News
Road Projects: FG Stops Payments To Contractors In South-East
Published
2 years agoon
By
Editor
The Minister of Works, Sen. Dave Umahi on Wednesday stopped some road construction in the Southeast pending the review of the existing and additional contracts.
Umahi gave the directive on Thursday in Enugu during the inspection of some ongoing construction/rehabilitation of federal roads across states in the South-East.
The minister expressed dismay that four bridges and three kilometers of additional work were costing N15 billion.
“I have directed directors in the ministry to sit with the contractors and review it.
“I strongly believe that there is no way that the project will cost us more than three to four billion naira, and when a project is too expensive, and the budgeting process is very low, then contractors will remain on site for 10 to 15 years,” he said.
Some of the roads inspected included the Ozalla- Akpugo-Amangunze-Isu Onicha (Enugu-Onitsha) with a spur to Onunwere in Enugu State done by Arab Contractors and rehabilitation of Old Enugu- Onitsha road also done by Arab Contractors.
Others were the construction of the Nenwe-Nomeh-Mburubu -Nara road with a spur from Obeagu-Oduma road, Enugu State, Rehabilitation of Nsukka -Ikem, Eha Amufu – Nkalagu in Ebonyi State among others.
READ ALSO: FG Loses N335m To Oil Spill, Says Report
Umahi commended the quality of work done on some of the roads in Enugu, adding that he stopped certain payments until contractors, and the ministry reviewed the existing contracts and additional works.
The former Ebonyi governor said he stopped payment of RCC and Arab Contractors until they all sit down to review the cost of the projects and methods of construction.
He also said because of funding he had directed works on spots should come in the second phase to enable contractors to complete carriage ways first.
He equally directed the contractor handling the Mmaku road seven days to return to the site to cover the binder course.
He also directed that the right-hand side of the Enugu-Onitsha expressway be done with concrete to save costs.
“I discovered something unprofessional where contractors put a binder course and leave it up to five to eight years, and within that period, the binder course fails.
“Henceforth, no contractor will leave the binder course for more than one month without covering it because the binder course admits water which affects subgrade.
READ ALSO: 60-year-old Kidney Patient Cries For Help
“It is not healthy for contractors as they lose money for the equipment they are using to maintain the work,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the binder course is an intermediate, bitumen-bound aggregate layer placed between the base layer and the surface of an asphalt pavement.
The minister explained that Nigerian roads failed because of the bad asphalt placed on them as a result of adulterated bitumen imported into the country.
According to him, most of our roads are not failing because of sub-base or subgrade but fail because of bad asphalt placed on them.
“So the fight of turning to concrete is a continuous one, and we will not give up until our roads are able to last up to 30 years to 40 years without maintenance when built.
“At Enugu section three to Port Harcourt section 3, I have also directed that the second carriage be totally done on concrete as we are safer with concrete in southeast roads,” he said.
To buttress his point on the concrete road, Umahi, who took newsmen to Nigercem – the first cement factory in Nigeria, said the factory road built in 1950 with concrete was still stable as well as other roads in Nkalagu built with concrete seven years ago.
“This is what we are advocating and basically, Southeast, South-South, and South-West roads shall be on concrete because of their terrain,” he said.
You may like
Constitution Amendment: South-East Demands Rotational Presidency, Legislative Seats For Women
S’East ‘ll Be Peaceful If Troops Go After Herdsmen, Igbo Women Tell CDS
Drama As Woman Accuses Umahi Of Sexual Harassment, Unpaid Contract, Minister Threatens Legal Action
Fresh Worries Over Multiple Checkpoints In South-East
Bill To Create Another South-East State Passes Second Reading
Bill To Create Etiti State In South East Passes First Reading
News
BREAKING: Tinubu Appoints New Federal Fire Service Boss
Published
5 hours agoon
July 30, 2025By
Editor
President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of Adeyemi Olumode, as the new Federal Fire Service, FFS, Controller-General.
The appointment was announced on Wednesday on behalf of the Federal Government by retired Maj.-Gen Abdulmalik Jubril, Secretary of the Civil, Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board, CDCFIB.
Jubril said the appointment followed the retirement of the current Controller-General, Abdulganiyu Jaji, on August 13.
Jaji is retiring upon attaining the age of 60 by August 13.
READ ALSO: JUST IN: Tinubu Confers National Honours On Super Falcons
Jibril further disclosed said that Adeyemi Olumode is qualified for the position, having attended and passed all mandatory in-service training, Command courses as well as other courses within and outside the country.
“He brings a wealth of experience to his new role, having transferred his service from the FCT Fire Service to the Federal Fire Service and grown to the rank of DCG in the Human Resource Directorate of the Service Headquarters.
“He has served in various capacities and is equally a member/fellow of the following professional associations including Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, ANAN, Institute of Corporate Administration of Nigeria, Institute of Public Administration of Nigeria and Chartered Institute of Treasury Management of Nigeria.”
News
[OPINION] Northern Amnesia: Governor Sani, The Table Shaker
Published
6 hours agoon
July 30, 2025By
Editor
By Israel Adebiyi
“When truth is buried underground, it grows, it chokes, it gathers such explosive force that on the day it bursts out, it blows up everything with it.”
— Émile Zola
There’s a kind of silence that settles over the land after years of failure. A silence made of shame, denial, and carefully chosen half-truths. In Northern Nigeria, that silence has become an institution — polite, predictable, and profoundly dangerous.
Then came Uba Sani — with words that cut through like harmattan wind.
At a recent citizen engagement summit in Kaduna, Governor Uba Sani did what few northern politicians have ever dared. He faced the region and told it the truth: “We failed our people.” Not they. We. All of us who have held power in the North in the past two decades, he said, must offer the people an apology.
In that single moment, he shattered the convenient forgetfulness the North has grown used to. He didn’t call out Abuja. He didn’t drag the South. He didn’t blame some vague colonial past or “outsiders.” He pointed the finger inward — and included himself.
That is no small thing. That is not politics. That is an act of courage.
MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Protesting Police Pensioners And Fela’s Double Wahala Melody
Because what Governor Sani spoke to is not just political miscalculation. It’s a generational betrayal. A betrayal that has left too many Northern children unschooled, too many women dying in childbirth, too many communities in darkness, and too many homes listening for the next gunshot.
Let’s stop for a moment and look at the evidence — not the emotion, but the math.
According to the 2022 National Multidimensional Poverty Index, nine of the ten poorest states in Nigeria are in the North. In Sokoto, over 90% of people live in poverty. Kebbi, Zamfara, Jigawa — same story. We’re not just failing; we’ve normalized failure.
And yet, this is the region that has held the most power in Nigeria since independence. Presidents. Military heads of state. Senators. Generals. Governors. Ministers. National Security Advisers. We’ve produced them all. But not the outcomes.
We’ve built palaces in Abuja, but not a working school in Shinkafi. We’ve padded budgets but abandoned hospitals in Birnin Kebbi. In some states, over 60% of children aged 6–15 have never seen the inside of a classroom. What kind of leadership allows this?
Northern mothers still die in delivery rooms at three times the national average, according to the latest NDHS report. Some rural health centres don’t even have paracetamol. The elites fly abroad. The poor bury their dead.
MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: [OPINION] BUHARI: The Man Who Missed Redemption
Security? Forget it. From Zamfara to Katsina to Niger, bandits have made homes out of forests. Whole villages are ghost towns. And yet, most of the top military chiefs in the last decade came from this region. Who, then, is to blame?
Let’s talk money. The North is land-rich but cash-poor. While Lagos alone contributes over 30% to Nigeria’s GDP, most northern states struggle to hit 1%. But the same northern governors go cap-in-hand for federal allocation and call it development. Where are the industries? Where is the productivity?
This is what Sani is shaking — a region that has grown comfortable with underdevelopment and allergic to self-reflection.
Some elites have pushed back, of course. Former senators and political juggernauts who built their careers on recycled loyalty have tried to downplay his remarks. They say he was too harsh. That he forgot their “service”. That he shouldn’t “wash dirty linen in public.”
But if that linen hasn’t been washed for 40 years, where should it be aired?
MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Protesting Police Pensioners And Fela’s Double Wahala Melody
Let’s be honest — it is easier to blame Buhari, or Tinubu, or the South. But Sani refuses the easy route. He says: we, the North, are not victims here. We are architects of our own decline.
He refuses to play the amnesia game.
You can feel the discomfort in the air. He has stepped on toes — and many of those toes wear agbadas. But the truth is not about comfort. It’s about course correction.
This isn’t about just Uba Sani. It’s about whether the North still has the capacity to face its reflection. To see the rot — and clean house. To stop building dynasties and start building schools. To stop naming roads after ancestors and start giving roads to rural farmers.
Too many of our children are stuck in almajiri cycles while the children of the elite occupy UK universities. Too many of our mothers die in labor while wives of past governors set up foundations for photo-ops. Too many old names have stayed too long — and are grooming their sons for the throne.
That is what Governor Sani is fighting: not just silence, but the inheritance of silence.
He says, “Let’s apologise.” But apology alone is not enough. It must be backed with a plan. A Marshall Plan for the North — real investment, not campaign slogans. Functional education, not workshops. Security that protects, not retaliates. Jobs that empower, not enslave.
It must come with the rethinking of what power is: not title, not convoy, not prayer photos — but legacy measured in lives changed, not lives lost.
Governor Sani’s voice may be lonely now. But history listens to such voices. And perhaps, just perhaps, in that lone voice, the North might find a new beginning.
Because silence, when it becomes tradition, is nothing but consent.
And now, one man has dared to shout.
News
Edo Assures Pensioners Of Improved Welfare, Universal Health Coverage
Published
7 hours agoon
July 30, 2025By
Editor
The government of Edo State has assured pensioners in the state of improved welfare and universal health coverage.
The state deputy governor, Hon. Dennis Idahosa gave the assurance in Benin on Tuesday, during a courtesy visit to his office by members of the Edo State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP).
In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Friday Aghedo, Idahosa assured the pensioners of Monday Okpebholo’s led administration commitment to improving on the welfare of all citizens.
Idahosa said that the government remains upbeat and committed toward representing the interest of pensioners.
READ ALSO: Choice Of Dennis Idahosa As Deputy Gave Us Victory- Okpebholo
“The Governor is committed towards the welfare of the pensioners of Edo State,” he stated.
Idahosa, who reacted to a request concerning the need to expedite payments of outstanding arrears to already screened pensioners cutting across local government and state level, pointed out, “The Governor is keen at clearing all outstanding arrears.”
Simirlarly, the assured that the pensioners of benefitting from the state universal health coverage.
He concluded with the assurance that the governor’s work would soon be visible to all across the state.
READ ALSO:Idahosa Optimistic Shaibu Will Perform As National Sports Institute DG
The State Chairman of Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Comrade Samuel Okhuelegbe, who spoke on behalf of his executive, enumerated challenges of the union, which includes meager amount received as pension
He commended the state government for setting up a committee to review the Contributory Pension Scheme.
“The essence is to narrow the yawning gap in monthly pensions between counterparts, under the contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) as well as define benefits of the scheme.
“Though the report of the committee has long been submitted, the final outcome of the report should be considered in the interest of affected pensioners,” he appealed
He, however, sued for improved benefits for retirees going by the improved minimum wage as applicable to workers in Edo State.
- BREAKING: Benue IDPs block Highway, Demand Return To Ancestral Homes
- BREAKING: Tinubu Appoints New Federal Fire Service Boss
- [OPINION] Northern Amnesia: Governor Sani, The Table Shaker
- Edo Assures Pensioners Of Improved Welfare, Universal Health Coverage
- NYSC Deploys 1,700 Corps Members To Bauchi State
- BBNaija 10: Mercy Eke Reveals Housemate Who’s 10/10
- ‘I Have Nothing Left,’ Actor Don Richard Solicits Financial Help Amid Battle With Kidney Disease [VIDEO]
- ‘Too Extravagant,’ US Embassy Knocks Nigerian Govs For Lavish Spending
- BBNaija 10: We Were Close To Having Sex – Isabella Breaks Down In Tears Over Love Interest, Kayikunmi
- Reactions As 2Face Idibia Weds New Lover, Natasha Osawaru [VIDEO]
About Us
Trending
- Headline5 days ago
Fashion Designers, IT Specialists: UK Opens Door To Foreign Talents With New Visa Rules
- Entertainment4 days ago
Charlyboy Reacts As Lagos Govt Renames Bus Stop After Olamide Baddo
- News2 days ago
Project ‘HOPE’: Investigate Ogbuku, NDDC Management, Ijaw Media Body Urges EFCC
- Sports4 days ago
WWE: Real Cause Of Legendary Wrestler, Hulk Hogan’s Death Revealed
- News5 days ago
PHOTOS: President Tinubu Hosts Class Of 1999 Governors In Aso Villa
- Politics4 days ago
Why Peter Obi Should Inform Okpebholo Before Visiting Edo – Oshiomhole
- Sports4 days ago
[BREAKING] WAFCON Final: Super Falcons’ Starting XI Against Morocco Unveiled
- Politics4 days ago
Presidency Responds To Kwankwaso’s Accusation Against Tinubu’s Govt
- News4 days ago
FULL LIST: 18 Nigerian States US Govt Warned Citizens Against Visiting
- Politics4 days ago
Okpebholo Vs Obi: ‘It’s A Matter Of Decency, Self-respect — Oshiomhole