‘Without Tinubu becoming President, Nigeria would have been a failed country – works minister, Umahi

By Uchenna Okeh, Abakaliki 

The Minister of Works, David Umahi at the weekend said that without Tinubu becoming the president, Nigeria would have been a failed country and 

 The Minister made this known while speaking with newsmen at his country home in Uburu community, Ohaozara LGA, shortly after casting his vote in the ongoing local government area election in Ebonyi state.

He berated those casting aspirations on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, and however warned Igbos or Nigerians planning to protest against the administration to be mischievous. 

The former governor of Ebonyi State, Umahi, also described the outcome of the local government election as peaceful and successful.

Umahi, also advised Nigerians to change their level and hour of productivity should they improve on their standard of living.

According to him: “Protest has never favored an Igbo man. Igbo man needs to be busy twenty-four hours. You do not get involved into something that you do not know anything about. By the way, what are people protesting about? Without the coming of President Tinubu, we would have had a failed country.

“The job is cheap when you are not the one doing it. When people say there is hunger, tell us the solution to hunger. It is not just to be talking, talking and talking. I was going round talking to my private workers. 

“I say yes, you are doing this and you are being paid seventy thousand naira, but I said with this seventy thousand, you cannot marry a wife with it, you cannot send your children to school with it, so you need something extra to do. And this place you are working, you are not doing more than three hours of work in a day, which means the efforts and productivity in this country is very low.

“There is no way we can improve our standard of living if we do not improve on our productivity and hours we put in. Look at the Chinese, we should be able to tell ourselves the basic truth. When I was Governor when Saturday and Sunday were coming, I was always very angry. If the rain should start falling so that agriculture can prevail, I will be happy. 

“I can remember when I was in the private sector, I was pushing for more productivity hours. One day there was rain falling and that worker was late now,  from Isu ,and he said rain is falling and he said yes what do I want him to do; he was very happy, but the person that is paying is in pains when the work is not being done,  but the person that is working is happy that he is collecting money. 

“Today, we can grow yam in bags, we can grow tomatoes, we can grow pepper. Sometimes, I feel like coming back home because of my greenhouse. If you go there, I cultivated a lot of yams. Now, I want to start growing rice in bags. Everybody has something to do. We should not as a people be buying pepper. We should not be buying tomatoes. We should be able to get bags and fill them with manure and plant these things in front of our houses. 

“So,  I am advocating, when we say we are protesting, when we say there is hunger, it is the responsibility of everybody. No matter how much the federal government injects into the system and palliatives, we must change our working hours. We must change our level of productivity, because if we have all the working tools and you do not deploy it, there will be no result. 

“I support what the President is doing. The CNG buses, a lot of palliatives, trade monies, monies to the vulnerable families, agricultural inputs, giving out rice and fertilizers to our farmers, to indigent women and men. These are very important. But we must be committed and faithful to it. 

“We must change the narratives. Government cannot do everything for you, but you have to leverage the magnanimity of Mr. President to change the course of things. This is my position. When people say they want to protest, they are just being mischievous”, he stressed.