![](\"http:\/\/arewa.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Amaechi.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\nAmaechi disclosed this during a programme, the \u2018Next Level Presentation\u2019 at the Presidential Villa Banquet Hall to signal the commencement of the campaign of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2019 general elections.<\/p>\n
The minister who made a presentation titled `What We are Building \u2019 said the country was compelled to make a choice between good and bad.
\n\u201cWhen I was appointed the Minister for Transportation, the president warned\u2013do not start new contracts, go and complete old ones.
\n\u201cWe met Itakpe \u2013Warri Rail line which had been in existence for 34 years uncompleted; it would have been the first Standard Guage line in Africa if it was completed.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on the president\u2019s instruction, I did a memo; I thought we will borrow money from China; but the president refused. He said we should use our internal funds to execute the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople saw me on social media on Train service from Warri to Itakpe. I got to Warri 8pm because I was going from one station to the other\u2014almost all the villages and most prominent members of PDP made sure that train stations were in their villages.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I am compelled to do those stations in villages of members of PDP; it is okay; it is the instruction of the president that you must go and finish the old work.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
He said that the tradition in the past was that once one was elected, one left the old things for the old people and awarded new contracts.
\nAccording to Amaechi, the ministry will start commercial service from Itakpe to Warri.<\/p>\n
On PDP\u2019s argument that it started the projects, Amaechi said that Buhari made it clear on commissioning the Abuja \u2013Kaduna rail project that the project was started by the former government of President Goodluck Jonathan.
\n\u201cWe completed it but two things are remarkable\u2014we borrowed 500 million dollars to start that project at the time oil was selling at 114 dollars per barrel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should not have borrowed; you mean this country could not have afforded 500 million dollars?
\n\u201cI will show that we can; when I wrote a memo to the president and to the cabinet requesting that he should allow me borrow 500 million dollars from China to buy locomotives and coaches for Lagos-Ibadan, the cabinet under the directive of the president refused.
\n\u201cHe(the president) said 500 million dollars; we can get from here and we are funding it from here; so we did and completed Kaduna to Abuja quickly.
\n\u201cWe spend N56million per month and we get N16 million; so we are augmenting for both rich and poor\u2014N40 million per month under the directive of the president because he fears that the poor might not be able to afford it. So, everybody is using it.\u2019\u2019
\nAccording to him, Lagos to Ibadan railway is almost complete\u2014a distance of 156kms.
\nThe minister said that application had also been made to construct Kano to Kaduna railway as approval for funds is being awaited.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are about to award the central line from Abuja to Niger to Baru from Baru to Itakpe to Warri; the president had approved a new seaport in Warri. We are negotiating with a Chinese company which will build it.
\n\u201cDo not forget that N2.7 billion dollars is N1 trillion. So, we are looking for money to commence already awarded work on the coastal rail.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe coastal rail starts from Lagos, from Lagos; it passes through Ogun State, Ondo, Benin, Asaba, and Onitsha. From Benin again, it passes through Warri, Sapele, Ughelli, to Bayelsa, in fact, it goes to Utuoke. From Otuoke, it goes to Port Harcourt.
\n\u201cThen from Port Harcourt, it goes to Aba, Uyo, and ends up in Cross River State.
\n\u201cWe are almost ready to award Port Harcourt to Maidugiri. The difference between us and the last award is that the last award was 1500km but under the directive of Mr President, it was extended to 2000 km.
\n\u201cThe last award was Port Harcourt straight to Maidugiri but in order to satisfy everybody at the directive of the President, we must get to every state capital,\u2019\u2019 he said.\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, on Sunday said that President Muhammadu Buhari, upon assumption of office, directed that old and abandoned projects be completed. Amaechi disclosed this during a programme, the \u2018Next Level Presentation\u2019 at the Presidential Villa Banquet Hall to signal the commencement of the campaign of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[29,41,7281],"class_list":["post-62713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-apc","tag-buhari","tag-rotimi-amaechi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}