Umahi ready to change federal roads narative, says APC chieftain

An All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Chief Chaka Nweze, says the Minister of Works, Chief David Umahi, has so far shown readiness to change the poor narrative of federal roads in the country.

He said this in an interview with our reporter in Abakaliki on Friday on the sideline of the minister’s inspection of federal roads in Ebonyi.

Nweze, who is the pioneer APC Secretary in Ebonyi, was in the minister’s entourage on the ongoing tour of federal roads in the South-East.

He said that the former Ebonyi governor had proven that he was ready to replicate his great performance in the state across the country.

“His style is not to talk but work and he actually wants to ascertain the true condition of federal roads in the country.

“There are roads awarded by the Federal Government with money paid and most of them abandoned,” he said.

Nweze said he was marvelled by the vigour and commitment exhibited by Umahi during the tour, which he described as a source of inspiration to him.

“There were instances he walked for more than 500 metres on inspection, which I could not cope with due to the dilapidation of the roads.

“The indigenes of the areas we visited were elated, confessing to seeing a top government official for the first time inspecting the roads,” he said.

Nweze, a former Chairman of Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi, said that the minister constructively engaged the contractors to ensure that the overall objective was achieved.

“He commended those who did well and expressed dissapointment in those who did not meet the standard given them.

Nweze said that several discoveries were made during the tour.

“But the most significant was a contractor who had received N400milion from the federal government but had not commenced work.

“This particular contractor has been requesting for more funds and if the minister did not visit the site, he might get the funds.

“The minister does not want to depend on reports from paper work as he also engagged the expartriate contractors professionally.

“He made suggestions on alternatives better than theirs with some of them summoned to the ministry’s headquarters for contract re-design,” he said.

The APC chieftain commended President Bola Tinubu for “fixing a square peg in a square hole,” saying that Umahi will bring his engineering ingenuity to bear on federal roads.

“He has been preaching that roads are made more durable, less costly and unique due to the nature of our soil.

“We believe he can succeed in this endeavour due to his wondrous infrastructure works in Ebonyi with less cost,” Nweze said.