Stella Dimoko Korkus.com: INDABOSKI - Nigeria Will Never Forget President Buhari For Constructing The 2nd Niger Bridge...

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Saturday, February 19, 2022

INDABOSKI - Nigeria Will Never Forget President Buhari For Constructing The 2nd Niger Bridge...

This year, the long wait for Godot will come to an end. The second bridge over the River Niger will be commissioned, and put to use. And what a dream come true it would be.








Last December, a friend had traveled from Lagos to the South East for the Christmas holidays. When he had spent six hours on the River Niger bridge, a journey which should take less than five minutes, since the bridge is only 1.6 kilometers long, he called me in frustration. He was almost bursting a blood vessel.


I consoled and comforted him, and added for good effect: “This is the last time you and other travelers would be stranded on that bridge. By next Christmas, there would be two bridges in operation, and it would be a jolly good ride.”
He said a resounding amen, and went off the line. What trauma and travails users of the River Niger bridge have passed through. Built in 1965, the artery between the South East, South South, and the rest of the country has become grossly inadequate, and a torture to navigate at peak seasons.


 There was a year travelers even spent the night on the bridge.


There is a long history to the building of a second bridge over the River Niger, and it had over the years become a tool of false promises, lies and propaganda. When politicians want the votes of South Easterners as elections approach, they go and offload shovels, pick axes, wheelbarrows, cutlasses and others at the site, as if that is what is required to build a bridge of that magnitude. After they’ve got the votes, they come to remove their miserable implements. Goodbye basket, I’ve carried all my apples. 


The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) did it for 16 years, building the bridge with their mouths.


The first recollection was during the campaign for the 1979 presidential election.

 Candidate of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), Alhaji Shehu Shagari, went to the South East, and promised a Second Niger bridge. That was all it was. A promise, though the NPN government lasted from 1979 to 1983.


Then came the military regimes headed by Muhammadu Buhari, which lasted only 20 months, that of Ibrahim Babangida, which endured for eight years, Ernest Shonekan-led Interim National Government, 84 days, Sani Abacha, five years, and Abdulsalami Abubakar, 11 months. Nothing was heard about the bridge.
Under Babangida, an alarm was raised about the deteriorating condition of the bridge. Ever the master of artifice and sleight of hand, the then military president challenged Nigerian engineers to design a new bridge.

 They did! End of story.

Then came Olusegun Obasanjo, a former military head of state, as civilian President. He promised to build the bridge. It didn’t happen in eight years.
About five days before he left office, Obasanjo flagged off the project, to cost N58.6 billion, and handed it to his successor, Umaru Yar’Adua. No action in the three years that the administration lasted. Understandably so, for Yar’Adua was infirm.


Then came Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, who even at a point added Azikiwe to his name. He promised Heaven on earth, saying he was a South easterner, and he would build the bridge. During a Town Hall meeting on August 30, 2012, in the region, he said what would he claim he had done for his Igbo brethren, if he didn’t build the bridge.


Later, Azikiwe disappeared from Jonathan’s name, and the Second Niger bridge disappeared with it. All that happened in the about six years that the administration lasted was a Federal Executive Council approval for final planning and design of the bridge. All motion, no movement.


And then came the man from Daura, a Fulani, with no affinity with the South East. He didn’t make promises, he didn’t boast. He just went to work quietly.
From September 1, 2018, without fanfare or swashbuckling, action started on the Second Niger bridge. Babatunde Raji Fashola, Minister for Works and Housing, was the chief executioner. Doggedly, he and his principal set to work. And here we are today. What has defeated many military and civilian administrations is now reality in our country.


I will never forget the day I traveled to Onitsha for a private event. I was on the same flight from Lagos to Onitsha with His Royal Majesty, the Obi of Onitsha. When we alighted, and were walking towards the arrival hall of the airport, I went to pay my courtesies to the distinguished monarch.


He greeted me warmly, asked after President Buhari, and told me to pass his appreciation for the work being done on the Second Niger bridge.
“Every time I drive on the old bridge, and I look to my side, seeing the new upcoming one, joy wells in my heart,” the Obi said.


And that is the thing to do. We must appreciate the ramrod straight man from Daura for succeeding where many other leaders before him had failed. Where there is a will, there is a way.


President Buhari has taken up many major infrastructure works, most of which would be due for commissioning before he exits next year May. Roads, rail, airports, bridges, many others. If only for the Second Niger bridge, Nigerians will never forget Muhammadu Buhari. But then, you can add Loko-Oweto bridge, Bodo-Bonny road, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Enugu-Port Harcourt, Abuja to Kaduna and Kano, AKK Pipelines, rail network across the country, and many others. 

Surely, this country will always remember Muhammadu Buhari for good, no matter how revisionists have tried to shroud the successes with only talk of insecurity ravaging the country. While the security challenges are being met frontally, infrastructure proceeds apace. It takes determination and doggedness.
Indaboski! Nigeria will always remember Buhari for his strides in infrastructure, when the country was earning far less than it used to do.



Indaboski? What does it mean? Search me. Ask Prophet Chukwuemeka Odumeje what the word means. He coined it.


But I repeat: Indaboski! This country will never forget Buhari, if only for the Second Niger bridge.


*Adesina is Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity

16 comments:

  1. What is this fool saying again... Bridge that was already awarded before APC took over.

    Odé at his age will always remain an odé for life

    ReplyDelete
  2. The first time l finished this man's write up. My people using that route kindly give us on the spot report on this write up. Well done Mr President if this is true.
    Why is it that this government like comparisons. See list of past governments he mentioned just because of one project.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. first time of finishing his writeup as well

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    2. "my people who are using that route" if you need your people who are using that route to confirm to you the authenticity and progress of work on the ongoing 2nd Niger bridge when Musa in Sokoto knows about it, then you and your people will always be blind to the achievements of President Buhari and Nnamdi Cownu will continue using your heads to make billions


      🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️

      Delete
    3. EESAH I will rather add 20k to the on going plea to pay you off this blog than exchange words with you. You don't worth the energy.

      Delete
    4. Zaram, use that 20k plus the ones your bigoted friends gathered and shove it down your bigoted rectum 😊

      Delete
  3. While reading this, I was wondering which Bubu asslickers was in a good mood to do a nice round of licking...loo and behold, na awa number one chief licker. Not surprised as I would have done so if not better sef.
    All I have to say to this administration is, you guys have done what you know how to do best, just prepare to leave. We all learnt our lessons with y'all...if it ain't broken, don't fix it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nigeria will never forget him for his Fulani herdsman killing the innocent Nigerians too.
    He Rob Peter and pay Paul, high price in food, kerosene, gas, everything you can think of now in Nigeria,
    let me stop here..

    ReplyDelete
  5. Buhari is hands down the best President Nigeria has ever had. No rival! History will be kind to you and yours 🙌

    Never in the history of Nigeria have we had a president who's priority and only concern is the wellbeing of his people and the development of his country. Never except Buhari! 😍😍

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We all know you are joking..

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    2. May Life give Eesah exactly the same treatment Buhari metted to this country Ameeeen

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  6. Which Buhari? Soon your eyes will clear.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Once i saw indaboski i knew it was that idiot Femi Adesina talking. Didn't read his garbage

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  8. I'll say it again. All the governments before Buhari had access to far more money than what he met yet, they failed to touch any of these projects or complete them. Look up how much GEJ spent on the non existent military infrastructure or CCTV camera system in capital cities or Obasanjo's 16 billion dollars on power among many examples of wanton waste. Buhari came in with his own weaknesses - from plans such as Ruga and sectionalism, he spoiled his own record by his choices. Even with that, this is the only president after Yaradua that has not been meddling in local and state elections, financing the impeachment of governors or personally writing results of elections from his bedrooms.

    Buhari zoned the same amount of money to each geopolitical zone and refunded governors for projects they couldn't wait for the FG to start or complete in previous administrations. Even with this period of fuel scarcity, I know it is still the best so far in terms of supply as some of us can still remember the queues frequently endured under previous administrations because money was diverted. This time, it is because an importer did dirty. When Buhari had the strength, he placed tribalism above performance and that's why people like the past minister of petroleum was kicked out for someone like Silva. Imagine the isolation and insults Osinbajo has chosen to endure for sacking Babachir Lawal, swearing in Onoghen and sacking the fantastically corrupt Daura. When you place Malami in the ministry of justice and Keyamo where he is, this is what you get. If capability mattered more than kinship, the former service chiefs would have been fired and Nigeria safer for it. The complaints about the super terrible cop and SARS would have been quickly addressed and soldiers would never have been deployed to the Lekki toll gate had round pegs not been struggling in square holes.

    Buhari will get the most credit for the projects he completed because his predecessors could have completed them if they were serious but in his heart, he knows he also underperformed based on the scorecard he asked us to use to measure his administration: security, corruption and the economy. From all that Mr Tunde has managed to amass compared to his humble days as a recharge card seller and the

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  9. Yes , the work on the second Niger bridge has gone far. And yes, Buhari has built more infrastructure for the Igbos than any other administration. I travelled from Umuahia to Enugu last week, uzo wu mmiri. I think from Aba to Port Harcourt is still under construction. Ndi beanyi, give credit where it is deserved. Our sentiments and hatred too much jare. O mee nke oma, anyi ekwere.

    ReplyDelete

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