The governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has commended his Rivers State counterpart, Nyesom Wike, for his strides in infrastructure development in Rivers.
The governor made the commendation on Monday shortly before he commissioned the Orochiri-Worokwu Flyover, Port Harcourt, built by the Wike administration.
He said by inviting him to commission the flyover, Governor Wike has sent a “very strong signal of message” that political leaders could cross-fertilize ideas and improve the lives of their people regardless of their political and ideological affiliations.
While the Lagos State Governor belongs to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Governor Wike is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party.
“This is what true leadership is all about, this is what purposeful leadership is about, this is what the dividends of democracy are about. The people that would be using these flyovers would not ask you what political party you are from, they would not ask you what ethnicity or region you’re from. They would ply it, knowing full well that a responsible government has provided for them. Be it an Ikwere man or a Kalabari man or an Ijaw woman. You will regardless pass through this journey and use these infrastructures. As for us as a government, that is what we stand for and believe in.
“The country is going through a lot of challenges right now, and so there’s no time to waste, there’s no idleness, we need to roll up our sleeves, we need to ensure that we can give hope to the hopeless, we can give hope to our youths and they can believe that the people in a position of leadership today truly know how they can ensure that their lives can be a lot better and that is why I have made up my mind that when I see true leadership when I see purposeful leadership when I see genuine leadership, I would I identify with him. Governor Wike has demonstrated that with us today,” Sanwo-Olu said.
Sanwo-Olu identified infrastructure development as one of the primary responsibilities that “any serious government” must prioritize to improve the livelihood of citizens, including providing roads, education, and transportation, amongst others.
He said, “I will like to especially thank and commend Governor Nyesom Wike for his strong commitment to the delivery of fiscal infrastructure in the entire Rivers State. The commitment that has been recognized by all and sundry, that has earned him the appellation ‘Mr. Projects within and outside of Rivers State.
“You can hate him but you cannot hate what he has done, you cannot what you have seen even if you don’t like the man’s face. Governor Wike thank you very much for providing good governance to the people of Rivers State.
“As you can see, the flyover today is a design of an engineering masterpiece. Both the honorable commissioner and Messiers Julius Berger have attested to that and I want to say that indeed Governor Wike is also a “talk and do governor”.
“Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, Rivers and the Lagos States share a lot in common. One of the things we share in common is that we have rain and it’s coming down very soon. We’re both densely populated, we are economic centers of our various regions. We have the challenge of a rapidly growing population, huge urbanization, climate change, and increased pressure on our physical infrastructure.
“We both enjoy the fairly extensive coastline of water but unlike Rivers State, we do not have the crude oil, we do not have the opportunity of enjoying in derivation. But Lagos is coming and I need to say that very clearly. People are drawn to Lagos and Port Harcourt as economic opportunities abound, where are fulfilled, where you can achieve your greatest aspiration in life, where youths can indeed wake up and turn to somebody tomorrow, and where a large number of people flock to these two cities and do well. Our approach to solving our challenges has also been similar, focusing on investing in projects that would ease the bottlenecks and that would expand the source of livelihood for our people.”
Dave Umahi, the Ebonyi State governor who is a member of the APC, was also present at the commissioning of the road project.
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