The federal government has mandated that the second Niger Bridge open in time for the Yule tide to allow for stress-free commuter mobility.
Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola during the inauguration of the bridge disclosed that it will only be used for one month during the festive season to ease vehicular movement.
The minister advised all motorists to ply the road carefully and drive safely to avoid accidents during this period.
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Managing Editor of the Avalon Daily and Public Affairs analyst, Ayodele Adio who was at the inauguration shared his experience with Veronica Dan-Ikpoyi and Mike Okwoche on TVCBreakfast.
Mr Adio said it is a spectacular piece of engineering and one of the finest projects you would ever see across the country.
He added that for all intents and purposes, many had doubted that this project was actually going to come to life because every politician, every presidential, politician since the turn of democracy, first in ’93 and then in 1999, have promised to deliver that particular bridge, and it never happened, and to see it happen in such a way and manner, is worth cheering, and worth celebrating.
He noted that there was a lot of excitement on the faces of the people as the bridge was finally opened on Thursday.
“The people could feel the presence of the federal government in the Southeast and a promise made to them had finally been kept, it was a delight to see”.
Mr Adio who spoke to some of the commuters said they expressed joy and that they could not believe the second Niger bridge project could be completed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Some went a step further to thank President Buhari and, of course, the Minister of Works for delivering such a spectacular project.
Others just stopped, had been excited that they had the project in the Southeast.
“Every single person spoken to expressed excitement that finally there was a project in their region, finally there was something from the federal government.”
According to Mr. Adio, individuals spend several hours attempting to cross that specific bridge, especially around the Christmas season. It’s a time you don’t want to think about because people even spend the night on the bridge.
“It hard to hide your excitement that finally something has been done which means a whole lot, even the hardest critic of this administration have to admit that finally something has been done”.
Speaking on how people view the second Niger bridge as being a project for the Easterners, Mr Adio said “sometimes people try to be clever by half because on the one hand you are saying you don’t want it to be seen as a project for the southeastern people, but on the other hand, you always use it to say that the Southeast has been left behind and the first thing that everybody points to is the second Niger Bridge, that this is a project that has been abandoned, which shows a lack of concern for the realities and the needs of the southeastern part of the country.
“You have to choose one, it’s either you see this as a project that means a lot for the southeastern part of the country or you don’t see it as such”.
He added “Just across the bridge is Onitsha market where where tons, millions and millions of dollars of trade happens every year. About 14,000 cars travel through that bridge carrying millions of people every day. There’s a huge volume of business activities that happens across that corridor, and if it took you 6 hours, for instance, to cross that bridge just from the south, south to the eastern part of the country, that’s about two on each, on each other. And now it takes you less than 30 minutes to do so, it means you can do several more tons of business transactions across that route than you’d have done normally before.
” This will create more opportunities, increase the volume of trade across that particular corridor, increase tourist activities and much more.”Mr Adio said.
