• FG Begins Upgrade Of Alau Dam For Hydropower Development – Utsev

The Minister of Works, David Umahi, on Friday, denied the rumours that he was planning to travel to London to participate in an international media briefing aimed at showcasing the achievements of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, also dismissed the reports circulating in both traditional and online media suggesting that the ministerial press briefing sessions have been relocated from Abuja to London. Idris stated this on Friday during the ongoing 2025 ministerial briefing at the National Press Centre, Radio House, Abuja.

The session was attended by the Ministers of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Utsev, and Works, Umahi.

“The insinuation that the press briefing session is relocating abroad is false because we have our responsibility first to the Nigerian nation.
“The only platform that the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation provided for the briefing session is right here,” he said.

Speaking, Umahi said he had not travelled to the United Kingdom in the last two years.He described the viral reports as baseless social media propaganda with no grounding in fact, adding that neither he nor any of his colleagues received an invitation to attend any such event.

“Even when I was governor, before I travelled out of the country, I had always taken permission from the House of Assembly. So, I am a man who works by the rule of the law,” he said.

Umahi also stated that the ministry was working on reducing foreign contractors for road projects in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which prioritises local content and capacity development in the construction sector.

“So, we have a programme which we call the new tool programme, whereby in every state, we are getting five civil engineers who are not at work, and we are posting them to these four legacy projects and other legacy projects of the country, so that they can learn.” He added that Nigeria could not continue to rely on foreign expertise when local professionals are underutilised.

“We can’t continue to use foreign contractors to grow our economy. When you go to China, you find out who is working. We have to grow our people. And we have introduced concrete pavement, which is very easy to learn. But the trick in it, and that’s why contractors are fighting me, is that you can do all the mess and cheating with asphalt, but you cannot do that with the concrete because the moment the quality of the concrete is not there, it will fail in your face.

“But a job badly done with asphalt will still last for one year before the failure appears. And that’s when people talk, the ministry is not doing anything.

“We have launched a programme called the New Tool Initiative through which we’re deploying five unemployed civil engineers in every state to work on key legacy projects. This is how to build capacity for the future,” he said.

In his briefing, Utsev said the Federal Government has begun the upgrade of the Alau Dam in Borno State as part of efforts to harness hydropower for national development and boost electricity supply through integration with the national grid. He said the ongoing upgrade is aimed at converting the dam’s water potential into energy for industrial and domestic use.

According to Utsev, the project aligns with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which prioritises infrastructural development, energy efficiency, and sustainability.

The minister also noted that the upgraded facility would not only support power generation but also enhance water supply for irrigation and domestic use, thereby improving livelihoods and economic productivity in the region.

He reaffirmed the ministry’s commitment to modernising water infrastructure across the country and ensuring that critical projects like the Alau Dam upgrade are delivered on time and to specification.