Buhari: If Not For Me, S/West People Would’ve Been Trekking From Lagos To Ibadan

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that if not for his administration’s intervention in infrastructure, people from the South West region would have been trekking from Lagos to Ibadan and vice versa.

Buhari, while receiving a delegation from Kaduna State on Tuesday, said the construction of the Lagos–Ibadan railway by his administration had ameliorated the hardship faced by commuters plying the route on daily basis.

“My objective was very clear, despite the dwindling resources, I wanted to deal with infrastructure across the country.

“We should look at advancement in terms of infrastructure. No country can advance without infrastructure. There used to be railways, especially people from Southern Kaduna will remember this.

“Which country can really advance without road, rail and power that’s why I wanted to sort out infrastructure.

“I know that Nigerians are competitive by nature and they will face their businesses when there is road, rail and power.

“The people from South West can tell better because between Lagos and Ibadan by now, if we hadn’t done what we did, people would have been trekking.

“This is because the road was not there, the rail was not there and there was so much insecurity.

“But we thank the international community. We thank China and Chinese investors who came along to support the Lagos-Ibadan transport projects,’’ said Buhari.

The president further assured that the construction and rehabilitation of infrastructure which include the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano express road, being handled by Julius Berger would be sustained.

On the delegation from Kaduna were the Emir of Zazzau, Alhaji Ahmed Bamalli, and Kaduna State Deputy Governor, Hadiza Balarabe, amongst others,  who had gone to thank the president for his recent working visit to the state.

It was learnt that the delegation also used the opportunity to invite President Buhari to pay another working visit to the state to commission more projects.

Buhari, while receiving the guests, commended Governor Nasir el-Rufai for his administration’s achievements in the area of infrastructure and socio-economic projects.

“Please extend my gratitude to the governor for doing so well. I have been living in Kaduna for many years before I came here.

“But now I will need a modern compass to go around because of the transformation,’’ he said.