I had initially taken a break from writing on the 2023 campaigns for reasons best known to me. I had much preferred to stick to other pressing issues under the sun even though come rain, sunshine and even hail stones, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress,APC will have my endorsement and vote. Somehow, the recent force marching of words between Governor Chukwuma Soludo and the candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi much forced me to break such a trend and here I am again writing on the 2023 elections.

My hands are somewhat forced, I at this point in time have a sequel on Cardinal Francis Arinze to finish off (I will next week) but for some reason, my mind kept urging me to weigh my thoughts on the exchange between these two gentlemen, I finally succumbed and this piece is the result of such self goading I guess.

The initial quote at the beginning of this piece is culled from the 1964 hit, Sounds of Silence by Paul Simon and Simon Garfunkel. The song featured  as one of the soundtracks in that Emilo Estevez 2006 Epic, “Bobby” which was set upon the story of Robert ‘Bobby’ Kennedy’s shot at the 1968 Democratic Party primaries before he was shot and killed after winning California and sending a strong message to Eugene McCarthy and the eventual winner of the ticket, Hubert Humphrey.

The song, although possessing a very much different message from the thrust of mine here , somewhat maintains borders, particularly the lines quoted above! Silence to issues and certain developments like a cancer grows, becoming malignant in nature and requiring painful surgery not without claiming  some toll on its victim.

I listened to Soludo’s interview where he downplayed Obi’s demagoguery and repeated acclaim to have been the next best thing since sliced bread. One could see that Soludo in that interview  had never wanted to join issues with Obi, with some sort of skill he had initially hovered over every attempt to get him to say something on Obi but then he made comments on the same investments Obi has like a semi illiterate trader brandished at every given opportunity and all hell was seemingly let loose!

Read Also: Soludo vs Obi: A governor’s prickly polemic

True to their nature, supporters of Obi whom I have fondly dubbed as the Obi Kererenke Children began their raucous badgering of Soludo. Like the Russian guns in Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade, they threw all  caution to the winds and indeed went despicably low, to the extent of taking shots at his family! To these persons, amongst them a large number of e-idiots, nothing seems sacred, everything goes, including the tribe, religion, health and faith of others, to these paranoid supporters, there ought to be no shade of opinion contrary to theirs or to the duplicity of their so called Messiah, attempting to overreach even the darkest of dictators such as Benito Mussolini, Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot.

It is again important to note that while this raged on, there was no attempt to prove Soludo’s statement to the contrary; no appeal to either facts, logic or empiricism , these “Emperor with no clothes “ supporters failed to disprove even as much as a comma in that Soludo statement. A statement their demagogue had severally claimed his investment as governor in a privately owned business had earned the state over 100 million dollars! To them , Soludo should like a desk clerk just queue behind the Obi presidential ambition, engage in outlandish revisionism whether he likes it or not! Whether it is ideologically acceptable or not but for the pedestrian fact that Obi is Igbo! Haba!

Again, Soludo had pointed in that interview that you do not save money when there are countless projects to deliver and when the basic infrastructure in your state is near decrepit, what’s the point of such savings when the poverty index in your state had arisen under your watch from 17% to 58%? Even Stalin’s Collectivatisation  program makes much more sense as flawed as it was then.

If these puny ideologies and social media barbarians thought they had cowed the Isuoffia born economist , they thought wrong and in a blitzkrieg manner Soludo again delivered a counterblow, one that sent Obi and his Lilliputians into a scamper of sorts! Matter of fact the literal punch quaked  so hard that even Obi lost much of his elan and all of a sudden began waxing philosophical, admitting somewhat that the alleged investment was indeed next to nothing as Soludo stated!

What remains baffling is the theatrics that has followed this whole drama! Even respected intellectuals have removed their thinking caps and are dancing naked! There’s even the chucklesome talk of dragging Soludo to the gods simply because he has refused to observe that their Emperor is somewhat clothed! Hypocritically the same horde cheer Chief Ayo Adebanjo and his phony Afenifere setup as a patriot for supporting Obi.

It is true that in the near past I myself have criticized Governor Soludo on matters affecting our home state, nevertheless as one who is in sync with my conscience I must state that Governor Soludo deserves the plaudits for calling out Obi and his supporters, he deserves the commendation of right thinking Igbos and Nigerians for choosing to stand as the voice of reason and for his ability to see the missing tiles in our region’s political mosaic rather than appear as one of the chorus boys for a political sojourn that is surely destined to hit the rocks!

History notes that even legendary Igbo leaders, I mean titans who loomed larger than life in our political firmament, names like Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Emeka Ojukwu ,Dr Alex Ekwueme and Chuba Okadigbo all brooked forms of opposition! Did Zik not spar with the likes of K.O Mbadiwe? Did Ojukwu not stand with Shagari’s National Party of Nigeria as against Zik’s NIgerian People’s Party, NPP?

What therefore is this hullabaloo over Soludo’s stance all about?

Like a wildfire borne by fiery winds or like a rush of blood to the head, the US  and UK Embassies recent travel advisory issued on the 22nd of October created a range of narratives for different sections of  Nigerians.

The advisory like the ominous soothsayer in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar had forewarned of terrorist attacks in the nation’s capital city, this led the embassy to shut down their activities as well as urge its citizenry and non emergency staff to leave the country.

This resulted in a panic of some sort as schools and businesses were reportedly shut down while a number of travel plans  and other sundry activities were reportedly cancelled or scaled down in view of such an advisory.

Matters became much worse when the US embassy again issued the authorized departure status to its citizens resident in Abuja as well as urged those who much preferred to wait behind to have a backup emergency action plan.

Responding, the Nigerian Government described the advisory as an attempt to stampede the nation and as one with its sovereignty much intact would definitely not have any of such!

Alhaji Lai Mohammed,  the Minister for Information simply conflated the advisory with the rising state of insecurity in the same United States and though he agreed with the right of the US government to ask its citizens to return home, he much frowned on the panic reactions such an advisory had created , noting that the Nigerian security agencies were much on top of their game and assured both its citizens as well as non citizens that there was indeed no reason to panic.

Truth be told, this will not be the first time the US embassy will be  issuing  such an advisory although this time such did come  with a “Code Red” status. The question now is why was it just the US and the United Kingdom that issued such an advisory?  For as at the time of its issuance other embassies of major nations domiciled on Nigerian soil were operating as usual. Now, isn’t it bothersome that key partners of the Five Eyes agreement and other partners for intelligence sharing whether it be under the Five Eyes Plus, Six Eyes,  Nine Eyes or 14 Eyes did not toe the same line with both the US and UK embassies? Could it be that the intelligence garnered by the US and the United Kingdom were indeed specific to the likelihood of attacks against the embassies of both countries as well as their citizens and thus did not need any form of sharing with their sister embassies? Could it also be that their respective agencies had shared such intelligence with their counterparts but such information had largely been ignored by the recipients?

Again, there are many who ask if the US Government through its embassy could not have shared such information or relayed  such to the Nigerian government which then would have passed such information to our security agencies for immediate attention without causing the kind of panic it’s advisory did raise? The argument stems much from the arrangement between the Nigerian government and the United States government on fighting terrorism, such an arrangement I gathered has seen both nations exchange vital information and workable intelligence. This school of thought much believes that the main intent of such an advisory was mainly to embarrass the Nigerian government and its security apparatus.

To think about this, the United States as a nation has as its foremost agenda the protection of its citizens both at home as well as abroad and to be fair to this super power it has very much sought to do such. Perhaps owing to the times our security services have been seen to have dropped the ball in a number of embarrassing scenarios, the United States maybe out of its looming responsibility to its citizens resident here  and as well out of its super power arrogance had decided not to trust the Nigerian government or its intelligence community. While this thinking serves not as a slight on our security agencies as I am aware of the numerous sacrifices they are making so that people like myself can move around freely and sleep at night ,the issuance of the US travel advisory whether it be in good faith or bad faith, factual or  misguided should serve as a wake up call to the country’s intelligence and security circles. Truth is that we cannot demand respect from nations like the United States in situations such as these and expect them to trust us with the lives of their citizens when we struggle to guarantee much the safety of ours.

With stories of institutionalized corruption within the security circles, intense bickering within the chains of command of our security agencies as well as between these agencies and a heightened lack of professionalism, the Nigerian security apparatus is apparently struggling to beat back these insurgents.

It is therefore  not enough to cringe and shout ourselves hoarse over such an advisory, which to me is a head trip to listen to, it is not enough alone for us to believe that such is an affront on our sovereignty if we do not seemingly get our acts together and use such to earn the respect of the global community.

Since his emergence as the 8th elected Governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo has sought to impose a new and harsh tax regime on Ndi Anambra. Using the pretext of wanting to increase the revenue base of the state, Governor Soludo has rather raised the tax burdens on the ordinary Anambra people who are not inured from the worsening economic circumstances presently faced. Coming at a time when the nation has just pulled itself out of another recession and coupled with the tangential effects of the Russo-Ukrainian war, the decision by Soludo to introduce such a tax regime without any real offers of a rebate to the people has somewhat ticked off whatever goodwill the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria had on his assumption of office in March 2022.

Appearing to be in a haste to tax Ndi Anambra, a number of citizens of the state began receiving tax notifications  on the need to pay up their Personal Income Tax even when a number of these persons were not working or earning their living within the state. The messages largely embarrassed a number of these persons and showcased Soludo’s unbridled desire to tax his people.

Like opening Pandora’s box sort of, it seemed pellucidly clear that Governor Soludo had let out the furies of taxation and no one would be spared! Like Shakespeares Caesar, Governor Soludo had cried havoc that the state  had an outstanding bill of N513.9bn yet to be paid by its 2.1 million taxpayers and had let slip the dogs of taxation!

Nobody seems to be free from such an insidious desire to tax the ordinary citizen, from the holloipolloi to the top hats or should I say redcaps, tricycle drivers popularly known as keke  drivers to shuttle drivers and transporters, traders and even businesses have all seen a tightening of the tax man’s noose around their already stretched necks!

Read Also; A glimpse of Soludo’s Anambra, four months after

Like I had earlier stated, at a point when a majority of Nigerians are already doing battle with a stagflation of sorts such as the rising prices of food staples, the increase in fuel prices and the bludgeoning cost of services as well as running a business in Nigeria, the question should be is the blanket taxation of every Okoro, Okorie and Okafor, Governor Soludo’s best foot forward? Shouldn’t the administration given these dire times that we have found ourselves in , offer tax cuts or worse offer a hold up its taxation sails for the time being? One would have expected the professor of economics to talk the same language with common sense economics that seeks to help the common man scale up with the current economic pressures!

Yes the Soludo administration would be needing all the resources at its disposal to meet the rising challenges of providing the basic services and bridging the infrastructural deficit faced by the state, I get that but then  there are other ways to meet such a burden rather than casting ominous taxes on the ordinary people!

Asking tricycle drivers and other transporters to pay a monthly tax of 15,000 and 18,000 monthly irrespective of whether they worked that month or not is not only harsh but unworkable, one would have recommended a daily pay as you work mode so that these transporters could cater for unexpected situations such as faulty vehicles, ill health or other emergencies that could take them off the road. This can also be done electronically.

Likewise the increased taxes on residential, commercial buildings as well as traders all in the name of waste collection and operation of their stalls in the various markets will only worsen the economic circumstances of the payers who will in turn pass the burden to others.  Asking citizens and businesses to pay humongous fees for refuse clearing or traders at the Eke Awka market for capturing is indeed taxation without a human face. For example asking a hotel or business  that readily employs 50 people to pay a 20 percent increased amount or so  for the collection of waste and refuse will not only hurt such a business but will also force such a business to either increase the cost of their services, downsize and either cut salaries of their workers or lay off such staff! Now, not only will such a business be burdened by such payments, we are also likely to witness a sharp increase in the unemployment rate within the state.

Rather than burden the ordinary man as I have explained in this piece, why is the Soludo administration not going after plugging the revenue leakages first and perhaps opening a series of probes into the many numerous dealings of the past administration which fleeced the state blind? Why is the Soludo administration not content with the N100bn loan it sought from the Anambra State House of Assembly for the refurbishment and construction of critical infrastructure within the state? Had the loan not been approved then one would obviously have excused such a huge drive to tax the Anambra citizen perhaps to death as necessary even in the face of the nation’s worsening economic situation. Matter of fact one would have expected the Soludo administration to perhaps show a little working , get off its own inertia and perform the magic he had so much campaigned about before asking the ordinary citizen to trust him the more with their taxes.

If we move to infrastructure, Bola Tinubu will still tower over the other candidates. Meeting an infrastructural deficit Lagos, Asiwaju immediately understand that infrastructure would be the lifeblood of a re-engineered Lagos. Now while the Labour candidate cannot point to a majority of roads constructed under his watch as all appear to have been washed away only eight years after he handed over to his successor, same

cannot be said about Tinubu who’s infrastructural drive has outlived his tenure  and has seen a succession with successive administrations who have continually improved on such a plan. It is on record that Tinubu completed over 350 road projects, works which were strategic in nature and opened up the state for a heavy inflow of investment and trade.

Such road projects will include Brown Road to Thomas Animashaun Street in Surulere where I was raised as a child and young teenager. Alakuko, Ojokoro; and Aniyaloye/Edidi/Adegboyega/Fatai Bello, Ifelodun, Irede, Amuwo-Odofin; Owuto Ajaguro, Ikorodu; Ekoro, Agbado Oke; Aboru, Agbado Oke odo; Okun Alfa, Ibeju; Agunji Ajiran, Eti Osa West; Old Ota, Ifako Ijaye; Kudirat Abiola Way, Oregun, Maroko-Epe Bye-Pass, Eti Osa West; and Oterubi Ogidan, Agboju. Others did include  Ijegun, Ojo; Oshifolarin, Somolu; Rhythm 93.7, Eti-Osa; Arufa Olugbemi, Ojo; Adeola Odeku, Victoria Island; Ajao/Ejigbo Road/Bridge, LASU-Iba-igbo Elerin-Agboroko-Badagry Expressway, and Isheri Osun-Isolo Housing Estate-Ago Palace Way,Agege Motor Road (Idi Oro to Ilupeju Byepass),Mushin and Ojuwoye, Eko Akete, Abaronje-Okerube, and Ikotun-Igbado.

One must not forget to mention the upgrading and renewal projects that were witnessed in the Lagos Island Central Business District. How can we forget that the Bus Rapid Transit Scheme was an initiative of the same Tinubu helping half the traffic gridlock on Lagos roads, saving travel time as well as provide affordable, safer and a much comfortable means of transportation.

Read Also: Tinubunomics and modern Lagos

There is the Lagos Railway line which was started by the Tinubu administration in 2003, another first by a state governor. Starting the project which was christened the Lagos Urban Transportation Project which was to ensure the creation of a blue and red  line rail systems . The Blue Line will run 27.5 km from Marina to Okokomaiko, with 13 stations and an end-to-end journey time of 35 minutes while the Red Line will run from Agbado to Marina .  the project is near its completion will also ensure that the easy flow of people, goods and services from one point in Lagos to another.

On the economic front, Bola Tinubu led an economic drive that moved the state as an economic behemoth, on assumption of office in 1999, the state’s internally generated revenue was a meager sum of 600 million before taking it to the sum of 83.62 billion Naira while he was leaving office,

Again, under Tinubu,  Lagos moved from a distant eight largest economy in Lagos to becoming the fourth largest with a GDP of $76 billion, trailing Cairo with a GDP of $212 billion was the biggest city economy in Africa followed by Johannesburg ($131 billion) and Cape Town ($121 billion).

Tinubu also opened up the economy of the state that under his watch Lagos State attracted a 62.5 growth in the establishment of industries, the fastest in this part of subSaharan Africa within eight years. New industrial estates sprung up all over the state, employing thousands and putting food on the tables of such people.

Perhaps the icing of the cake was the conception and the establishment of the Lekki Free Trade Zone to promote investments and improve the State’s revenue. The project, a

multi-billion naira project in Lekki area of the  state an initiative of Tinubu was launched in 2004. The free trade zone with a focus on manufacturing, industry, tourism, trade and real estate has the capacity to boost the state’s economy as well as position it as a growth hub not only for Nigeria but also the West African sub region.

Today it boasts of projects such as the Lekki Deep sea port, the Dangote fertilizer plant and the Dangote Refinery as well as a number of other related businesses.

When you place the fact that the  Dangote fertilizer plant which was recently commissioned  has the capacity to produce 3 million metric tonnes this halving by 50 percent the country’s dependence on imported fertilizer  or the fact that the Lekki deep sea port has the capacity to handle 2.7 million twenty foot equivalent unit (teu) or 32.6 million tonnes per annum  and lastly the fact that the Dangote Refinery will be churning out 650,000 barrels of crude a day, then one can only appreciate the economic wizardry of the man in question.

As Nigeria marches into the 2023 general election year, it is quite important for opinion moulders to draw attention to a number of issues that should naturally determine who gets their vote at the end of the whole exercise, such attention will be on the perspective of such candidates; their antecedents, their fixation on key policy issues as well as their manifesto.

Nigeria truly is in dire need of leadership, now this is not a dismissal of the Buhari years, far from it, I have always argued that even with a few challenges, the Buhari administration trumps all PDP administrations by a mile and half. The administration could have done better but then it still gave its best unlike what the umbrella party gifted Nigerians for 16 years.

The kind of leadership the country needs now is one that will move it further the development cycle. It is the kind of leadership that will need to build on the numerous achievements of the Buhari administration as well as fix where the administration fared badly. Thus Nigeria walks down a  tight rope as anything other than what is been prescribed here may spell doom for the nation’s development as well as its stability. This is beyond quoting funny statistics and applying “container economy analysis” to every topic, beyond the skullduggery and the demagoguery presently witnessed from a particular candidate and his small horde of misguided supporters.

Of a truth, the four major candidates have the credentials to seek to become president, with Bola Tinubu, the APC candidate topping the list, closely followed by a Rabiu Kwakwanso , Atiku Abubakar and lastly my former Governor , Peter Obi. But like every election, only one candidate can be elected for a period of four years. I know a few will howl as well as intend to dismiss my ranking and choice of President, as a liberal, I welcome such angst and perhaps a debate over such and would urge those who feel otherwise to write their own!

Read Also; It’s in Igbo’s best interest to support Tinubu

What makes Tinubu thick? I will tell you, I first met Tinubu at a function he organized for activists with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in 2007. This was when Atiku was been hounded by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration an administration in which  he was a sitting Vice President. Atiku could not even attend the event in Abuja as reports coming in then had it that his plane had been grounded in Owerri by the officers of the Department for State Security, DSS who were acting on orders from above.

Tinubu  rose to the occasion and spent an hour or so campaigning or selling the Atiku candidacy while lampooning the near entrenchment of a dictatorship, matter of fact, Lagos State was the only state Atiku had nicked in that election, this was vintage Tinubu a man who had fought the Abacha regime as well as the Obasanjo administration when the latter sought to stymie the opposition and lead Nigeria as a garrison commander of sorts. This is a man who’s home was democracy’s refuge when the instruments of state were wrongly channeled to silence the opposition or political figures who refused to play ball. This is a man who was a bulwark to the victims of electoral thievery, particularly in the 2007 elections. This is a man who rallied round the opposition becoming its motor force and was instrumental in the formation of the All Progressives Congress, APC which went on to end the behemoth hold of the PDP at the centre.

On the issue of governance, Tinubu stands as a colossus, haven demonstrated the laudatory example of fusing  innovative ideas into governance. Where other peer governors dawdled, Tinubu blazed the trail, delivering a number of firsts for the people of Lagos.

Among such firsts include the Independent Power Project that now supplies 270

MW to the National Grid as well as the massive electrification of 127 communities in Lagos, these were areas which had prior to his emergence as governor had never received electricity despite the state’s status as a former capital of the Federation.

On the economic scope, Tinubu again demonstrated immense flair and verve by raising the state’s  internally generated revenue from a paltry sum of 600 million Naira to over 7bn, leapfrogging Lagos from the backwaters to becoming Africa’s fifth largest economy. Combining such with the right mix of

Infrastructural drive as well as  attracting massive investments into the state which have helped transform the state into Nigeria’s most cosmopolitan area.

In the healthcare sector, Senator Bola Tinubu’s tenure as helmsman of the state witnessed a couple of giant strides. Under his watch Lagos State witnessed the creation of a Hospital Services Commission which regularised the provision of healthcare services  as well as raised the standards of such services all over the state. It is also a fact that the Tinubu administration was the first to roll out a state ambulance management scheme as well as a free healthcare policy for children below the age of 16 and the elderly from the age of 65 years.

Despite their declarations in 2014 and 2015, and the agreement that there is need for policy makers and the would be authorities to ensure the protection of schooling and the education of our children and wards, it is safe to say that the Nigerian State is indeed miles apart from implementing either of the Safe Schools Initiative and the Safe Schools Declaration.

Following the disturbing kidnap of girl students at the Chibok Girl’s Secondary School, Chibok by members of the terrorist group, Boko Haram, and the outrage such an act generated all over the world, policy makers all over the world came together to figure out how best to ensure that children at schools are physically and psychologically protected from all sorts of attacks.

Since then, there has been countless attacks against students particularly those within the NorthWest and NorthEast regions of the country. Nigerians will in anguish remember the numerous attacks on the various schools in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in which over 3,500 children were alleged to have been abducted. Perhaps, seeking to emulate Boko Haram these new breed of terrorists have added attacks on schools to their activities seeking to embarrass the government in a manner similar to how the Chibok saga much embarrassed the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Even recently, the Federal Capital Territory had to close all schools after it had received intelligence reports that terrorists were planning attacks on a number of schools within its region, this was immediately followed by Nasarawa State which owing to its proximity to the FCT did not want to be taken unawares by these terrorists.

One cannot imagine the trauma that has been visited upon these students , their teachers and parents, even in such events where these children have been returned, there are tales of horror as to what these children did go through in the hands of their captors, with many getting dissuaded from further attending school. On another hand in other states like Zamfara, schools were shut for over eight months, this again puts the education of these children on hold , stymieing their academic progress.

These are thus enough reasons for the authorities be it at the Federal, State and Local Government levels to give enough attention to the Safe Schools processes.

As schools are set to resume there ought to be a convergence of policies between the various authorities, the security agencies and the various communities towards ensuring that these schools and their wards within are protected.

Read Also: Schooling In Tears: How herdsmen crises paralysed basic education in Benue (1)

There is need for these authorities together with the various institutions and agencies to critically identify issues and factors that may hamper its implementation. Factors such as lack of funding, scarce logistics, poor equipment and the issue of under policing can be identified as such critical factors.

Again, the apparent collapse of security and the spread of these violent attacks from the NorthEast region to the Northwest and now the North Central has also hampered one of the key policy initiatives which is to move students from regions of high risk areas to schools within safer parts.

Another component of the safe school initiative is the ensuring that children and wards displaced and are found in internally displaced camps continue to receive quality access to education despite their present predicament, I cannot ascertain for now if this major component of the Safe School Initiative is been implemented as a majority of stories received makes immense reference to the poor states of these camps, how the government intends to implement such a component in such poor states leaves much questions to be answered .

Last of these components is the initiation of the such safe school models in 10 schools each in the three most devastated states affected by the insurgent attacks, this too has largely not been implemented owing to issues such as funding, this is despite the budgeting of funds for its implementation, For example in 2021, the National Assembly earmarked over $20 million for its implementation funding proposed and budgeted for the initiative in February, 2021. Only to find out that the funds were never domiciled in the Ministry for Education which ought to have primacy over such funds in which together with the various states would have employed such funds to tackle the issue, prompting Senator Ahmed Lawan, the Senate President to declare that such an initiative was programmed to fail.

One cannot disagree with the Senate President and even if one wants to disagree the continuous attacks on schools in the North gives vent to such an assertion, this indeed is very sad.

With Nigeria having about 11 million pupils out of school, it is enough to say that we are already tinkering with fire amidst dry gun powder should we pay no heed to the issue of safe schooling . It is akin to leaving these children behind , children who’s only crime is their desire to get an education, its about time we sit up!

To these children of hate who are in the obvious minority clapped their hands every time there was some pretext to commission of begin the Second Niger Bridge, a number of them even swore that with the emergence of a Muhammadu Buhari, a man much accused of  harboring anti Igbo sentiments as president that such a bridge would never come to fruition, this is a bridge which had not seen even the drilling of foundations beneath the waters by those who claimed to love NdiIgbo. Matter of fact it was made a campaign issue in the 2015 elections that a vote for Buhari was a vote for the loss of such a project!

This however happened not to be the case  as the Muhammadu Buhari administration hit the ground running on the bridge and by that same year, in August 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari decided to commence afresh and did this without the immense media hogwash nor overbloated fanfare that had greeted the earlier the more you look the less you see approach to the bridge’s construction.

The  Buhari administration not only redesigned the Second Niger bridge; it added an extra lane as well as detours to the bridge, which would then see an ancillary infrastructure including a 10.3 km (6.4 mi) highway, Owerri interchange and a toll station all at Obosi, with a toll gate. There would be two secondary bridges at Amakom and Atani as well as two approach roads from Asaba and Onitsha ends.

I also recall that when construction began on the bridge in 2018, many of these children of hate scoffed at the announcement, haven gotten used to the “dance of shame “ by our leaders over the bridge, like the Prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel, since their demigods and demagogues had much failed to deliver the goods, how then would a Fulani man who had been maligned as an Igbo hater deliver?

Read Also: Second Niger Bridge and repulsive attempt at revisionism (1)

This was even with the reduced cost at N206 billion which was to be funded by the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), with its source to funds coming from the Federal Government, the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) bringing in private investment and part of the proceeds of the Abacha loot.

Even at the various levels of its construction, they refused to budge, not even the huge infrastructural drive in the SouthEast by the Buhari administration would sway them that is after the region had been left abandoned by a certain political party that had always gotten Igbo votes but taken them for granted.

Now that the bridge is nearing completion did these children wake up from their slumber of disbelief and began to raise aspersions about the bridge.

They have like the children of Israel who on their way out of Egypt complained about everything but their freedom. They have now raised allegations of height of the bridge alleging in their infamous hatred that the bridge has been brought lower to prevent ships from passing underneath the bridge. They have also queried the idea of a tolling station but such an idea had always been in the earlier versions of the “audio”  and there wasn’t even a whimper!

Give or take the much talked about Second Niger Bridge is coming to reality and in a real time of less than five years which the PDP in its 16 years as the ruling party of the nation failed to actualize. Rather than express their gratitude and perhaps do some atonement for the malicious hate directed at a man who has proven them wrong all they can muster is  these series of denials , lies and canards!

Nigerians and NdiIgbo should be grateful to the Muhammadu Buhari led administration; of a truth the administration has had its shortcomings, every administration will definitely have such but looking at the bottom line the Buhari administration has done quite well in terms of delivering quality infrastructure  and had past administrations since the return to democracy had invested half of its energy in meeting such a demand then the nation would have been on a more solid footing economically than we are presently in . On this note President Buhari has indeed done well and no height or depth of revisionism can suggest otherwise.