July 17, (THEWILL) – The Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, has warned Nigerians, especially the people of the Southeast region, to desist from making statements capable of promoting disunity in the country.
Umahi handed down the warning on Tuesday, during the unveiling of the 477km superhighway road project by the Federal Government in Abakaliki.
At a stakeholders’ meeting held at the Exco chambers, New Government House, Abakaliki, the Works Minister said the African Tran-Saharan Highway, when completed, will boost the economy of the Southeast region and the country in general, describing it as economically viable routes.
Warning against divisive statements, Umahi said, “Let me announce to you that the country is in a very big challenge and I feel highly for Mr. President. Everything presently is a challenge and a priority, so we need to be patient. We should stop saying those things that tend to divide us.
“You are thinking about the rising cost of food, what happened to all the good decisions he has taken? He who fails to plan is planning to fail. We have to accept our past mistakes.”
The Works Minister further enumerated other roads in the southeast receiving the Federal Government’s attention.
“These roads are the roads that the colonial masters designed to integrate us. We have such roads ongoing in the Southeast. We have the Port Harcourt-Aba road, the Umuahia to Enugu, which is ongoing. We have the road from MTN to Enugu Camp to Onitsha by the RCC. I am not encouraged by what the RCC and MTN are doing. We have the Enugu-Abakaliki road. We have the Onitsha to Owerri to Aba.
“There is no part of the Southeast that he is not doing much just like every other part of the country. Mr. President is in a hurry to improve our road infrastructure and he is already doing that.
“If you go to the Ministry of Works, we have sent all our directors to the field to follow bumper to bumper all the contractors. I use the opportunity to appeal to all the contractors, if you know you are not ready to abide by the race, it is a contract, and we honour what we can pay.
“Today, I saw a petition which they said was from the contractors’ association that I refused to pay them. Every time lives are taken on our roads because we did not do what we are supposed to do. Every member of the society should be a supervisor of our roads,” Umahi said.
Sunday Ogbu is a professional journalist with eight - twelve years experience that had worked with various print and online media. Sunday specializes in news reporting with the aim of educating his readers on current social, political and economic occurences within his area of coverage. Sunday is a strong force to work with in the media industry and uses his positive attitude and tireless energy to encourage others to work hard and succeed. Sunday is inspired daily by his wife and their four children. In his free time, Sunday likes sight-seeing, reading and discussing issues of societal interest.
