I Don’t Know If Buhari Will Complete Port Harcourt-Maiduguri Railway Project – Amaechi

Posted by Nwa Diokpa Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Friday, March 12th, 2021

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi has stated that he can’t guarantee if the three projects that were officially inaugurated on Tuesday by President Muhammadu Buhari will be completed during his tenure.

President Buhari, in a virtual ground-breaking ceremony of three projects namely the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Port Harcourt– Maiduguri Eastern Narrow Gauge railway project, Bonny deep seaport and Railway Industrial Park, Port Harcourt, disclosed that the rehabilitation of the infrastructures would increase economic activities along the Eastern part which have been greatly disturbed by insecurity.

However, Amaechi, stated that the possibility of the projects being completed before the end of the tenure of President Buhari will depend on the availability of funds.

“I am not in a position to say that for now, it is a function of money actually,” the Minister stated this on Thursday when he appeared on a Television programme on ARISE News.

He said: “once we conclude, once we have the financial close for all of them, we’ll put pressure on them. For instance, all the contracts are to be completed in three years but what we intend to do is to put as much pressure as we can on the contractors to ensure that we start simultaneously at different points so that we can complete at the same time.

“If we do that at the same time, we may complete it in two years, but if we can’t, for Christ’s sake government is a continuum, we don’t have to be there to commission the projects. What is critical and important to the president is not about the history of who started it.”