An Open Letter to the Honourable Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi, CON — Part II
Dear Honourable Minister,
Let me begin this second appeal by acknowledging what must be acknowledged.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration’s Renewed Hope agenda has placed infrastructure, particularly road construction and rehabilitation, prominently on the national development agenda.
Across different parts of Nigeria, the people are seeing solid concrete major highways, bridges and road corridors under construction, reconstruction and rehabilitation.
The Federal Government reported in May 2026 that more than 2,700 kilometres of highways and major roads were at various stages of construction, reconstruction or rehabilitation.
Under your supervision as Minister of Works, the adoption of modern construction approaches, including concrete pavement technology on selected strategic corridors, has also become an increasingly visible feature of the administration’s road programme.
For this, President Tinubu deserves acknowledgement, and you, Honourable Minister, deserve recognition for the energy and determination being brought to the Federal Government’s road infrastructure programme.
But precisely because Nigerians are beginning to see what is possible when government decides to act, we must also speak about the roads that are still crying for urgent intervention.
And that brings me to the Kabba – Ekinrin Adde – Omuo–Ifaki corridor as well as the Kabba–Egbe–
Ilorin axis.
Honourable Minister, I write this second letter to you within the same week as a Nigerian user of this roads and as a concerned voice speaking for thousands of travellers, traders, farmers, students, transporters, businesses and families whose daily lives depend on these strategic highways.
Kindly pardon my indulgence.
Every journey on some portions of these corridors has become an endurance test.
Vehicles crawl where they ought to move. Traffic builds where there should be free passage. Hours disappear. Vehicles suffer damage. Businesses lose valuable time.
Farmers struggle to move their produce. Passengers arrive late. Emergency movements become impossible.
And communities that should be connected by good roads increasingly feel isolated by bad ones.
Happily,the Federal Government has approved ₦24.7 billion for the rehabilitation of the Kabba–Ifaki–Ado Ekiti Road, linking Kogi and Ekiti States.
The people are extremely happy and at the same time anxious even as they welcome the approval. It is encouraging.
It demonstrates that the Federal Government has heard the cry. But the people are now asking the next question:
When will the work commence in earnest?
Approval is important. Award is important. Budgetary provision is important. But visible construction is what the suffering traveller understands.
We respectfully appeal to you to move this project rapidly from approval to physical execution.
Where sections have become critically impassable, emergency interventions should be considered while the permanent rehabilitation proceeds.
This corridor is not simply a stretch of asphalt connecting towns on a map. It is an economic artery. It connects Abuja and Kogi with Ekiti and the wider South-West. When the road fails, the economy suffers.
This is why the rehabilitation of this corridor must be viewed not merely as a road project but as an investment in economic mobility, security, commerce and human dignity.
There is also a security dimension. A badly damaged road creates isolated stretches, forces motorists into vulnerable positions, produces long traffic queues and can leave broken-down vehicles stranded for extended periods.
A road that takes unnecessarily long to traverse becomes more than an economic burden; it can become a security concern.
As Nigerians look toward 2027 and their eagerness towards the continuation of the President Tinubu administration beyond its first term, infrastructure delivery will inevitably remain part of the very positive national conversation.
Nigerians who strongly believe in the continuation of the Renewed Hope agenda want the people of Kogi and Ekiti to be happy that real renewal is also on the roads they travel every day.
That is why this appeal must be seen as an earnest demand that the successes already being recorded should reach every neglected corridor.
Let the Renewed Hope agenda be felt beneath the tyres of the Nigerian traveller.
Our President, thank you for the national infrastructure push.
Honourable Minister, thank you for your efforts.
May God grant you the wisdom, strength and courage to act swiftly.
Yours faithfully,
– Musa Asiru Bakare
Lokoja, Kogi State.
