“If you go to France, as you land, you look at Charles de gaulle airport, you look at the train system , you will remember Charles de gaulle.
If you go to United States of America, you look at the Ambiance, you look at the management and the environment, you look at the infrastructure, you remember George Washington.
If you go to Singapore, you look at the modern Singapore, you look at how things are working, the train system, the transportation system, the cleanliness of the place, you remember lee kuan Yew.
So every country must have its own hero. Today, If you come to Nigeria, you remember that this bridge, the old bridge is dilapidated, you will now see a modern bridge. Apart from the economic and social benefits that we will get from this project, you will remember that one man approved the funding of over 366 billion Naira project in the southeast and you see that the project is completed; you will remember President Muhammadu Buhari.”
Those were the exact words of the Imo State Governor, Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma during a recent visit with Stakeholders and Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South-east to the 2nd Niger Bridge on an inspection tour and I for one agree totally with him given the level damage the nonexistence of this bridge over the years did to the fabrics of nationhood in this country.
Anyone one who understands how the very many unfulfilled promises to deliver this project battered the sense of belonging of Ndigbo and the people of the South-East and South-South cannot but be entirely grateful for the decision to President Buhari to make it this a dream come true.
Nations are artificial. They are deliberate creation of Men. So, Governor Uzodimma knew what he was saying when he opined that; Nations are built by Heros. It is the decision of a Man in Office to fix infrastructure, things like roads, bridges, railways and so on and every other sector of economy that bonds and connects people from different ethnicities that makes a Nation. And for a country as diverse as Nigeria, with over 250 ethnic groups and over 300 languages, all that is needed to concretize the Nigerian identity is nothing short of deliberate investments in these things that unites and connects us. So that people in the north can freely go to the east to sell their produce and people from the south can fall in love with one of the west. That’s integration.
When priority is given to the things that binds us, there’s less likelihood of threat to the peace of the country because faith is being restored by doing so. Bridges don’t just cross over rivers, they help make strangers brothers.
Governor Uzodimma, recounting how long we’ve yearned and clamored for this signature project, thanked God Almighty for the level of job already done. He said;
“Since 35 years ago,we started begging for the construction of a second bridge that will link southeast and south south with other parts of the country. Particularly given that the only bridge we had that was constructed 55 years ago, started going down. We made this request severally even at a time the price of crude oil was over a hundred dollar a barrel.
We made this request at a time that production of crude oil was uninterrupted in Nigeria and we got to a mark of 2.1 million barrels a day.
From the point of concept, the engineering of this project, there was no funding for it.
I want to thank the Almighty God that what ordinary was looking like a dream, is now a reality.”
The faith we’ve lost since 35 years upon request for a replacement of the old Niger Bridge especially at the time we had plenty is now being restored with this project coming to fruition in this dispensation, we as a people with broken spirits are once again being healed. All thanks to the Buhari/Osinbajo led administration.