The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has restated the commitment of
the Federal Government in completing the second Nigeria Bridge in the
South East.
He made this known during the flag-off of the governorship campaign of the
All Progressives Congress in Onitsha area of Anambra State, adding that
$2bn has been paid for the project.
Professor Osinbajo said this after the Minister of Labour and
Productivity, Dr Chris Ngige, interrupted his speech to pass him
information.
“We are not making promises for nothing. The second Niger Bridge, we have
been talking about it for a long time. But for the first time, President
Muhammadu Buhari went by himself to negotiate the facility to do that
second Niger Bridge,” the Vice President said.
“And that is why the second Niger Bridge is in our current budget and we
have provided for it. In fact, I am being reminded that just two days ago,
the Sovereign Wealth Fund paid $2bn for that same project. So we will
definitely see our second Niger Bridge. We will not make promises we
cannot keep.”
The VP went on to claim that the previous administrations abandoned the
Lagos-Calabar railway project, stressing that it has been revived under
the APC-led Federal Government.
“When we were talking of railway, Lagos-Calabar railway, under the old
administration, I will not mention them by name.
“They said Lagos-Calabar will go from Lagos to Calabar, there was no
connection to the South-East. It was when President Muhammadu Buhari came
that we redesigned the Lagos-Calabar in order to pass through Onitsha in
the first place.
“By that new design, we also have the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri railway that
has a connection to Umuahia-Owerri and Enugu-Awka. So all of those, we
will not make promises we cannot keep. Every promise we make, we will
keep,” he added.
Speaking further, Mr Osinbajo also stresses that Anambra was the first
state to benefit from the school feeding initiative that has employed over
a thousand cooks and fed over a hundred thousand.
He added, “This state was the first state to receive our home-grown school
feeding. This Anambra was the very first state that we gave money for that
programme. And we have already in 807 schools, here in Anambra state where
these young children (primary schools) are already fed.
“We have over a hundred thousand children that are already fed here in
Anambra state, and that is an APC programme, our home-grown school feeding
programme. We have engaged over a thousand cooks, over a thousand people
are cooking. We have our N-Power programme for young graduates. Already we
have employed over 4,000 graduates and we intend to increase the number.”