Vice President Kashim Shettima has said thay the administration of President Bola Tinubu was deliberately spreading infrastructure and economic opportunities beyond major cities to reduce congestion, expand jobs and promote balanced national development across Nigeria.
This, he noted, was driven by the administration’s conviction that such state-driven projects were consistent with the Renewed Hope Agenda’s push to expand security, welfare and economic opportunity beyond the centre.
According to his spokesman, Stanley Nkwocha, Shettima stated this on Thursday while inaugurating the Elele-Umudioga-Egbeda-Ubimini-Akpabu-Ikiri-Omoku Dual Carriageway in Rivers State on behalf of President Tinubu.
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.
He said roads were among the most democratic instruments of development, noting that they connect farmers to markets, workers to jobs, students to schools and patients to healthcare.
“Roads are among the most democratic instruments of development. They serve the farmer carrying produce to market, the trader seeking customers, the worker travelling to employment, the student going to school and the patient seeking care. When a road works, society moves,” Shettima maintained.
He maintained that the completed road would 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.
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, the Rivers state Governor said the 33.5 kilometer road, with a river crossing bridge, would improve security and ease the age-long suffering of the people of the three local governments areas of Ikwere, Emohua and Ogba/Egbema /Ndoni.
He 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 would 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. This won’t have been possible without the support of the Federal Government and the good people of Rivers State.
“I want to thank you for this special support that you have been giving to us for us to come here to say, to the glory of God, that promise made is a promise kept,” the governor said.
He thanked the President and the Vice President for their unwavering support to the government and people of Rivers.
