The Minister of Works, David Umahi, has remarked on the possibility of an Igbo presidency, saying that God would decide when it would be realised.
Fielding questions in Abuja on his highly criticised comment on the Igbo presidency, Umahi emphasised that the project cannot be achieved by being sentimental about it, stating that politics is about dialogue.
“Politics is a question of dialogue. It’s a question of, you rub my back, I rub your back. We should not be very sentimental because only our votes cannot make our son or daughter president. It’s, if you rub my back, I rub your back. So, it’s time to rub the back of South West. So, our people must be wise, and we are not going to stop being vocal about it.
“We are going to be very vocal to educate our people. It’s beyond supporting President Tinubu. Let people stop deceiving themselves.
“Because anybody can be president when the time for Igbo presidency comes. We have a lot of qualified people who are very intelligent, but who are not being cunning; who are being honest, and being very truthful. Because when you are truthful, you tell your people the truth.
“Igbo will need to be president, but they need to support another region so that another region will support them,” he noted.
On the projects located in the South East, Umahi said that the past administration awarded the Enugu-Onitsha Road at the cost of N202 billion.
He said that the most important route in the South East is the Enugu-Onitsha Road, and that was awarded by the past administration, 108 kilometres by two.
According to him, it was awarded for N202 billion to MTN under tax credits.
However, the project, he said, was discontinued and re-awarded for N50 billion.
“At the time we came on board, they had exhausted only N50 billion. And so, we had to discontinue the project. And so, we took out 72 kilometres of the project and re-awarded it for another N50 billion.
“And work is ongoing there. And so, what we have done is to direct on an emergency basis for SKCC and MTN to move immediately to the sections of the roads that are very bad so that no section of that road will be unmotorable from Enugu down to Onitsha.
“That is what we are doing. When you come to South-South, you have the first Niger Bridge to the Summit Junction. That is about 11.5 kilometres by two.
“We had China Harbor and Atlant on that project—225 kilometres from Benin to Asaba. But not connecting Summit Junction to the bridge. And so, on Public Private Partnership (PPP), we gave it to African Plus.
“And so, they are doing it on PPP. They have started work. So, we have, on that emergency, given it to Atlant,” Umahi noted.
The minister reiterated that the bulk of the projects is located in the North with 53 per cent, whereas the South has 47 per cent.
“I continue to say that the North has 53 per cent of that project, and the South has 47 per cent of that project. And it was also not fairly distributed,” he said, adding that while the South East has 4 per cent, the South West has 5 per cent.
“A place like South East, you know, has only 4 per cent. And South West only 5 per cent. But notwithstanding, Mr President decided to continue with the entire project.
“And for me, it’s our president. He’s a man with a large heart. But now, NNPC has stopped the funding, since August 1, 2025. And so, we tabled the matter to the Federal Executive Council (FEC), in the last FEC on Thursday.
“And Mr President, sitting as chairman of FEC, directed that we should provide another means of funding the project, and to complete the project. So, let me announce that Mr President directed that no NNPC project should stop, and that an alternative funding mechanism will be put in place to do it,” he said
Credit: Sun Newspapers
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