A South-South-based socio-political organisation, Greater Together New Media Team, has lauded President Muhammadu Buhari and Minister of Transport, Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, “for demonstrating extraordinary and sincere commitment to the development of Nigeria and, in particular, the Niger Delta region by insisting that the strategic Lagos-Calabar rail project be captured in the 2016 budget, despite blistering antagonism from some quarters.”

Their “sacrifice and quest for even development” of the country, according to the group, “paid-off when, on the 6th of May, 2016, the President finally signed into law the 2016 budget, with the contentious Lagos-Calabar Rail, duly captured and appropriated for in the Budget of Change.”

In a statement signed by its chairman, Mr Ken Minimah, the group said it expects the rail project “to herald massive capital spending capable of reviving Nigeria’s ailing economy,” adding:

“The economic benefit of the Lagos-Calabar Rail to the people of the Niger Delta is massive. It will open up the area to trade and investment. It will employ thousands of young people in the region who daily rummage the streets in search of non-existing jobs. As young people are meaningfully engaged, criminality and other anti-social tendencies that give the region bad name will abate. The lives of the people will be more meaningful. And, above all, the project will not only engender a sense of belonging in the people, it will also assuage their frustration occasioned by lack of infrastructural development in the region.”

Minimah believes that because of the rail project “routed through Rivers State, the people of the state can look forward to a significant Federal presence/infrastructure befitting the economic status of the state.”

That, he said, “is essentially the reason Amaechi implored people of the state to support Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the 2015 election.”

“We have no doubt that working closely with President Buhari, the Minister will deploy his trademark of aggressive pursuit of people-oriented development project to ensure that the Lagos/Calabar Rail Project achieves superlative execution/implementation to bring succour to Nigerians in general and Niger Deltans in particular.”

•Photo shows President Buhari and Rt. Hon. Amaechi.