The progress of the Lagos-Ibadan railway project has had Nigerian lawmakers praising Rotimi Amaechi. Personally, Abdulmumiu Jibrin, the chairman of the House committee on land transport, has been consistently congratulating Amaechi for how well the project has gone since its inception. Abdulmumiu was recently at Abeokuta to inspect the project. During his tour, he stated that the project has in fact, not been properly publicized.
Abdulmumiu said, “I must confess that with what we’ve seen, we are very happy but my only disappointment and anger with the honorable minister is that what is going on here is under-publicized and Nigerians should know.”
“A lot of work is going on here and whenever you have a large magnitude of work going on, is only natural that you may have one or two issues but then I think what is going on here. The minister deserves a commendation and all other members of his team.
“So we will continue to, on our own side, support the ministry, support the project to see that everything comes to fruition.”
Isiaka Ibrahim, a member of the House of Representatives from Ifo/Ewekoro constituency Ogun state, was also present. He explained that he was glad about the state at which the project is. He then emphasized that lawmakers will always try to cooperate with the ministry of transportation in order to ensure timely completion of the rail project.
In his address, he explained, “I am a happy man even the one we covered today, corridor 41-73 has been completed and we test run which fell directly on one part of the local government, Ewekoro. With what I have seen, I am very happy.
“We will continue to collaborate with the ministry for the completion of this project. I want to commend the president for this wonderful project.”
Rotimi Amaechi equally urged Nigerians to start creating infrastructure without having to import tools and machinery from foreign countries anymore.
He said, “One thing Nigerians must learn is how to build for ourselves our own roads, railways because other countries did it and we cannot continue to depend on other people’s technology. The earlier we learn that, the better.”
“So today, I dedicate this ride to the Nigerian Media because I know how much effort they have all put. You may be journalists but you are part of it. You let the world know, you drove with us, and sometimes your bus broke down in the process and all that.
“We are gradually coming to the end of the project because we are six kilometers from Abeokuta. And I have been assured that we would be able to ride from Iju to Abeokuta at least by the first week in January.
Amaechi concluded by stating, “The idea is to bring the Vice President and some ministers to join us in the ride by January end. When we do the ride, we will then allow passengers to use it up to Abeokuta.”
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