By Efe Onodjae
Former military Head of State, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (retd.), has revealed that national pride was the driving force behind his administration’s decision to complete the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos.
Babangida disclosed this in an interview monitored by Vanguard on CBS News, and posted on X where he recalled how an American television programme depicting Nigeria as a country that embarked on ambitious projects without completing them angered him and influenced his administration’s decision to complete the bridge.
According to him, the programme featured Nigerian broadcaster and entertainer, Onyeka Onwenu, and highlighted the then-incomplete Third Mainland Bridge as an example of an abandoned “elephant project” in Africa.
He said the programme left him deeply concerned about the image being projected about Nigeria to the international community.
