People from the South West area would have been walking from Lagos to Ibadan and back if President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had not intervened in infrastructure.
While hosting a delegation from Kaduna State on Tuesday, Buhari claimed his administration’s construction of the Lagos–Ibadan railway had alleviated the hardships suffered by passengers who travel the route on a regular basis.
“My objective was very clear, despite the dwindling resources, I wanted to deal with infrastructure across the country.
“We should look at advancement in terms of infrastructure. No country can advance without infrastructure. There used to be railways, especially people from Southern Kaduna will remember this.
“Which country can really advance without road, rail and power that’s why I wanted to sort out infrastructure.
“I know that Nigerians are competitive by nature and they will face their businesses when there is 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.
“This is 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,’’ said Buhari.
The president also informed Julius Berger that the building and restoration of infrastructure, including the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano express expressway, would continue.
The Emir of Zazzau, Alhaji Ahmed Bamalli, and Kaduna State Deputy Governor, Hadiza Balarabe, were among the Kaduna delegation members who went to congratulate the president for his recent working visit to the state.
It was also learned that the team took advantage of the opportunity to invite President Buhari to return to the state for another working visit to commission more projects.
While greeting the visitors, Buhari praised Governor Nasir el-Rufai for his administration’s accomplishments in infrastructure and socio-economic initiatives.
“Please extend my gratitude to the governor for doing so well. I have been living in Kaduna for many years before I came here.
“But now I will need a modern compass to go around because of the transformation,’’ he said.
