The Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, has challenged residents of the South-east to look beyond political sentiments, social media narratives and claims of marginalisation in assessing the performance of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.

Umahi said the region should instead judge the Federal Government by the infrastructure projects being delivered and their direct impact on the lives and economic activities of the people.

He stated this on Saturday while inspecting ongoing road construction in Imo State, where he highlighted the restoration of more than 20 kilometres of a 65-kilometre road and the planned removal of a mountain measuring over 60 metres in height.

According to him, the difficult terrain had claimed lives over the years, making its removal necessary to improve safety, connectivity and economic activities along the corridor.

“This place is very challenging. This place has consumed many lives. But President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the first among equals, the one that does what is difficult,” Umahi said.

The minister said the quality of work already executed on the road was evidence of the transformation taking place, noting that the concrete pavement was, in his assessment, even better than that of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.

Umahi argued that such visible interventions should form the basis for evaluating government performance rather than narratives driven by political disagreements or accusations of deliberate exclusion of the Southeast from national development.

He also pointed to federal appointments and other projects in the region under Tinubu, saying the developments demonstrated that the Southeast was receiving attention from the administration.

The minister urged the people of the region to adopt a more pragmatic approach to politics, saying political choices should be guided by tangible development and the long-term interests of the people.

He, however, acknowledged the right of citizens to hold divergent political opinions, stressing that disagreement should not degenerate into hate speech, intolerance or personal attacks.

Umahi commended Dangote Group and High Tech for supporting the road project, particularly the planned removal of the mountain, which he said was outside the original contract scope and would be undertaken without increasing the project cost.

He said the completion of the road would improve connectivity, security and commercial activities across the Southeast, urging residents to move beyond the politics of perception and judge the Tinubu administration by the concrete changes taking place in the region.