Performance: Critics silenced as Minister inspects 2nd Niger Bridge, expresses satisfaction at work pace

*As FG forges ahead despite Obasanjo/Afenifere coalition misgivings

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed on Wednesday, inspected the Second Niger Bridge in continuation of his ongoing tour of Federal Government projects across the country, and expressed satisfaction at the pace of work on the bridge.

This goes on as a Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, members are moving underground in the region using divisive method of telling some Yoruba people that whoever among them supports President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election is supporting Fulani or that they should not vote for him in 2019 for what they call his lack of performance.

An Afenifere member (names withheld), who proved to The DEFENDER Wednesday with what he called his involvement with former Chief of Defence Staff, Lt. Gen. Alani Akinrinade, Chief Ayo Adebanjo and other Afenifere elements, spoke exactly like politicians of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Olusegun Obasanjo’s coalition parties saying there is no project from Lagos-Ibadan, Ogbomoso-Ilorin, Shagamu-Ore, Lagos-Abeokuta roads that was truly done by the Buhari’s government, adding that there is no single thing that Buhari has done in three years.

To expose claimants like Afenifere and the Obasanjo’s coalition parties, the Federal Government, through its Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has continued to take journalists along showing physically to Nigerians and world at large that the claims of the Buhari Administration’s performances are not fictions.

On the Wednesday inspection of 2nd Niger Bridge, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said, “I am very excited because the thing about this project is that because of the alignment, people travelling on the old bridge will say nothing is going on because they cannot see it, but you have come here and you can see the amount of work that is going on, so I’m very, very excited,” the Minister told the journalists who accompanied him on the tour.

Alhaji Mohammed, who inspected construction work at the Asaba and Onitsha ends of the bridge, said when completed, the bridge will ease traffic congestion on the road as well as change the socio-economic landscape of the South-east and South-South geo-political zones in particular.

He commended the enthusiasm with which the contractor, Julius Berger, is handling the project and gave the assurance that henceforth, funding will no longer be a challenge for the construction of such projects.

“I think one thing that this government has assured is that funding won’t be a problem because we have many sources of funding and I think the latest is the Presidential Infrastructural Development Fund, which is actually aimed at ensuring that no project like this suffers for lack of funding,” the Minister said.

He said having achieved tremendous success with the sub-structural work, the project will now witness rapid progress.

While briefing journalists on the level of work on the bridge, the Federal Controller of Works for Anambra State, Mr. Innocent Alumona, said so far phases 1, 2 and 3, which have to do with the foundation, have been completed, and that the contractor is currently on phase 4, which will end in July this year.

“A lot of people are saying no work is going on the Second Niger Bridge because they have not been opportune to visit the site. The Federal Government actually is not sleeping. A lot of money has been spent in the process of realizing the Second Niger Bridge, and as we go further, we will show you a lot that has been done to prove to some of us – who are still doubting that nothing is happening at the Second Niger Bridge – that a lot is ongoing,” he said.

Mr. Alumona said some 310 of the 615 piles designed for the bridge have been sunk, while massive sand-filling of the approach road has been carried out to the height of five metres.

At least 400 Nigerians are currently employed by the contractor handling the project, which is expected to be completed within the next two years.