By Jennifer John
Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma appreciated President Muhammadu Buhari for his magnanimity in fulfilling the promise of the second Niger Bridge for the people of South East and South South zones, which he said was “supposed to be fulfilled when we voted for him, and now he fulfilled the promise, even when we didn’t vote for him.
“We have been here since after the war. We have cried to the government after government that we needed to forget the horror of moving from Lagos to South East. The horrifying period of staying five, seven, or eight hours at the head bridge, sometimes staying two-three days during the Christmas season to go through.
“Governments came and left, made promises that were not fulfilled. Today we are celebrating a man who came, even when inadvertently he asked for our votes, we did not give him votes.
President Muhammadu Buhari has urged Nigerians who have been raising eyebrows about the huge debt profile of the country, to also consider the massive investment profile of the country, some of which were executed with borrowed funds.”
In a virtual address, President Buhari disclosed that the second Niger Bridge and other projects such as the Abuja-Kano expressway were all funded partly from the country’s dividend income and from investment in the NLNG repatriated funds from overseas and recoveries from proceeds of crimes, successfully prosecuted at home.
He mentioned some other projects executed with such recovered funds including; the Federal Secretariat, Awka, Anambra State, Enugu, and Bayelsa which he said were executed to reduce the cost of governance and to bring federal civil servants under one roof.
He expressed pride that in eight years his administration doubled the country’s GDP in infrastructure from about 20 percent to over 40 percent, which he said happened when the global oil price crashed to almost zero and the COVID-19 pandemic grounded the world economy, as well as the negative effects of the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war on the world economy.
Uzodimma described President Buhari as his hero, insisting that every nation must have a hero and posited that with the naming of the second Niger Bridge after President Muhammadu Buhari, he has been positioned as Nigeria’s hero and particularly, the people of the South East.
Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige said the bridge is the major significance of the handshake between the East and West, as well as between the East and the North.
