People would be trekking from Lagos to Ibadan if I hadn’t intervened, says Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari says without his rail and road projects, people would be trekking from Lagos to Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.

The president said by prioritising infrastructure projects, particularly the Lagos-Ibadan expressway and rail line, hardship was reduced.

Buhari spoke on Tuesday at the presidential villa while addressing a delegation from Kaduna state.

He also commended Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna, for his efforts to transform the state through infrastructure and socio-economic projects.

“My objective was very clear, despite the dwindling resources; I wanted to deal with infrastructure across the country,” he said.

“We should look at advancement in terms of infrastructure. No country can advance without infrastructure.

“Which country can really advance without road, rail and power? That’s why I wanted to sort out infrastructure, knowing that Nigerians are competitive by nature, and they will face their businesses when there’s road, rail and power.

“The people from south-west can tell better because between Lagos and Ibadan by now, if we hadn’t done what we did, people would have been trekking because the road was not there, the rail was not there and there was so much insecurity.

“But we thank the international community. We thank China and Chinese investors, who came along to support the Lagos-Ibadan transport projects.”

Buhari inaugurated the 157-kilometre Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge railway for commercial operations in June 2021, while repair works are ongoing on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

Meanwhile, according to the house of representatives committee on works, the federal government is working towards completing the Lagos-Ibadan expressway rehabilitation project before May 2022.