Minister for Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige said President Muhammadu Buhari lifted the South-East, despite the region playing bad politics.
Ngige stated this at the inauguration of the Federal Secretariat in Awka, Anambra State capital on Tuesday.
According to the Minister, the South-East region played bad politics against the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC-led government in 2015 and in 2019.
He said, “We played bad politics in 2015 and in 2019 yet the APC government brought infrastructure to the South East like the Enugu-Port Harcourt Road, Enugu-Abakaliki Road and the Federal Secretariat”, Ngige said.
“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,” he added.
Ngige said despite the opposition of the South-East to Buhari’s administration, the president constructed the second Niger Bridge and rebuilt the Enugu Airport.
He said, “The first Niger Bridge was constructed in 1965 under the regime of Tafawa Belewa 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 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 South East that this man would construct the second Niger Bridge and rebuild Enugu Airport. We did not believe it but he did it,” he said.
Ngige, however, urged the people of the South-Eastern region to stop putting their eggs in one basket at every political dispensation.
Recall that President Buhari inaugurated the Second Niger Bridge and other projects on Tuesday. The Second Niger Bridge, however, was named after the president.
