By Chioma Gabriel

Minister of Works, and former governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, has dismissed calls for a separate Biafran State, saying it is no longer warranted, due to what he described as the unprecedented integration of the Igbo into Nigeria’s national development agenda under President Bola Tinubu.

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Umahi made the remarks while inspecting ongoing federal projects in the  southeast region. 

He pointed out that sentiments of marginalisation, which had  fuelled separatist movements, have significantly eased due to substantial federal investments in roads and other critical infrastructure across the southeast.

According to him, “There will be no need for Biafra again,” Umahi said. “In the past administration, our people felt very much marginalised and that was the reason some people were agitating for Biafra. But I can say today that we are well integrated into the mainstream of the nation, Nigeria.”

He expressed gratitude to President Tinubu, describing the South-East as “comfortable” and “very happy” with the current administration.

“We are comfortable with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. We are very happy with the integration,” he said.

The minister presented a list of ongoing and completed federal projects in the South-East, emphasising that many of  them  had stagnated for over a decade before the Tinubu administration intervened.

“For more than 15 years, it has been one government that will come and just do something and go. But the section being done by MTN under RCC is going to be completed by February  next year  and it is costing us N202 billion.”

According to him, another 72-kilometre road section being handled by SKCC at the cost of N150 billion has already received 30 per cent payment.

“You can see the joy  of it,” he noted.

Umahi said the federal government is prioritising durable infrastructure, particularly concrete roads designed to last between 50 and 100 years.

“The job of building roads by Mr President all over the country is that these roads will last 50 years to 100 years,” he said, comparing the projects to the ongoing coastal highway.

He listed key projects across the region, including the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway; Owerri-Onitsha Expressway; and Section 2B of the Second Niger Bridge, valued at N176 billion.

“You go to Enugu now, you see the Artisan Bridge finished, dusted and delivered,” Umahi said.

“You go to Depot Junction in Eke-Obinagu, the biggest flyover in the South-East is going on there.”

Other projects  highlighted  include the Enugu-Abakaliki Road, costing N172 billion, and what he described as a major “legacy project” worth N424 billion, covering 123 kilometres from Ndibe Beach in Ebonyi State to the Benue border.

“These are the reasons why I said we do not have any reason again to agitate for Biafra,” he declared. “He that has started this great and beautiful thing, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he will continue it.”

Umahi argued that political relevance for the South-East should be pursued through strategy rather than rhetoric.

“We cannot retake our rightful position by sentiment and venomous statements,” he said. “It is by realities and being strategic.”

He described his support for President Tinubu and the recent defection of the Enugu State governor to the All Progressives Congress (APC) as calculated political decisions.

“I am supporting President Bola Tinubu; it is being strategic. The governor of Enugu State, coming over to APC, is being strategic,” Umahi said.

Umahi also praised governors in the region, particularly his successor in Ebonyi State.

“My governor in Ebonyi State; we have this culture of working without commissioning, and that’s what my dear governor is doing,” he said.

Umahi concluded by framing the moment as a turning point for the South-East.

“Even those that don’t want us to take our rightful position as South-East people, God has opened the time,” he said.

“This is our time, and this is the time that God has sent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to reintegrate our people.”

Vanguard News

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