Second Niger Bridge, A Promise Kept Tunmise Adewunmi Given the decades of failed promises and foot-dragging by different military and civilian administrations, the construction and ev
Given the decades of failed promises and foot-dragging by different military and civilian administrations, the construction and eventual completion of the Second Niger Bridge is a fulfilment of the promise made by President Muhammadu Buhari to grow the economy through the regeneration, rebuilding, and expansion of the nation’s infrastructure on a scale that has not been seen in a long while.
Despite the global economic recession, the COVID-19 pandemic with its attendant headwinds, and the many attritional hiccups, the sprawling 1.6km bridge straddling the River Niger and providing a vital link between the eastern and western parts of the country, was opened for public use on December 15. a double three-lane highway designed to connect the commercial cities of Asaba and Onitsha in Delta and Anambra States respectively, stands out in its pristine and aesthetic glory.
“If in 2015 such critical infrastructure as the Second Niger Bridge, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway were either totally non-existent or in a very deteriorated state, and if today the PMB administration has demonstrated that needed political will to break the jinx on our nation’s historically most difficult projects, does it not stand to reason to conclude that the party which formed the government deserves to continue to deliver to the people of Nigeria...
Under successive military governments, the project received scant attention. Upon the return to civilian rule in 1999, President Olusegun Obasanjo promised to deliver the bridge. However, his administration did not carry out any activity on the project until five days before he handed over to the then-incoming administration of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Flagging off the project in Asaba at the twilight of his administration was widely perceived for what it was; a smokescreen and a charade.
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