‘Akwanga-Maiduguri Road to unlock regional economies, boost trade’

Urges voters to renew Tinubu’s mandate, reject electoral violence
Vice President Kashim Shettima has said the federal government’s strategic highway projects would transform Nigeria’s economic landscape by connecting production centres to markets, stimulating regional commerce and turning different parts of the country into economic powerhouses.
   
Shettima particularly identified the proposed Akwanga-Jos-Bauchi-Gombe-Biu-Maiduguri Superhighway as a critical infrastructure investment that would strengthen economic integration between the North-Central and North-East, reduce transportation costs and expand opportunities for farmers, traders and businesses.
   
Speaking yesterday at the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign rally in Lafia, Nasarawa State, where he canvassed support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election, he argued that the administration needed another term to consolidate its infrastructure and economic reforms.
   
He explained that the Akwanga-Maiduguri corridor, alongside the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway, formed part of a broader strategy to address Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit and establish an integrated national economy.
  
According to Shettima, the administration is deliberately investing in transport infrastructure to connect agricultural and industrial production centres with markets, facilitate the movement of goods and services, create jobs and lower the cost of doing business.
   
He insisted that infrastructure development was being reinforced by economic reforms aimed at strengthening public finances, improving revenue generation, restoring investor confidence and encouraging domestic production.
   
Moreover, he said the administration inherited an economy weighed down by fiscal pressures, infrastructure deficits and structural weaknesses, insisting that difficult but necessary decisions had been taken to reposition the country.
   
The vice president further argued that improved government revenues and increased allocations to state governments had created additional fiscal space for infrastructure and other development projects across the federation.
   
On Nasarawa State’s development prospects, Shettima said its considerable agricultural and mineral resources positioned it to benefit significantly from improved road networks and the federal government’s industrialisation drive.
   
Among other things, he highlighted the conversion of the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, into the Federal University of Mining, Engineering and Technology, following President Tinubu’s approval, describing the decision as an investment in the specialised manpower required to unlock the country’s solid mineral potential.
   
He also commended Governor Abdullahi Sule for investments in roads, flyovers, urban infrastructure, education, healthcare and public institutions, saying increased fiscal allocations had provided state governments with greater opportunities to execute development projects.
   
Meanwhile, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, urged the people of Nasarawa State to support Tinubu’s re-election, stating that the administration’s ongoing projects required continuity to ensure their completion.
   
Similarly, the APC National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, called on voters in Nasarawa and across the North-Central to support Tinubu, Senator Ahmed Wadada and other party candidates in the 2027 general elections.