The Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, has stated that the deliberate spread of infrastructure and economic opportunities across major cities in Nigeria was intended to reduce congestion, expand jobs and promote balanced national development across Nigeria.
Shettima, who commissioned the Elele-Umudioga-Egbeda-Ubimini-Akpabu-Ikiri-Omoku Dual Carriageway on behalf of President Tinubu on Thursday in Rivers State, said the move was driven by the administration’s conviction that such state-driven projects are consistent with the Renewed Hope Agenda’s push to expand security, welfare and economic opportunity beyond the centre.
According to the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media & Communications, Stanley Nkwocha, the 33.5-kilometre road runs through Ikwerre, Emohua and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni local government areas of the state, connects communities along an important agricultural, commercial and oil and gas corridor leading towards Omoku, widely regarded as the state’s “Gas City.”
“A nation becomes congested when opportunity is congested. People move because roads, markets, jobs and services have not moved far enough towards them,” the Vice President stated, adding that roads are among the most democratic instruments of development, as they connect farmers to markets, workers to jobs, students to schools and patients to healthcare.
According to him, the completed road will help farmers move produce faster, reduce losses, lower logistics costs for businesses and open communities along the corridor to greater economic activity.
“Public infrastructure must be judged by the lives it improves. A road earns its value when a farmer earns more, a child reaches school earlier, and isolation no longer punishes enterprise,” he said.
Senator Shettima commended Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara for completing the project, describing it as consistent with President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and the Federal Government’s support for state-led investments that improve security, welfare and economic opportunities.
He also stressed the importance of continuity in governance, saying, “One administration lays a foundation, another strengthens it, and the people remain the final beneficiaries.”
The Vice President urged communities along the corridor to protect the infrastructure against vandalism and other activities capable of shortening its lifespan.
“Our next responsibility is to protect this asset from vandalism, reckless use and every practice that shortens the life of public infrastructure,” he said.
Earlier, Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State said the 33.5-kilometre road, with a river crossing bridge, will improve security and ease the age-long suffering of the people of the three local government areas of Ikwere, Emohua and Ogba/Egbema /Ndoni.
The governor explained that in the past, the road was a corridor for kidnapping, oil bunkering, and other forms of criminality, assuring that with the commissioning of the road, insecurity will be a thing of the past along the road corridor, and that security agencies would increase surveillance in the area.
“In this project, we have lights from the beginning to the end. So, even in the night, insecurity is totally eliminated,” he said. “This won’t have been possible without the support of the Federal Government and the good people of Rivers State.”
He thanked President Tinubu and the Vice President for their unwavering support to the government and people of Rivers State.
