BY PRINCELY ONYENWE,IMO

PROTOCOLS

May I formally and most heartily, welcome His Excellency, the Vice President of Nigeria, Prof Yemi Osinbajo GCON, to Imo state for the second time in three weeks. This time Your Excellency is here to commission some strategic road projects executed by my administration in the last one year.

Your Excellency, I should add that the roads you are about to commission are not ordinary road projects. They are very strategic because they provide the essential economic nerves for the survival and sustainability of our people.

As I noted earlier, just a few weeks ago, Your Excellency was in the state to grace our Thanksgiving service to commemorate our first year in office anniversary. Shortly after that The President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, commissioned two strategic roads built by our administration. One of the roads, named after Mr. President, is the World Bank to federal secretariat road. This road is of strategic economic importance to our people as it links the high density, commercial area of World Bank to the Federal Secretariat and the rest of the city. Yet it was abandoned by previous administrations for over 20 years

I am happy that Your Excellency graciously accepted to come back to inaugurate these roads for the benefit of our people. By this act Sir, you would also be a star witness to the road revolution going on in the state under a progressive and focused APC Government.

In the coming weeks, prominent Nigerians including the Senate President, the Chairman of Governors Forum and the Chairman of APC progressive forum would also undertake a pilgrimage to Imo state to bear witness to how we are turning around the Infrastructure in the state in a breathtaking manner, for the economic and social sustainability of our people.

It is important to reiterate that a good number of the roads we have built had been abandoned by previous administrations for many years, yet these roads are, practically speaking, the economic artery of our people. As a compassionate Government, we did a needs assessment when we assumed office one year ago, Thereafter we decided to prioritise these roads to save our people from the choking weight of the alarming infrastructural decay that was their cross before we came in.

Our immediate concern was to provide a lifeline to our people to enable them breathe economically.

This Dick Tiger road and Dick Tiger street which your Excellency will commission in a few minutes, had been lost to floodwaters for 20 years. Within the period houses were swallowed and this led to the exodus of landlords and tenants from the area. Expectedly, the real estate sector suffered, investments were lost and the state economy was negatively impacted. But today the story has changed and a glorious new dawn is here. Beholding the breathtaking road has restored the confidence of our people in Government. The same thing applies to the nearby Relief Market Road which serves as a gateway to the commercial nerve of the state.

Before the advent of this administration, almost all the roads in the state were not motorable. Commuters and motorists groaned under roads that were nothing but death traps. The movement of goods and services were hampered. We had to intervene to urgently reverse the ugly trend. As I speak, we have a total of 46 quality roads, completed or nearing completion, and still counting. Our vision is to ensure easy movement of goods and services, across the 27 local government areas of the state and by extension the neighbouring states. We equally expect that our roads revolution will not only boost commerce but real estate and other small-scale businesses as well.

With what we have achieved in all sectors in the last one year, we have become a living example of what an APC government can do for our people of the South East. As the oldest APC Government in Igboland, we have become the torchbearer of the party, spreading the gospel of development with our sterling performance as a standard-bearer. With this in mind, I believe sincerely that by 2023 there will be a walkover for APC in the South East.

Your Excellency Sir, I cannot thank you enough for being here again within a space of three weeks. It shows your personal love and care for Imo State and her people. It also testifies to the commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari to the welfare of Imo people, thus confirming my assertion that Igbo stand to gain more when we are aligned to the centre of national politics.

I also thank immensely the good people of Imo State for their laudable patience in bearing the burden of bad roads for many years and for being gracious enough to give us the benefit of the doubt. Today there is no doubt that Uzoadigomma. (The roads are good again).Yet, this is just the beginning of a glorious dawn that promises far better days ahead for Imo people.

On that note, may I humbly invite His Excellency, the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to formally commission these roads for the economic and social prosperity of our people.

Thank you all and God bless

Sen. Hope Uzodimma
Governor, Imo State