By Tony Adibe
Governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah, and the Minister of Works, Engr. Dave Umahi, have commended the South East zone for heeding the call not to join in the August nationwide protests.
Both leaders spoke on Sunday during an inspection tour of various road projects by the Federal Government and the Enugu State Government on the Enugu-Onitsha, Enugu-Abakaliki, and Enugu-Port Harcourt expressways.
Speaking to newsmen, Mbah and Umahi said the people of the region had by shunning the protests in the South East and beyond prevented needless loss of Igbo lives, businesses, and property, while also showing good faith to the President Bola Tinubu administration.
“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 values of these reforms.
“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,” Mbah stated.
In the same vein, the Minister of Works said the people of South East and the Igbo community all over Nigeria had made a loud statement by not protesting.
“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.
“We have been excluded from governance and development in the past. But now, you can see infrastructural developments in South-East. So, why should we protest against a man who has given to us what was never given to us before?
“I thank Governor Mbah very much for showing leadership not only in development strides, but also when it mattered most. I appreciate other governors and other states that did not protest,” he concluded.
