By SUNNY IKHIOYA
David Umahi is an intelligent man, and everyone can see this from his interactions, especially as they concern construction engineering, but how he manages to get into trouble with people, including the press, is what keeps baffling people. He came in, hands on, prepared for the job, with his performance record in Ebonyi State and a successful private engineering background, but it did not take too long for him to get into trouble, beginning with his handling of the Lagos-Calabar express road, which has attracted so much criticism. Is it that he is not aware of the perception he is creating for himself as minister of works, or he does not give a damn about what people think of him, or he is just being himself, a person with a lot of hubris to display? The performance of the minister of works is one that everyone could assess and input in the scorecard, because you can tell the state of our roads and infrastructure at a glance. People travel and come back with stories to tell, whether they are positive or negative.
They know the state of the roads before this government took over, and they know what they are experiencing now, especially those passing through the Benin-Warri route and the Ore-Benin stretch of the expressway. What we are witnessing now is nothing to write home about, and the minister of works should have just kept quiet instead of finding excuses for failed performance. Sometimes it is wisdom to just keep quiet instead of garrulously exhibiting your nonchalance toward the people’s feelings. It is one bad habit that is common with some of the officials of this government. But we have representatives of the people who are in a position to draw the attention of the government to the areas in which they are lagging behind. That is why we have senators and members of the House of Representatives in the National Assembly.
