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President Bola Tinubu deserves applause for expanding infrastructure across Nigeria, his spokesperson said as he toured a major highway project linking the North-Central and South-East regions.
Bayo Onanuga, presidential spokesperson, led the Renewed Hope Ambassadors Presidential Media Team on an inspection tour of the Makurdi–Otukpo–Obolo-Affor–Enugu dual carriageway in Benue State, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
Onanuga described the expressway as a landmark project that would strengthen connectivity, boost commerce and foster national integration.
“From what we have seen so far, even though we have not even completed this road, it has shortened the travel time between Makurdi and Otukpo,” Onanuga told newsmen along the corridor.
“From what I gathered, the road was so bad that from Makurdi to Otukpo it used to take about three hours. But now, just about one and a half hours or so, we are in Otukpo.”
“This is a commendable project and I think President Bola Tinubu deserves a lot of applause for touching almost every part of Nigeria, giving them one road or bridge or one infrastructure or the other,” he said.
Onanuga said the road was linking the North-Central and South-East regions, improving connectivity across states and boosting passenger traffic and business.
“This will no doubt boost, not just passenger traffic, also business as people will be able to move goods across all the borders, all the state borders,” he said.
Federal Controller of Works for Benue State, Mukaila Danladi, said the 258-kilometre dual carriageway had been divided into five sections to facilitate construction.
The project traverses Nasarawa, Benue, Kogi and Enugu states, forming a strategic transport corridor linking major economic and commercial centres across the regions, he said.
About 178 kilometres of the highway fall within Benue, while the section under inspection covers 50 kilometres on each carriageway, totalling 100 kilometres, according to Danladi.
Construction had progressed to about 86 kilometres of binder course on both carriageways, he said, describing the achievement as significant despite weather-related challenges.
Danladi attributed the slower pace of work to the rainy season, noting that some earthworks could not be undertaken under unfavourable weather conditions.
He said work had not stopped, with contractors concentrating on hydraulic structures and drainage installations along the alignment pending improved weather conditions.
Danladi said the project would be delivered within the 48-month contract period, with completion expected by December 2027.
The highway is the second phase of the Abuja-Akwanga-Nasarawa-Makurdi corridor, extending the dualisation from Makurdi through Otukpo and Obollo-Afor to Enugu, he said.
The project is funded through a combination of the China EXIM Bank loan and national government counterpart funding, while China Harbour Engineering Company is executing the works.
The highway is expected to improve road safety, reduce travel time, ease movement of agricultural produce and strengthen trade and economic integration across the affected states.
