Senator Chris Ngige, the minister for labor and employment, claimed that despite the South-East unethical political behavior, President Muhammadu Buhari raised the region.
Ngige said this on Tuesday at the opening of the Federal Secretariat in Awka, the capital of Anambra State.
The Minister asserts that in 2015 and 2019, the South-East region engaged in ugly politics with the All Progressives Congress-led administration in power.
The APC government built infrastructure in the South East, such as the Enugu-Port Harcourt Road, Enugu-Abakaliki Road, and the Federal Secretariat, despite our terrible political behavior in 2015 and 2019, Ngige claimed.
The late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and even Dr. Micheal Okpara did the same thing, and we must return to that old political culture that we left for a very long time, he continued. “All of us should not be in one political party, some would be here and some would be there, and if some people are not in the same party with you, don’t call them saboteurs.”
Ngige claimed that despite the South-East’s opposition to Buhari’s presidency, the president restored the Enugu Airport and built a second Niger Bridge.
He declared, “The first Niger Bridge was built in 1965 during Tafawa Belewa’s administration, and that was during the time when our late brother, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, was president. That is the result of that political partnership.
“Some of the bridge’s sections were mined during the war to prevent the federal troops from crossing it, and it was necessary to build a second bridge thereafter.
“In 2005, when I was serving as governor of this state, the president at the time sent out some contractors with the promise that the bridge would be built. But we brought this man (Buhari) here for the campaign, and I promised the South Easterners that he would repair Enugu Airport and create a second Niger Bridge. He said, “We didn’t believe him, but he did it.
Ngige, however, warned the South-Eastern region’s residents to refrain from putting all of their political eggs in one basket.
Recall that on Tuesday, President Buhari dedicated the Second Niger Bridge along with other initiatives. However, the Second Niger Bridge bears the president’s name.