Ngige Blasts South-easterners Over Second Niger Bridge , Says Igbo People Should Stop Playing Dirty Politics
Nigeria’s Minister for Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, on Tuesday, said President Muhammadu Buhari has delivered all his campaign promises to the southeast region despite strong opposition from Igbo people.
Referring to the opening of the Second Niger Bridge and the construction of some projects by Buhari’s administration, Ngige said southeasterners need to understand how to play politics better and not expect people to be in only one party.
The minister also said the projects have vindicated some of them for choosing to join the All Progressives Congress (APC), according to Daily Trust.
He urged Igbo people to stop playing exclusionary politics and putting all of their eggs in one basket during every electioneering period.
He said, “The first Niger Bridge was constructed in 1965 under the regime of Tafawa Balewa and that was when our brother, the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was president and that is the product of that political alliance.
“During the war, some portions of the bridge were blown up with mines in order to stop the federal troops from crossing over and after the war a second bridge became imperative.
“When I was here as governor, the then president (Olusegun Obasanjo) sent some contractors and said that the bridge would be built and that was in 2005. But this man (Buhari) we brought him here for campaign and I told the people of the Southeast that this man would construct the second Niger Bridge and rebuild Enugu Airport. We did not believe it but he did it.”
Ngige added, “We played bad politics in 2015 and in 2019 yet the APC government brought infrastructure to the Southeast like the Enugu-Port Harcourt Road, Enugu-Abakaliki Road and the Federal Secretariat.
“All of us should not be in one political party, some would be here and some would be there and if some people are not in the same party with you, don’t call them saboteurs because Late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and even Dr Micheal Okpara did the same thing and we must come back to that old political culture that we left for long.”
