Nigeria’s transportation minister, Rotimi Amaechi, has promised to build the world’s largest rail system in the Niger-Delta region.
“If I don’t become the president of Nigeria, forget it (Lagos-Warri-Calabar railway project). Nobody will do that project. You know why they won’t do it? It’s $11.1 billion.
“That is for now the biggest project in the world,” Mr Amaechi said in his address to delegates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Asaba on Friday.
“If l don’t win the primary and the general election, nobody else can do it because it is capital intensive. The moment we complete the Lagos-Calabar-Warri, things will be okay.
“What should bother us is how do we move forward? It takes courage and that was why we came up with that theme ‘Forward with courage’. It requires courage to confront the challenges ahead,” added the minister.
When asked about his achievements as governor of Rivers state, the presidential candidate promised to repeat them if given power at the national level.
“Don’t listen to those who say l will do. Ask them what have they done. I fought insecurity in Rivers, l generated power which l cannot distribute because it is only the federal government that can distribute.
“If l’m elected president, l will make sure power is removed from the exclusive list,” Mr Amaechi vowed while courting the delegates at the party’s secretariat in Asaba.
Amaechi’s term as transportation minister has been heavily chastised for the 1.9 billion dollar Kano-Maradi standard gauge railway lines, which Renaissance Capital, a Russian-based financial organization, has condemned as a needless expenditure (Rencap).
When completed, the project will connect Nigeria and the impoverished Niger Republic.
