UMAHI: ‘NO FEDERAL PROJECT IN THE SOUTH EAST BEFORE TINUBU’, RECORDS SAY OTHERWISE

Minister of Works David Umahi has delivered one of the broadest claims yet in his campaign to showcase the Tinubu administration’s infrastructure record in the South-East: that no federal project came to the region before President Bola Tinubu.

The claim is politically powerful. It is also contradicted by the Federal Government’s own documented records.

WHAT UMAHI SAID

Umahi said he had served as a party chairman, deputy governor and governor and, in his assessment, saw no federal project come to the South-East before the Tinubu administration.

He contrasted what he described as years of federal neglect with what he called the current “barrage of projects” under Tinubu.

The minister’s political loyalty to Tinubu is hardly in doubt.

As Works Minister, Umahi has repeatedly promoted the administration’s infrastructure programme and described projects under Tinubu as evidence of a new approach to development.

In March 2026, for example, the Federal Ministry of Works highlighted Umahi’s praise of the Tinubu administration’s work on the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway and other South-East infrastructure projects.

There is nothing wrong with a minister defending the administration he serves.

The problem begins when political praise becomes an absolute historical claim.

THE SECOND NIGER BRIDGE ALONE CREATES A PROBLEM

The Second Niger Bridge did not originate with Tinubu. The project was formally advanced under earlier administrations, including President Goodluck Jonathan, who laid the foundation stone in 2014.

The Buhari administration subsequently continued the project. By 2021, the State House was documenting the Second Niger Bridge as a N200 billion project involving the main bridge and a 10-kilometre six-lane expressway, with completion scheduled for 2022.

Whatever political credit different administrations deserve for initiating, funding, restructuring, constructing or completing different phases, the historical fact is unavoidable: The Second Niger Bridge predates Tinubu.

That alone makes Umahi’s sweeping statement that no federal project came to the South-East before Tinubu untenable.

ENUGU AIRPORT IS ANOTHER CLEAR CONTRADICTION

The Buhari administration’s own 2021 State House compendium recorded the reconstruction of the runway of Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu. The Federal Government said Buhari approved a N10 billion special intervention fund for the airport in 2019.

It also recorded work on the international terminal building.

Again, this is not an opposition party’s version of history. It is an official Federal Government record.

ValidViewNetwork can confirm that the Enugu airport intervention predates Tinubu’s inauguration in May 2023.

RAIL PROJECTS ALSO PRE-DATE TINUBU

The same Buhari-era federal compendium recorded the 2021 groundbreaking for reconstruction of the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail line, a project intended to link the South-East to the planned Bonny seaport and northern Nigeria.

The project has faced delays, revisions and questions over implementation.

But whether a project was completed quickly, slowly or not at all does not change the fact that federal project activity in the South-East existed before Tinubu.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ALSO RECORDED SOUTH-EAST ROAD PROJECTS

The historical record goes beyond two or three flagship projects.

Federal Ministry of Works records from earlier administrations contain numerous South-East road interventions. The Enugu-Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway was under rehabilitation.The Onitsha-Enugu Road was among projects receiving federal attention.

Road projects were also listed across Enugu, Ebonyi and Imo.

The Federal Ministry of Works had earlier described hundreds of kilometres of roads across the South-East as being under rehabilitation or construction.

There were also projects whose contracts were awarded before 2015 and subsequently received additional funding or completion interventions under later governments. That is how infrastructure works.

A project can begin under one administration and receive additional funding under another. Another government can complete it.

A fourth government can commission it. Claiming that only the government that completes a project deserves all the credit is therefore historically misleading.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN TINUBU HAS DONE NOTHING

This is where the fact-check must remain fair.Tinubu’s administration has ongoing infrastructure projects in the South-East.

The Enugu-Onitsha corridor, Enugu-Abakaliki road and other federal interventions remain part of the current works programme.

The Federal Ministry of Works has repeatedly highlighted the administration’s infrastructure activities across the region.

ValidViewNetwork authoritatively reports that acknowledging these projects does not require erasing what came before them.

Tinubu can receive credit for projects initiated, funded, accelerated or completed under his administration without pretending that federal infrastructure began arriving in the South-East in 2023.

WHERE UMAHI’S ARGUMENT COULD HAVE BEEN ACCURATE

There is a narrower version of Umahi’s argument that could be debated. He could say that the South-East suffered from decades of inadequate federal infrastructure investment.

He could argue that previous administrations failed to complete important projects quickly enough.

He could contend that the scale, pace or visibility of current projects under Tinubu is greater than what he witnessed during his political career.

Those are arguments that can be tested with budgets, project values, completion rates and kilometres of roads.

But saying “no single federal project came to the South-East” before Tinubu is an absolute historical claim. And the documentary record does not support it.

WHY THE DISTINCTION MATTERS

Infrastructure should not become a political family album in which every administration deletes the work of its predecessor.

President Jonathan deserves credit for projects his administration initiated. Late President Buhari deserves credit for projects his administration funded, continued or completed.

President Tinubu deserves credit for projects being implemented under his administration.

And where a project crosses administrations, credit should follow the evidence.

ValidViewNetwork reports that this is the more honest way to assess public infrastructure. The South-East does not need politicians to pretend that nothing existed before 2023. It needs roads completed, bridges maintained, airports upgraded, railways functioning and new projects delivered.

The strongest defence of the Tinubu administration’s infrastructure record is not to rewrite history. It is to show the numbers, the kilometres completed, the money spent, the projects delivered and the economic impact.

VALIDVIEWNETWORK FACT-CHECK VERDICT: FALSE AS AN ABSOLUTE CLAIM.

There were federal projects and interventions in the South-East before Tinubu, including the Second Niger Bridge, Akanu Ibiam International Airport reconstruction, rail and road projects.

Tinubu’s administration may legitimately claim its own infrastructure achievements, but those achievements do not erase the documented federal projects that preceded it.