Anambra Govt Opposes Display of Tinubu’s Picture on First Niger Bridge

Anambra State Government has rejected the directive by the Minister of Works, Senator Dave Umahi, to decorate the First Niger Bridge with photographs of President Bola Tinubu after the completion of ongoing rehabilitation work.

The position of the state government differs from that of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), which described the minister’s directive as appropriate.

The disagreement followed Umahi’s inspection of the ongoing maintenance work on the bridge on Wednesday.

Minister Umahi directed that illegal advertisements on the bridge should be removed and replaced with pictures of President Tinubu.

Umahi said the gesture would recognise what he described as the President’s intervention in the rehabilitation of the bridge.

“Once we are done with work on this bridge, I want all the illegal adverts on this bridge removed. Anyone who wants to advertise should apply to the Ministry of Works. For now, the bridge will be decorated with the pictures of President Tinubu.

“The President has worked so hard and we need to reward his hard work by decorating this bridge with his pictures,” Umahi said.

The First Niger Bridge connects Onitsha in Anambra State with Asaba in Delta State. It remains an important link between the South-East and South-South regions.

The bridge was closed to traffic earlier in September after the discovery that some of its structural components had been vandalised.

The Federal Government subsequently commenced emergency rehabilitation work.

The repairs include the replacement of vandalised bolts, nuts and sections of the expansion joints, as well as other work considered necessary to restore the bridge.

Umahi has also announced additional measures for the bridge, including more solar-powered lights and the completion of closed-circuit television cameras.

The minister said a committee had also been established to assess the condition of the bridge both above and below the water level.

He further directed that illegal advertisements should be cleared from the bridge and that anyone seeking to advertise on the structure in the future must obtain approval from the Ministry of Works.

But the proposal to display Tinubu’s photographs has generated a different response from officials and political actors in Anambra.

The state chairman of APGA, Chief Ifeatu Obi-Okoye, backed Umahi’s directive.

Obi-Okoye argued that displaying the President’s photograph on a federal infrastructure would not be unusual.

He said photographs of the President are already displayed in federal establishments across the country.

“In every federal establishment in the states nationwide, you have the photographs of the President. And in every state, you find the photograph of the President with that of the state governor together in the same poster.

“So, I find absolutely nothing wrong in putting the photographs of the President on the Niger Bridge as directed by the Minister of Works. Everything shouldn’t be politics. He is the President of the country,” the APGA state chairman stated.

The Anambra State Government, however, took a different position.

Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Dr Law Mefor, said the focus should remain on the work required to restore the bridge and ensure its safety rather than on placing photographs on the structure.

“There are more important things they should be talking about than putting pictures on the bridge. If they like, they can even put Umahi’s statues, put President’s statues, if that is what is more important to them,” Mefor stated.

His comments have placed the state government at odds with the leadership of APGA, the political party controlling Anambra State.

The disagreement has also attracted reactions from opposition figures in the state.

One of the leaders of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Anambra and the party’s deputy governorship candidate in the 2025 governorship election, Dr Ndubuisi Nwobu, criticised the directive.

Nwobu questioned the idea of personally celebrating the President for the rehabilitation of public infrastructure, arguing that the funds used for the project belong to the Nigerian people.

“It (the Minister of Works’ directive for the First Niger Bridge to be decorated with President Tinubu’s photographs) is sycophancy taken too far. The money used in the maintenance of the bridge is not his (Tinubu’s) personal money. The money belongs to the entire citizens of this country.

“And what the government has done is that it used money from the commonwealth to repair the bridge.

“I know that this is an election season. But I can assure you that decorating the Niger Bridge with Tinubu’s picture can never give them any political advantage.

“On election day, the people will vote for whosoever they want,” the ADC chieftain asserted.

The state chairman of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Hon. Ikem Uzoezie, also criticised the directive.

Uzoezie, a former member of the Anambra State House of Assembly, described the move as “sycophantic” and accused those behind it of seeking “vain glory” for the President.

“You don’t have to begin to glorify the President for doing a job the administration owes the citizens. The money used in the maintenance work belongs to the citizens of this country, so you don’t have to say that he did any favour by rehabilitating the bridge,” the NDC state chairman stated.

A legal practitioner, Mr Chijioke Ndubuisi, also opposed the proposed display of the President’s photographs.

Ndubuisi argued that the bridge should not be used as a platform for such displays and said the proposed decoration could affect its appearance.

“It is wrong to deface the bridge with photos of the President because his government did rehabilitation work on the bridge. The optics will be wrong,” Chijioke asserted.

Meanwhile, attempts to obtain the position of the Anambra State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Emma Anosike, were unsuccessful.

Calls placed to his mobile phone were not answered, and he did not return the calls as of the time of filing this report. He also did not respond to a message sent to his WhatsApp account.