VON EX DG Commends Southeast Inclusion in Renewed Roadmap

 

A former Director General of Voice of Nigeria VON, Osita Okechukwu, has lauded President Bola Tinubu for enlisting Southeast in his renewed roadmap for infrastructural development.

 

Okechukwu was reacting to the Southeast Business Roundtable for the Light up Nigeria project held in Enugu on Monday by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited (NDPHC) for its partners.

 

The event, chaired by the Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, was to launch an initiative to ensure dedicated power supply to industrial clusters across the country, with Southeast as a major hub.

 

But, in a statement issued to newsmen on Tuesday, Okechukwu, who is a foundation member of All Progressives Congress (APC) also commended President Tinubu for his desire to return the Southeast as an industrial powerhouse of the country with the Light up Nigeria project.

 

He added that the president’s commitment to revamp Nigeria’s backbone critical infrastructure – electricity – through his laudable programme Light Up Nigeria, could not have come at a better time when the Southeast was in dire need of economic and infrastructural revival.

 

Okechukwu believed said that the Light Up Nigeria project would be the signpost of goodies ahead for the people of the Southeast because a stable light would make for a steady economy.

 

“It is kudos to President Tinubu to enlist Southeast in his renewed roadmap. I am confident that the whole country will benefit immensely from any infrastructural development located in the Southeast for Ndigbo are patriots who habit and invest in all the nooks and crannies of our dear country more than any other ethnic nationality.

 

“Constant power supply is the fastest route to economic resorgimento, empowerment of Nigerians, generation of employment and lifting of millions out of poverty; as no meaningful development can take place without constant and affordable electricity transmission.” Okechukwu quipped.

 

He commended President Tinubu for vindicating him and some leaders of the ruling APC in the Southeast, who had maintained that he would not abandon the Southeast.

 

“It is my appreciation that the People’s Democratic Party’s abysmal neglect of the Southeast for sixteen years more or less undermined the critical infrastructural development of the region.

 

“From the onset one admonished the PDP that the Southeast needs infrastructural development more than lavish political appointments; now Change has come from unexpected quarters. 

 

“This is the kind of legacy President Buhari engraved with the 2nd Niger Bridge. Hence I am happy that Mr President has vindicated some of us that he will not abandon the Southeast”, he added.

 

Okechukwu however appealed to Mr President to erase the age-long culture of impunity stereotype and engrave at least one lasting legacy either by unbundling the Enugu Coal deposit for a fired Power Plant or by investing huge in a gas pipeline in the region in addition to upgrading Eastern Corridor rail line to standard gauge like the Western Corridor.

 

 

Dominica Nwabufo