EBONYI
An All Progressives Congress (APC) Chieftain, Chief Chaka Nweze, has said that the Minister of Works, Chief David Umahi has shown readiness to change the narrative of Nigeria’s federal roads in the country.
Nweze made the assertion in an interview on his experience while accompanying Umahi to tour federal roads across the south east geopolitical zone of the country.
The Pioneer Secretary of the APC in Ebonyi, said that Umahi has proven during the tour that he was ready to work.
“His style is not just talking but to work the talk, and that is why he actually wants to ascertain the true conditions of our federal roads especially those that have been awarded and monies paid out by the federal government, whether abandoned or ongoing.
“There were roads he inspected and trekked for more than a distance of 500 meters which I as a member of the tour, could not even cope due to their terrible state of disrepair.
“The indigenes of areas we visited were elated, confessing to see a top government official, in the capacity of a minister of works, for the first time, inspecting the roads,’.
The former Chairman of Ohaozara Local Government Area (LGA).of Ebonyi said that the minister constructively engaged the contractors, to ensure that overall objectives were achieved.
“He commended those who did well and expressed dissapointment in those who did not meet the standard given them.
“Umahi chided one of the contractors of Igbo origin for not commencing work at a road given to him thereby failing to protect his people’s interest,” he said.
Nweze noted that several discoveries were made during the tour but the most significant was a contractor who had received N400milion from the federal government but had not commenced work for more than a year.
“This particular contractor has been requesting for more funds and if the minister did not visit the site, he might get the funds.
“The minister does not want to depend on reports from paper works as he also engagged the expatriate contractors professionally.
“He made suggestions on alternative construction methods in line with the peculiarity of our soil and had summoned some of the contractors to the ministry’s headquarters for contract re-design,”.
The APC chieftain commended President Bola Tinubu for ‘fixing a perfect peg in a perfect hole,” as Umahi will bring his engineering ingenuity to bear on federal roads.
“His message on the usage of rigid pavement for roads in the country is unique due to the nature of the nation’s soil.
It is durable and it will save cost.
“He has declared that he will be saving up to 50 percent of the total cost to fix all federal roads in the country if the funds are available to be deployed.
“We believe he can do this as evidenced by his wondrous infrastructural works in Ebonyi with less cost,”