Osinbajo Assures On Completion Of 2nd Niger Bridge
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has given an assurance that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration will bring the Second Niger Bridge project to fruition.
Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, in a statement on Saturday in Abuja, said the vice president fielded questions from newsmen shortly after an inspection of the progress of work at the Asaba end of the Second Niger Bridge project on Friday.
According to Osinbajo, the bridge is not only important for the economy of the South East, but for Nigeria’s economy in general.
The vice president said that strategic infrastructure projects such as the bridge was critical to the administration’s economic agenda, as it would improve socio-economic opportunities and benefit all Nigerians.
Osinbajo expressed optimism that the project would be delivered on schedule as President Buhari was personally committed to completing the project.
Osinbajo tweeted his experience during the inspection.
The Second Niger Bridge is very important for the economy of the South-East and the Nigerian economy as a whole. I had the privilege of visiting the bridge from the Asaba end.
The fascinating thing as we were told by the engineers is how much work goes into just the piling. pic.twitter.com/YEHVdJidCv — Prof Yemi Osinbajo (@ProfOsinbajo) May 4, 2019 Each one of the piers is the equivalent of an 18 storey building in the ground and there are about 1,000 – 1,300 workers hard at work to bring the project to a reality.
It is the firm commitment of President @MBuhari that this project be completed as quickly as it can. pic.twitter.com/tX523BBKwY — Prof Yemi Osinbajo (@ProfOsinbajo) May 4, 2019
‘The Second Niger Bridge is so important for the economy of the South East and for the Nigerian economy, and of course, it is not just the bridge, there are the access roads, which are also very important. “It is obvious so much progress has been made here; it is an important project that the President is committed to completing.
‘In the past 18 months or so, a lot work has been done and I came to see for myself.
“As you can see, the foundation goes all the way down, and this is just the Asaba end of the bridge. There is also the Anambra end of the bridge, so it is a lot of work.
“There is a huge number of people who are also benefiting in various ways as the project progresses.” Osinbajo said that the commitment of the Buhari administration to complete strategic infrastructure projects that would improve the nation’s economy, necessitated the creation of the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF). The PIDF is an initiative of Buhari administration which is to be invested specifically in critical road and power projects across the country. According to him, there are some critical infrastructure that are considered very strategic to Nigeria’s economic plan and which, through PIDF, will hopefully be completed.
