Former governor of Anambra State, Chris Ngige, has said that all the roads constructed by his successors in Anambra have been washed away because they were poorly done by inefficient contractors.
The current Minister of Labour and Employment and 2023 presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress spoke on Thursday as a guest on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme monitored by The PUNCH.
According to Ngige, all the roads constructed in Anambra by Peter Obi and Willie Obiano were of inferior quality except the ones he (Ngige) constructed as governor from 2003 to 2006.
While Obi was Anambra governor between 2007 and 2014, Obiano was governor from 2014 until last month when he handed over to Chukwuma Soludo.
Speaking on Thursday night about his short-lived time as Anambra governor before he was sacked by a court order, Ngige said, “The most important thing was that I was a governor and I touched the lives of the people. It is not how long but how effective, what did the people benefit from me? When you get to that state, you will know. All the notable roads there (in Anambra), are the roads constructed by Ngige between 2003 and 2006.”
Asked about the ones constructed by Obi, he said, “They are all washed off; those ones are gone. They didn’t last more than five years, they are gone.”
Asked also about the roads constructed by Obiano, the minister said, “Those ones are also gone.”
Ngige said it was only the roads he constructed that are still standing “because I used reputable contractors and I inspected the jobs myself with the commissioner for works”.
Both Ngige (of APC) and Obi (of the Peoples Democratic Party) are focal presidential aspirants from the South-East geopolitical zone.
With the clamour for Southern Presidency after the regime of the incumbent, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), in May 2023, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, as well as other stakeholders in the zone have demanded that the Presidency be zoned to the South-East.
The zone has consistently alleged injustice, noting that other zones in the Southern region have had a piece of Aso Rock’s pie since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999 but the two main parties – APC and the PDP have ruled out zoning as they plan to hold their presidential primaries in May.