2nd Niger bridge to be opened tonight — Minister
By Julie Sylvia Onitsha
The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, hinted Thursday, that the 2nd Niger Bridge, between Asaba and Onitsha, Anambra State, will be opened for temporary use tonight.
Fashola made this known shortly after inspecting the level of work done on the bridge.
According to him,” the important thing is that the bridge is going to be opened tonight at about 01200: 001. The intervention here is a solution, a solution to a problem that has been with us for over a generation.
“Our people moved from from west to east at the end of the year and sometimes it just take days to cross a river because the whole bridge has been out grown by our population and our economy size.
“A lot of people have talked about a solution but the President Muhammadu Buhari administration decided to build the bridge whatever it took. So, wherever the funds came from, investment income, from our oil assets, repatriation of some funds that was stolen out of Nigeria came in from the US.
“The result is now what we see, when people are talking about poverty, the biggest part of it is not the monetary poverty, is the multi dimensional poverty.
“When you spend two to three days trying to cross a bridge, that’s poverty, because it should take just a few minutes to the you can go and do more productive things”, he said.
The minister said that the solution to that poverty is now being implemented, adding that there are just few works to be done on the second Niger bridge.
He said that the bridge has addressed the monetary side of the poverty equation, saying that it would address the multi dimensional side.
He noted that the bridge is open for a temporary use, for purpose of relieving motorists pains and inconvenience of from to either side of the bridge.
Speaking on the Bonny-Bodo bridge in Rivers State, the Minister said that there was progress on the 38 kilometer road and bridge, saying that the construction of the bridge would improve the economy of the area.
