Akwa Ibom Roads Receive Attah's Attention
Project
By Dan Ede
There is a flurry of construction activities going on in virtually every corner of Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, courtesy of Governor Victor Attah's renewed commitment to the provision of roads and other infrastructure in the state.
A lot of the township roads in the city are being rehabilitated, while some are slated for dualization.
Ikot Ekpene Road, Aka Itiam, Aka-IBB-roundabout, Ibom Connection, Oron Road, Uran Street and approach to Ewet Housing Estate are now a delight to cruise on, as they have been fully rehabilitated.
The road from Nwaniba to the Five Star hotel; Ibom Connection through Oron road; and Abak road, will be dualized.
Besides, most of the streets are being reconstructed, all with drainage systems. Everywhere you look at, you see construction equipment.
THISDAY also gathered that the Uyo scenario is replicated in other major cities in the state. Unconfirmed report said the state government must have committed about N14 billion to road rehabilitation and construction since the beginning of its second term in office. This, according to the report, was in spite of the fact that the state was not yet receiving its due share of the revenue allocation, as the recent abrogation of the on-shore/off-shore dichotomy is still a subject of litigation.
Though Mr. Nnamnso Umoren, Permanent Secretary of the State Ministry of Information, could not confirm how much the state government has sunk into road construction and rehabilitation in this dispensation, he agreed the government has done a lot.
Speaking with THISDAY in his Uyo office last week, Mr. Umoren said: "I want to think that the state government has done quite a lot in this second dispensation. And that is made possible by the fact that the period of financial uncertainty and hiccup has been put behind. And so, there is now basis for focus and concentration. So, if you look around, a lot of roads in Uyo have been given facelift and a number of the roads are to be dualized....
"The people are quite happy even though the difficulty of living under a period of construction is there, but people face it happily."
In his remark at the commissioning of the Okopedi-Urue-Ita Road by President Olusegun Obasanjo recently, Governor Victor Attah recalled that "for several years, inter-communal communication had been a problem in some communities" in the state. It was difficult even for rural farmers to transport their harvest to large markets in the urban centres.
"Since this administration took office, we decided to tackle this problem by building new roads and rehabilitating old ones to link hitherto inaccessible communities in an effort, not only to improve inter-community communications, but also to increase the tempo of economic activities within the state", he said.
Continuing, he said: "Today, through our efforts, it is possible to reach any part of our state within one hour from the state capital. So far, this administration has constructed several Kilometers of urban roads in Uyo, Ikot Ekene, Oron and Abak.
"In addition, we have also constructed 105 Kilometers of new inter-city roads, a portion of which Mr. President is about to commission. By the end of our tenure in 2007, we plan to build a total of 700 Kilometers of roads, that will criss-cross the entire state.
"Once this is achieved, coupled with our aggressive, but systematic provision of other basic infrastructure, the industrialization of our state will be just a matter of time".
Aside from roads, the state government has stepped up the tempo of activities on the Five Star hotel in Nwaniba. "The hotel, which contains a golf course, will also carry a marina and water channel where you can yacht your boat into the Atlantic, or you can take your boat to the National Museum in Oron. You can also take a boat to Calabar from there. And the scenario of the hotel is fantastic. It is quite a beautiful location", testified Mr. Umoren.
He also hinted that the state government had an understanding with local governments whereby part of the derivation fund would be used to develop 50 housing units in every local government area.
The Shelter Afrique Housing Estate in the state, THISDAY gathered, is already completed and commissioned, while tarring of the roads in the estate is going on at the moment.
During the president's recent state visit to the state, a number of projects were commissioned. These included the Idu Water Project, a science centre at Eket, and the Okopedi-Urue-Ita Road.
He also inspected a number of other on-going projects such as the Nkemba Trough, the Abak-Ete Road Spur to Essene Edemaya, and the General Hospital Project in Okobo.
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