In a move reminiscent of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) trying to woo the South East zone to its side ahead of the 2019 elections, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is embarking on massive developmental projects in the zone, to appease the people.
In fact, the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO) inspected some of the projects, which are already under implementation, over the weekend. Hundreds of supporters of the administration trooped to the street to welcome the group and also pledged their support for the president.
The inspection team, which visited Enugu-Onitsha and Enugu Port Harcourt expressways, include the director general of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu; the chairman and secretary of Coalition for Buhari Support Groups (NCBSG), Mustafa Ahmed and Otunba Biodun Ajiboye.
Speaking at the site of the projects, Okechukwu, said Enugu State chapter of BSO embarked on the inspection to showcase Buhari’s projects in the zone.He said several eminent persons have queried the mission and the answer is that “we embarked on the inspection of the projects; because it is high time citizens appreciated the essence and imperative of ownership of federal, state and local government projects.”
Said he, “For us ownership of projects is the only panacea to stop abandoned projects littered everywhere in our landscape in spite of the ritual of budget year in and year out.”
He said the group wanted to monitor contractors ‘bumper to bumper’ to make sure they execute projects timely and qualitatively “in the other plank to assist the contractors to source for their payments any time the government is owing them.
“Its BSO’s considered view that the citizens have the fundamental rights to own projects located in their zones in the face of shoddy oversight functions trademark of National and State Assemblies.
“Is it not regrettable that there was no time since 1999, one or two South East Senators or House of Representatives (HOR) members were in the works committees in both houses, yet all the federal roads in our zone collapsed? In fact there was a time when we had Deputy Senate President and Deputy Speaker and our sons chaired the two Works Committee in both Senate and HOR” Okechukwu said.
According to him, South East zone was rabidly fanatical to erstwhile Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr Goodluck Jonathan administrations; they overwhelming voted for them while the roads were dilapidating and other infrastructure decaying.
“In sum, is it not ironic that Buhari whom our people loathed, despised and denigrated is the one fixing federal roads in the South East; which our beloved ex-presidents, parliamentarians and ministers diverted their funds?” he queried.
Also speaking at the scene Ejike Eze, a former commissioner in Enugu and an APC chieftain said despite the fact Ndigbo did not vote this APC government, it remembered to reconstruct roads in the zone whereas the previous government which Ndigbo voted allowed South-East infrastructure to decay.
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