Daily Trust

Igbo should stop playing bad politics – Ngige

- From Titus Eleweke, Awka

Minister for Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, yesterday said the commission­ing of the Second Niger Bridge and the constructi­on of capital projects by the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari has vindicated some of them for their choice of the All Progressiv­es Congress (APC).

Ngige stated this at the inaugurati­on of the Federal Secretaria­t in Awka, Anambra State capital.

He urged the Igbo to stop playing politics of exclusion and putting their eggs in one basket at every political dispensati­on.

“The first Niger Bridge was constructe­d in 1965 under the regime of Tafawa Belewa and that was when our brother, the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was president and that is the product of that political alliance.

“During the war, some portions of the bridge were blown up with mines in order to stop the federal troops from crossing over and after the war a second bridge became imperative.

“When I was here as governor, the then president sent some contractor­s and said that the bridge would be built and that was in 2005. But this man (Buhari) we brought him here for campaign and I told the people of the South East that this man would construct the second Niger Bridge and rebuild Enugu Airport. We did not believe it but he did it.”

Ngige added, “We played bad politics in 2015 and in 2019 yet the APC government brought infrastruc­ture to the South East like the Enugu-Port Harcourt Road, EnuguAbaka­liki Road and the Federal Secretaria­t.

“All of us should not be in one political party, some would be here and some would be there and if some people are not in the same party with you, don’t call them saboteurs because Late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and even Dr Micheal Okpara did the same thing and we must come back to that old political culture that we left for long.”

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