By Seyi Odewale
Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has said President Bola Tinubu and the Minister of Works, Senator Dave Umahi, are writing a new chapter in the history of road infrastructure in the Southeast, following renewed federal investments in major highways across the region.
The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, however, urged the Federal Government to ensure that all ongoing and approved Renewed Hope infrastructure projects in the region are completed before 2031, warning against another cycle of abandoned projects.
In a statement issued on Monday by its Deputy President General, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, and Acting Secretary General, Prof. Chibuikeya Achoakawa, Ohanaeze said the Southeast was witnessing an unprecedented level of federal attention to long-neglected highways, strategic economic corridors and critical road networks.
The organisation said the interventions under the Tinubu administration, supervised by Umahi, represented one of the most significant infrastructure programmes experienced by the Southeast in decades.
According to Ohanaeze, the region had endured years of neglect, delayed interventions and abandoned road projects, with adverse consequences for commerce, transportation, security and regional economic growth.
It recalled that since the intervention period of the Petroleum Trust Fund in 1996, the Southeast had not witnessed what it described as such a comprehensive federal commitment towards rebuilding and expanding its road infrastructure.
Ohanaeze particularly highlighted the approval of the 150-kilometre Oba–Nnewi–Uga–Ihube (Okigwe Junction) Federal Road Project, describing it as a landmark intervention expected to restore connectivity between communities in Anambra and Imo states.
It said parts of the strategic corridor, particularly the Uga–Ihube axis, had remained severely degraded for more than two decades, affecting mobility, economic activities and security.
The organisation also listed the reconstruction of the 77-kilometre Enugu–Onitsha Expressway, the rehabilitation of the Enugu–Port Harcourt Expressway, the Calabar–Ebonyi–Benue–Abuja Superhighway and the proposed 108-kilometre Otuocha–Anam–Abaji Expressway among projects redefining the region’s infrastructure landscape.
Others are the Afikpo–Uturu–Okigwe road corridor linking Ebonyi, Abia and Imo states, as well as the Makurdi–9th Mile–Enugu highway dualisation project.
Ohanaeze said the projects, if delivered as planned, would improve connectivity, boost trade, attract investments and strengthen economic integration between the Southeast and other parts of the country.
However, the organisation stressed that the real measure of the administration’s infrastructure drive would be the completion of the projects.
“Ndi Igbo are interested in continuity, completion and delivery of these projects before 2031,” Ohanaeze said.
It added that the Southeast required “functioning roads, economic opportunities, improved security networks and sustainable development rather than repeated cycles of promises without completion.”
The organisation said the Federal Government must sustain the momentum and ensure that every ongoing infrastructure initiative was completed to acceptable standards within realistic timelines.
“Future generations will judge governments not by speeches and political declarations but by completed projects that improve the daily lives of citizens,” it said.
Ohanaeze maintained that roads were strategic national assets capable of promoting trade, attracting investment, improving security and strengthening national integration.
It therefore called for sustained commitment, accountability and timely completion of all Renewed Hope infrastructure projects across the Southeast, saying the current interventions could mark a historic turning point in the region’s development.
The organisation said that while the scale of federal attention to the Southeast represented a significant milestone, history would ultimately remember the Tinubu administration and its infrastructure managers for delivery rather than promises.
This framing makes the “new road history” claim the central news peg, while the demand for completion before 2031 provides the critical accountability balance.
