Nigerian governor, minister hail South-east for shunning protest

Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State and the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, have lauded residents of the South-east for shunning the ongoing nationwide protests against economic hardship in Nigeria.

Messrs Mbah and Umahi spoke on Sunday during an inspection tour of various road projects in the state.

The projects, which are being undertaken by the federal and state governments, include the ongoing construction of Enugu-Onitsha Expressway, Enugu-Abakaliki Road, and Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway.

Shunning of protests

The ongoing protest began on Thursday and was billed to last until 10 August.

It has been ongoing across states in five of the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.

PREMIUM TIMES reports that the South-east residents have not participated in the protests.

Speaking to reporters during the inspection of the projects in Enugu, Mr Mbah said the people of the South-east had prevented needless loss of lives, businesses, and property by shunning the protests.

“I also want to take the opportunity to commend our people greatly for heeding our call to shun the protests and go about their business. We commend them highly because they understand the value of hard work.

“Sometimes, you may not be able to appreciate the effect of government policies immediately, but I tell you that some of these policies are well-intentioned.

“With time, if we can just exercise a little more patience with the federal government, we are going to begin to see the value of these reforms,” he said.

“We want to continue to call on our people to go about their business and know that if they destroy our assets, we are still going to use the wealth of our common patrimony to fix those assets. So, we must remain focused and continue to do our work,” the governor stated.

On his part, the Minister of Works, Mr Umahi, said the people of the South-east and the Igbo community across Nigeria had made a “loud statement” by not joining the protest.

“We are not going to protest. We want proper integration in the affairs of this country. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Mr President, started it by giving an Igbo man the minister of works and appointing an Igbo man as a service chief, among others.

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“We had been excluded from governance and development in the past. But now, you can see infrastructural developments in the South-east. So, why should we protest against a man who has given to us what was never given to us before?” he said.

Mr Umahi, a former governor of Ebonyi State, commended Governor Mbah for showing leadership in “development strides” in Enugu.

“I appreciate other governors and other states that did not protest,” the minister said.