The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) says it is confident that President Muhammadu Buhari will deliver on his four-year plan for a national rail network to link all State capitals during his second term in office.
BMO said in a statement signed by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke that the administration has already laid the ground work for this with the completion of all abandoned as well as ongoing infrastructural projects inherited from previous administrations.
The group explained that it is in line with the President’s vision for an inter-modal transport system criss-crossing the country.
“On assuming office in 2015, President Buhari was confronted with several abandoned and uncompleted projects, and like a true patriot, he ensured that his administration prioritised the completion of those projects over the introduction of new ones.
“In spite of volatility in global oil prices, the government has literally turned the country into a giant construction site to the extent that there is at least one major federal road project ongoing in each of the states of the federation.“At the last count, 1,531 kilometres of roads have been constructed and 1,008 kilometres rehabilitated across the country including the long-neglected ones like the Ilorin-Jebba road which is now to be expanded to Mokwa.
“And like the President rightly noted in the course of his 2019 budget speech, work has resumed on the Suleja – Minna road after years of inactivity.
“As for railway projects, the Buhari administration has completed and commissioned the Abuja-Kaduna Rail Line as well as the Abuja Metro-Rail Project while the long abandoned Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri Rail Line has been test run and is due to be commissioned soon.
“There is also significant progress on the Lagos to Ibadan section of the Lagos-Kano rail line.“All these are part of a national rail network which is a major plank of the Next Level agenda of the administration.
BMO noted that President Buhari’s second term infrastructure plan includes a deliberate effort to expand the rail network on several fronts.“One of the major projects is the Eastern Rail from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri which is structured to pass through the Commercial cities of Aba, Abakaliki, Awka, Enugu, Owerri, Umuahia, then through Makurdi, Jos, Bauchi and Gombe.
“Then there is the Coastal Rail from Calabar to Lagos and the completion of the Ibadan-Kano rail line which will run through several state capitals in Southern and Northern Nigeria.
“The group said although Nigeria is in the middle of a campaign season, contractors are fully on ground in order to fast track what the government considers as priority projects.“Which is why work is ongoing on projects like the Abuja – Kaduna – Kano highway, the Lagos-Ibadan expressway as well as the Second Niger Bridge through the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund,” BMO added.