Minister of Works Dave Umahi declares an absolute infrastructure triumph in the South East as President Tinubu materializes long-abandoned colonial-era superhighway projects.
The Minister of Works, Senator Dave Umahi, has announced a historic breakthrough in regional connectivity, declaring that several massive road infrastructure projects for the South East-originally conceived during the British colonial era but left completely abandoned for decades-are finally being brought to life under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
Speaking during a comprehensive facility tour in Ebonyi State with senior journalists and high-ranking state officials, Umahi singled out the ambitious Calabar-Ebonyi-Benue Trans-Saharan Superhighway as a masterpiece of strategic engineering designed to seamlessly integrate the South East, South South, and parts of the North Central geopolitical zones.
The Minister noted that by reviving this long-forgotten, seven-decade-old vision, the federal administration has effectively ended the systematic infrastructure isolation of the region, deploying substantial funding to transform what was once an unfulfilled dream into an active, high-impact construction corridor.
Reviewing the technical benchmarks of the ongoing project, the Minister reported exceptional structural progress across multiple construction zones, attributing the uninterrupted pace of work during the intense rainy season to President Tinubu’s revolutionary mandate for rigid concrete road technology.
Section One of the Trans-Saharan route, which has been extended to cover 123.6 kilometers at a cost of 45 billion Naira, is currently undergoing extensive dualization, while the massive Section Two running through the Aboadi border, Benue, and Kogi states down to Nasarawa has been awarded for a whopping 668 billion Naira to Infiouest International Limited.
Umahi explained that this grand trans-saharan highway serves as a high-yield economic investment corridor engineered to exponentially catalyze agrarian trade across Cross River, Benue, and Ebonyi States by providing seamless transit for vital cash crops like cassava, yams, cashews, and palm oil, while creating a direct commercial artery between mainland Nigeria and the Republic of Cameroon.
The ministerial inspection team, which included the acting Federal Controller of Works in Ebonyi State, Engineer Maxwell Okoh, and the Project Manager of Infiouest International Limited, Mohammed Mustafa, thoroughly evaluated critical installations along the route, including the highly strategic 1.3-kilometer Ndi-Egbe Bridge in Afikpo, which is on track for a December 2026 completion.
The delegation also inspected the soaring 90-meter-high Onueke Flyover project in Ebonyi’s Central Senatorial District, a 35 billion Naira congestion-relief facility flanked by a 2.2-kilometer access road on both sides. Parallel to these federal accomplishments, the Executive Governor of Ebonyi State, Francis Nwifuru, welcomed the media delegation to Abakaliki, highlighting his state’s status as a secure investment hub with zero reported kidnapping cases under his watch, while underscoring extensive state-funded rural road and healthcare networks.
Ahead of a mammoth political rally on Monday where South East governors and regional leaders will converge in Abakaliki to officially endorse President Tinubu for a second term in office, Umahi urged the populace to fiercely protect these immense infrastructure gains and ignore the baseless rhetoric of opposition politicians.
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