The Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde
Fashola, has denied insinuations that the Zik Mausoleum which was recently
completed was being used by President Muhammadu Buhari to woo Igbo people for
political support.
Fashola stated this on Monday in Onitsha, Anambra
State, during an inspection visit to the project, which is in honour of the
first President of Nigeria, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.
He said the Buhari administration decided to work
on the mausoleum, which is also known as Zik's place as a mark of honour to the
late sage especially as the project has suffered abandonment by successive
administrations.
The minister said: "This is the fourth time I have
visited this project since 2016. Why didn't you accuse us then that we were
playing politics with it?
"Now that we have completed the project, you
are now saying it's politics. Well, if that is politics, it's development
politics, and I think I like that type of politics."
The minister thanked the staff members of his
ministry for working dedicatedly to ensure the completion of the project.
He said he could not give the exact figure what it
cost the federal government to complete the mausoleum, but added that what was
left in the project was furnishing.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris
Ngige, who accompanied Fashola on the inspection, expressed gratitude to Buhari
for the honour done to Zik and the Igbo by completing the project.
The project which was started in 1997 had remained
abandoned until the President Goodluck Jonathan revisited it and also later
abandoned it.
Ngige said: "This is the beginning of the great
things coming to the Igbo people from the Buhari government. What successive
governments couldn't do in two decades, the APC government of President Buhari
has done it in three years."
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