South-East critics very unfair to Tinubu over project execution

Says FAAC funds have stopped governors from taking bank loans for projects

From Romanus Ugwu

The Presidency has lamented what it described as unfair criticism of the Tinubu administration over project execution in the South-East geopolitical zone, insisting that the government has delivered several landmark infrastructural projects in the region.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, expressed the position in Ebonyi State during the ongoing Renewed Hope Media Team inspection of Federal Government projects in the South-East.

He maintained that, considering the projects executed by the Tinubu-led administration in the zone, in addition to over 14 others by the Ebonyi State government, it would be unfair for critics to claim that the president has not made any impact in the region.

“Judging by the projects we inspected on Saturday, it will be unfair for critics to claim that President Tinubu abandoned the zone. We have passed the stage of judging fairness in the criticism against the president. It is now about hard evidence and concrete data.

“That is why we embarked on this tour to showcase what has been done because they said that seeing is believing. Governance is about evidence, and the evidential processes have shown clearly that the federal government is delivering.

“The Minister of Works, David Umahi, provided all the evidence of the ongoing Federal Government projects in Ebonyi. He gave the details about the six federal government projects on ground. We have equally seen the numbers the state governor is executing too.

“I also know that we will always have doubters and people who will trend negative stories, but nothing can stand against facts and data. This administration will use data and facts to prove our performance,” Dare said.

On his part, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, argued that the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) funds have stopped state governors from taking bank loans to execute projects, which, he said, is evidence that the administration is performing well.

According to him, “We have seen the landmark projects the state government is executing, and it is a reflection that all the funds the federal government is giving the states are deployed into productivity. After collecting FAAC, we can see that the state governments are considering and undertaking projects that would have been impossible before now.

“Many of them don’t have to go to the banks to borrow money to develop their states in education, health, infrastructure, among others. The president is actually doing well, especially in the area of road infrastructure, which has never happened in this country.

“Look at the trans-Saharan roads conceived during the colonial era that he is audaciously embarking on now. He thinks deeply before implementation. He is a thinker and a doer, considering what we are seeing in every part of the country,” Onanuga noted.