The Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has solved the marginalization problem in the South East geopolitical zone.
The Minister made this remark when the caucus from the Anambra and Enugu States in the 10th National Assembly, visited him in the office in Abuja to seek the Federal Government’s intervention on the completion of the construction of Enugu–Onitsha Expressway handled by RCC Ltd and funded by MTN under the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme.
According to him, the South East zone would not be left out in the Renewed Hope administration of President Tinubu to the transformation of the transportation infrastructure, just as he said the President deserves commendations from the South East.
The Minister who expressed deep sympathy over the lives that have been lost along the uncompleted sections of the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway especially the recent incident of tanker explosion on the Ugwu Onyema axis of the road that killed scores of people, stated that the people of South East have every reason to have implicit confidence on the ability and will of President Tinubu’s administration to address the road infrastructure deficits in South East and other Geo-Political Zones of Nigeria, noting that under Mr President, South East, has been given a pride of place in the political landscape of Nigeria.
He said, “Again, we should also be grateful to Mr. President. Since he became President, we’ve not heard about farmers’ and herders’ clashes in the South East. Mr President inherited 2,064 projects, totalling about N13 trillion, and today, those projects will be over N20 trillion, by reason of the floating of the Naira and the removal of fuel subsidy. It’s nobody’s fault. But by his good heart and commitment to rewriting the story of this country, he will make Nigeria great again.”
The Minister reiterated the need for South Èast to rise up in gratitude to Mr President for prioritizing intervention on roads and for solving the problem of marginalization of South East.
He said, “And so we want the National Assembly members, and of course, South East stakeholders, to please stand up and commend the President at all times, because this is not party something. And I can beat my chest and say that irrespective of party, no other person will have the heart to do what Mr President is doing for the people of South-East.”
The leader of the delegation and Minority Whip of the Senate, Sen. Osita Ngwu, representing Enugu West, speaking, commended the Minister for the unprecedented scale of road construction, rehabilitation and maintenance nationwide but he expressed worries that some of the projects were not receiving adequate funding required to complete the projects in a record time.
He made particular reference to the Enugu – Onitsha Expressway that was awarded to RCC and funded through the Tax credit, and today, some sections of the road have become a dead trap to road users.
He stated that the delegation was compelled by the recent tanker mishap on the Ugwu Onyeama axis of the road in Enugu State to make the visit to the Honourable Minister.
He expressed the readiness of the Federal lawmakers to offer necessary collaborations and cooperation that would help in tackling the challenges and bottlenecks faced by the Ministry in ensuring the completion of the said road.
“We appreciate that since the minister assumed office the President has graciously approved quite a number of projects in the South East. We appreciate Mr. President, but we are worried that it is not just about putting projects across our zone, but when these projects are not funded, it looks like it is just a game.
We are worried that some of the projects that are in the South East are not receiving funds that can make it to progress so that we can have benefits for such projects. And when it is not funded, it becomes a worry to us”
On his part, the Senator representing Anambra Central in the Senate, Sen. Victor Umeh thanked the President of Nigeria for giving South East a sense of belonging in his administration and for the wave of road infrastructure transformation going on across the nation but pleaded with Mr President to give accelerated intervention on funding to the roads in the South East so that the zone could fully benefit from the economic development agenda of the Renewed Hope administration.
He said, “While I joined my brother and colleague, Senator Osita Ngwu, in thanking the President for a worthy choice of Engr. Senator, Dave Umahi, to be the Minister of Works, couldn’t have made a better choice based on his experience and what he was able to do as Governor of Ebonyi State through engineering infrastructure in that State.
He continues, “Through our oversight functions, we’ve been able to move around Nigeria in the various committees that we serve and we’re able to see the great works the President is doing in Nigeria to transform our transportation infrastructure through ambitious road projects and railway projects across Nigeria.
We are from South East Nigeria, and while we applaud the great strides the President is making to see that our roads are good and our railway infrastructure is actualized, we want to plead, on behalf of our people that South East should be given accelerated attention because of the infrastructure deficit we’ve had before he came on board”
In the meeting which had other stakeholders, it was resolved among other things that the Federal Ministry of Works would write the MTN to demand that MTN should commit irrevocably to pay contractors on the project a minimum of ₦15 billion every month for the next 10 months to enable them fast track the completion of the Enugu- Onitsha Expressway, failing which the Ministry would initiate termination process of the project.
It was further resolved that MTN would need 3 contractors to do the 79 kilometres within the original contract sum of (MTN) ₦202 Billion. Furthermore, the remaining 72km of the road shall be awarded to other contractors through due process. MTN and RCC would be invited to bid too.
The Ministry lamented that what MTN is doing is not in line with the Tax Credit Executive Order. It was noted in the meeting that the delay on the job which was due to poor funding and poor contract execution has resulted in over 100% increase in the project cost, and allowing MTN more than 11 months on the job could further push the contract to increase by over 200% and this is unacceptable to the Federal Government
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