Minister of Works, Senator Engineer David Umahi has commended State Governments collaboration that has resulted in wave of infrastructure development witnessed in Southeast Nigeria.
Umahi made the commendation during his inspection visit to ongoing reconstruction of the collapsed bridge at New Artisan Market, near NNPC Mega Filling Station in Enugu on Sunday.
The Minister lauded the unwavering support of Southeast State Govts with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope agenda for national development, especially in efforts to the development of road infrastructure for the economic advancement of the region.
Umahi also applauded Enugu State Governor, Barr. Peter Ndubuisi Mba who accompanied him for the inspection, for the numerous jobs he is doing in the State.
He said to the Governor, “The economy of your State is going to boom by the strategic and noiseless infrastructure that you are putting in place. By the time you complete this infrastructure, it’s going to be a lot of noise.”
Umahi pressed further, “I commend you very highly and the other Governors of South East, including my own Governor, the Chairman of South East Governors’ Forum and Governor of Imo State, the Governor of Abia State and the Governor of Anambra State.”
He thanked the Governor for the initiative to handle the dualization of 24km of Enugu axis of the Enugu – Abakaliki-Ogoja Trans – Sahara Highway and noted that the intervention had closed the gap in the road infrastructure intervention efforts of Federal Govt in the State. 
The Minister expressed the readiness of Federal Government to collaborate with Enugu State Government in the construction of a flyover bridge at Abakpa junction in Enugu Capital City to minimize traffic challenges and enhance the business fortunes of the State.
He directed immediate soil tests and design of the bridge for consideration by the Federal Ministry of Works. It is expected that State government will fund the execution of the project and afterwards get a refund from Federal Govt through the MTN Tax Credit Scheme.
The Minister commended the contractors handling projects he visited for the quality of job being done but directed RCC Ltd to remobilize immediately to the site and free the roads to reduce the hardship suffered by the road users because of the uncompleted section of the road.
He also commended the efforts of the President in fixing road infrastructure in South East. He said,” The President has given very serious and adequate attention to the road infrastructure in South East.”
Umahi urged the people to keep faith with the federal government’s programmes for economic recovery, as reiterated in his recent nationwide broadcast. 
The Minister said, “only a businessman background will understand the importance of that address. The address is laden with a lot of hope, laden with a lot of economic activities and a lot of relief packages for our people.”
He further said, “I thank the people of South East. I thank the Igbo communities all over the country for not protesting. We are not going to protest.
“We want proper integration in the affairs of this country, and President Bola Tinubu has started it by giving an Igbo man the Minister of Works, first in history. We been excluded in governance and in development in the past”, Umahi said.
In his response, the host Governor noted the synergy between the State government and Federal Govt as a governance imperative for the development and progress of the State.
He said,” Let me start first with expressing on behalf of the govt and the people of Enugu State our profound gratitude and our deep appreciation to the President, commander -in-chief of the armed forces of this country, and also to the Minister who has shown tireless commitment since we had this incident last year.
“The Minister must have visited here over ten times. From the onset, he has expeditiously came to the site and assessed what was happening immediately called Mr President to assist because indeed a major gateway. And we know the value of having a seamless transportation system. The road is one of those seamless transportation systems”.
On the critical value of the road, Mba said, “So this major gateway would have not only affected just the people of Enugu but indeed the entire people of South East and also those from South South.
“If you are driving from Port Harcourt to parts of Northern Nigeria, you would have to travel through this route. So the minister and indeed Mr. President, understanding the importance of this road immediately deployed.”
He further called on the people of South East to remain undaunted in their resolve not to protest against Mr. President’s economic recovery policies.
“Again, we want to continue to call on our people to go about their business and know that if we do destroy our assets, we’re going to also still use the wealth of our common patrimony to fix those assets.
“So we must remain focused on our work and continue to do our work. Finally, we can not end this without commending what the minister is doing, not just to the Southeast, but to the entire country”, the Governor said.
The projects the Minister visited include the construction of 23-span twin flyover bridge at Eke-Obinagu Junction, Emene handled by Reinforced Global Ltd.
Also, the reconstruction of the collapsed bridge along Enugu-PH Expressway at New Artisan Market, near NNPC Mega filling station handled by CCECC Ltd, and the dualization of 107 km section of Enugu- Onitsha Expressway handled by RCC Ltd.
