*says he will destroy it if elected governor
By; TINA PHINEAS, Yola
The flyover bridge constructed by Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa State has been described as an engineering disaster and an economic waste to the state.
One of the leading gubernatorial aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Umar Mustapha Madawaki made the remarks during an interactive session with newsmen over the weekend in Yola, Adamawa State.
He said that Fintiri wasted Adamawa’s funds and plunged the state into unnecessary debt by building flyovers that have no economic value.
He said he would destroy the bridges not out of hate or opposition, but because he can build something far better, classier, and economically profiting for the state.
The APC’s most vocal aspirant argued that his remarks on the flyovers has nothing to do with being in the opposition, but because what he and his partners intend to build have not existed yet in the entire Northern Nigeria and that it would astound everyone.
He slammed Fintiri for building overhead bridges which ended up compounding traffic situations in the state, crumbling hundreds of local businesses, and blocked some government sources of revenue.
“Yes, I will destroy those flyovers because I can build something far better and smarter and economically sensible.
“When Fintiri set out to build his useless flyovers, he destroyed something important, the legendary Police Round About, so I too have something better,” he stated.
The APC gubernatorial aspirant maintained that this is the government that came into office knowing that Adamawa State is an agrarian state and practically has nothing, instead onlf them to capitalize on the comparative advantages of the state, they embarked on a worthless project.
“Our educational system has collapsed, the health system is collapsed, and there is total absence of infrastructure In the state.
“I think a serious governor would want to find out what is it that you have internally that you can fall back on in terms of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), but instead of embracing the path of sustainable development, he decided to go the cheapest way, which is borrowing.
“Now when you borrow, you are placing a burden on people whether they want it or not. I am not saying borrowing is bad, people borrow, governments borrow, the United States is the richest economy in the world, but they are also the biggest debtors in the world. So you borrow in order to fund development and investment in infrastructure. You borrow in order to fund projects that can yield more money so that you can be able to drive development.
“So here is a Governor who has nothing, who is running a state that practically has nothing but instead of developing and harnessing the internal resources, decides to go about borrowing money at a high-interest rates, building useless projects.
“Useless in the sense that for example, the bridges built, the one close to the market, yes you build overhead bridges to ease traffic, there is hardly any serious traffic in Adamawa State. Yes, I can also accept that there were areas that you could stay for five, ten minutes and they are volatile areas, precisely, the market gate three, and the investment house junction.
“We stay in a traffic gridlock for hours in other states or cities. Now, if you think that is an impediment for people and therefore, you want to remove that by building overhead bridges, fine. Pick the bridge from where he picked it, fly it over the market, fly it over the investment house junction and drop it somewhere along bank road, by doing that you would have solved that problem.
“Any right-thinking individual knows you have done that and that would have at least solved that problem. So the problem still persists and a major source of revenue for the state has been destroyed and the bridge instead ended up creating more problems for the state and compounding the one that is already there.
“People were running huge businesses along the gate three and Air Force Wall, he practically destroyed some people’s source of livelihood just to build a cosmetic bridge with no economic value.
“Now with this overhead bridge around the market, trailers cannot turn easily around the market or the investment house junction. My thinking is that it is either he lacks good advisers or he is a tyrant who does not listen to anyone, who decides to go through with his thoughts whether they are good or not.
“I have already identified investors who are prepared to sink their money and build roads from our border in Gombe axis with Cham going towards Mubi.
“We will now toll these roads, and generate revenue. So from this revenue, the investor will take some percentage and some of the percentages will now come to the state government.
“This is a source of revenue. It will be a six inches thick road and it will be designed to last for about seventy years. If we do that, we have obtained for ourselves and the posterity a beautiful, standard gauge road of international standard and we are also generating some revenue and even creating jobs,” Mustapha affirmed.
