Letting the work do the talk: President Buhari slays a myth

When President Buhari’s tenure as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria comes to an end on May 29, 2023, he will be leaving office with a much bigger following in the Southeast than when he started, eight years earlier. There’s no doubt about that.

This will be to the chagrin of all those people who seem strangely obsessed with perpetuating the myth that the President does not like or care for the Igbo.

As myths go, that’s only one of the several out there, about the President. I am reminded of the fact that until the very end, a sizable number of US Republicans (and even a surprising percentage of the general public) held on to the lie that Barack Obama was born outside the United States. That reminder helps one to remain sanguine in the face of similar wild myths associated with the person of the Nigerian President.

What is important, and what will endure, is that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Buhari have already clearly demonstrated, in barely six years in office, that they are deeply committed to the infrastructural development of the Southeast region of Nigeria—as well as every other part of the country.

The enduring corollary to the myth of an anti-Igbo Buhari/APC is the myth of a pro-Igbo Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The idea that the former ruling party—and also the former majority party in the region—was interested in the development of the Southeast is one of the biggest fictions of the 4th Republic; an insinuation not grounded in any fact or reality. Sixteen years of domination by the PDP in the Southeast did not deliver any concrete results commensurate to the level of loyalty that the region showed the party.

It has taken the political vision and will of President Muhammadu Buhari, a man falsely and unfairly tarred with an anti-Igbo brush, to make a difference; accomplishing what sons-of-the-soil liked to make noise about but had zero will to bring to pass.

The Second Niger Bridge, very dear to the heart of the people, and long overdue—the existing bridge was constructed in the 1960s. Under the PDP, a cycle of pre-election award-and-abort contracts emerged. Grand flag-offs in 2007 and 2014, all noise and politics, translating to nothing. Under President Buhari, the main construction contract was awarded in 2018, for completion before the end of 2022; and dedicated funding has been made available through the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF).

It also took the coming of President Buhari to offset the arrears of the Biafra Police pensioners who were pardoned almost two decades earlier, but left in the cold. They were paid, and their testimonies rang out loud and clear for the world to hear.

A world-class Medical Diagnostics facility, valued at more than 5 million dollars, has been built and opened on the grounds of the Federal Medical Center, Umuahia, made possible by the President’s approval for the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority to embark on a series of healthcare investments across the country.

The Federal University in Ndufu Alike-Ikwo, in Ebonyi State, was one of the first to benefit from a hybrid solar plant – 2.8MW capacity – that guarantees uninterrupted electricity, under the Buhari Administration’s Energizing Education Programme. A similar initiative known as the Energizing Economies Initiative led to the construction of a CNG-powered plant to supply clean and reliable electricity to sections of the Ariaria Market in Aba.

The SUKUK Bonds, another Buhari Administration innovation in the financing of national infrastructure, has devoted sixty billion Naira to the Southeast, for the reconstruction of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, among several other important roads and bridges.

Under the President’s Executive Order 7, the telecoms giant MTN has recently announced its plans to complete the reconstruction of the Onitsha-Enugu Highway, part of which has been earlier funded by SUKUK bonds.

The Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) led to the revival of the moribund Ebonyi State Fertilizer and Chemical Company Limited (EFCCL).

The President has given approvals for the establishment of Air Force and Naval Bases in Imo State. The new Air Force Base took off a few years ago in Owerri, while the new Naval Base, approved this year, will be sited in Oguta. Also approved by President Buhari for the region are a new Federal College of Education (Isu, Ebonyi State), a new Federal Polytechnic (Ohodo, Enugu State), and a new Federal Science and Technical College (Amuzu, Ebonyi State).

The first greenfield Modular Refinery project to be commissioned by President Buhari (there are several under construction, across the Niger Delta, under his watch; all private-sector led), is in the Southeast; Imo State, to be precise: The Waltersmith Modular Refinery. The Federal Government invested $10 million into the project, through the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).

Imo has also been selected as a pilot State for the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones Programme (SAPZ), a partnership between the Federal Government, the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the Bank of Industry (BOI).

Imo is again host to the 300 million scf-capacity ANOH gas processing plant being jointly developed by the NNPC and Seplat. When completed it will have the potential to generate 1,200MW of electricity.

The Akanu Ibiam International Airport runway in Enugu had since fallen apart, ignored by previous administrations. The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika recalls that things got so bad that temporary fillings were being done on the runway pre- and post flight landings. President Buhari approved a special grant of 10 billion Naira in 2019, for the reconstruction, which was completed in August 2020. In addition to the brand new runway, the upgrade effort includes the redevelopment of the Airport Terminal, and other infrastructure.

In 2021, work commenced on the full revamp of the Port-Harcourt—Maiduguri Rail Line that serves the Southeast region, That contract includes the construction of a new Deep Sea Port in Bonny, and a Railway Industrial Park in Port Harcourt, and a new Branch Line to Owerri.

Not even the Mausoleum of Owelle Nnamdi Azikiwe, the first President of Nigeria, and one of the most revered Nigerian and African statesmen to have ever emerged from the Southeast, was deemed serious or symbolic enough for completion by the PDP administrations that inherited it between 1999 and 2015. It was left unfinished, abandoned, until President Buhari ensured its completion in 2018.

There is no doubt at all that President Muhammadu Buhari recognizes the immense potentials of the Southeast and is determined to ensure that that potential is translated into progress and prosperity.

The President’s work in the region will continue to speak for him. Already it is clear that the message is sinking in, and the myths and propaganda once associated with his relationship with the region are being dispelled, slowly but surely. It is now a given that his acceptance by the reasonable majority lies firmly on the path of ascendancy, regardless of the effort put into distortion and disinformation by a vocal minority.

Many of the leading politicians and elders in the region are coming round to this realisation. The scales of falsehood are falling off the eyes of many, and the truth, stubbornly compelling, is triumphing over years of deliberate lies and disinformation. In the months ahead, there’s likely to be a steady stream of influential politicians in the Southeast willingly and wholeheartedly choosing to board the APC train. (It has already started).

“I’m overwhelmed by the reception,” the President told host Governor Hope Uzodimma, in Owerri, at a September 9, 2021 Town Hall Meeting with Southeast Leaders. He listed some of what his administration is doing in the Southeast, even in the face of fewer available resources than the previous administration, and pledged to do even more.

All of the foregoing will serve the APC in good stead as it approaches the elections in Anambra State in November.

“Your presence reassures us that there is still reason for optimism for Nigeria and Nigerian Unity.” Amb. (Prof) George Obiozor, President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide told the President, in his remarks at the Owerri Town Hall Meeting. “It is our firm belief that this visit will mark the beginning of a new chapter of dialogue, cooperation and understanding between Ndigbo and your administration.”