEP projects to be provided with a 2.8MW Solar Power Plant under the ‘Energizing Education Programme’ of the Buhari Administration.
I do not want to talk about the Federal Science & Technical College (FSTC) in Amuzu, Ebonyi State, approved and established by the last administration under Muhammadu Buhari.
Permit me to equally remind the honourable Minister that at several points pre-2019 and between 2019 to 2023, under the last administration of Muhammadu Buhari, more than 60 federal road and bridge projects were ongoing across the five states of the South East, financed through SUKUK Bond and other mechanisms.
These included, among others, the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway (already mentioned), Ihiala-Orlu Road in Isseke Town-Amafuo-Ulli with Spur (Ihiala-Orlu-Umuduru Section) in Anambra State, Oba-Nnewi-Okigwe Road Route Section II: Anambra/Imo States Border-Ibinta-Okigwe Road; Oseakwa Bridge in Anambra State, Old Enugu – Portharcourt Road (Agbogugu-Abia Border Spur to Mmaku), Nsukka-Obollo-Ikem-Ehamufu-Nkalagu Road in Enugu State, Owerri-Umuahia Road Sections I, II & III Imo/Abia States, Oba-Nnewi-Okigwe Road Section II: Anambra/Imo States Border-Ibinta-Okigwe Road; Bende – Arochukwu – Ohafia Road Section I in Abia State; Abakaliki-Afikpo Road Sections I and II in Ebonyi State.
I humbly urge the Honourable Minister to inform or update Nigerians that all these projects were either completed or abandoned by the last administration, and if they/any weren’t/wasn’t completed, wouldn’t they/it fall under “inherited projects”? So what exactly does he mean when he said; “.. in the south east, we inherited almost no project …”? Let the ‘truth’ saying be complete.
As a matter of fact, “the Enugu – Onitsha Road” (Expressway) that the Minister specifically mentioned and bragged about as ongoing, was actually billed to be done by MTN Nigeria following a contract signed in 2019, under President Muhammadu Buhari’s Executive Order 7 (the Road Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme). The Federal Executive Council approved MTN’s takeover of the N202B road construction. Did Engr Umahi cancel that arrangement as Minister and how is he doing that road today? Nigerians need to know.
I can go on, but permit me to stop here.
It is actually unfortunate, that after two years of this administration, with Engr Dave Umahi as Minister of Works, with the volume of projects running into trillions of Naira (the bulk of it concentrated in the South West), all the Minister can boast of for the South East are Owerri-Onitsha Road, Enugu-Onitsha Road, Enugu-Abakiliki road, and of course, the completed but now ‘stolen’ second Niger Bridge.
I can understand the honourable Minister’s desperation to justify his ‘balablu’ that the South East will give President Tinubu 70% votes in 2027, but at whose expense and at what cost? For how long will he continue to throw the South East under the bus and mortgage Ndi Igbo in his bid to impress his current employer?
The Minister should do us a favour and list the achievements of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in and for Ndi Igbo and the South East, for which he has singlehandedly promised him 70% of votes from the South East.
In closing, try as hard as the Minister wants, to play down Buhari’s achievement in and for the South East and to arrogate it all to the current administration, the 2nd Niger Bridge is unarguably the most significant infrastructural project delivered in the South East since after the Nigerian civil war and the records, both in heaven and on earth, give the undeniable credit to the Fulani man, Muhammadu Okechukwu Buhari. Nothing will change that.
I actually do not need to remind the Minister that he was in the PDP for all the years that the party used that particular bridge to play politics and decieve ndi Igbo and the South East for 16 years until Buhari came and did it. The former Governor only joined the APC under Buhari who he praised to high heavens as the best thing that happened to Nigeria since Lord Lugard. I wonder what has changed.
As a professional and a titled man myself, I respect fellow professionals and titled men but professionals, elders and titled men should behave like one by upholding the truth at all times. There will always be a day of reckoning.
