FELIX NWANERI

President Obasanjo revealed these while speaking during the monthly media programme.

Noting that the government cannot afford to ignore the existing bridge, President Obasanjo said work on the proposed new six-lane bridge will commence in the next six months once the National Assembly passes the law which will protect private sector investments in the country.

"You don’t ignore refurbishing a bridge until you have a new one. We have to refurbish and strengthen the existing bridge to avoid calamity.

"A new six-lane bridge to be built by both the public and private sectors is coming soon. A bill to protect private investments is already in the National Assembly. Within six months of signing into law of the bill, if it is not the raining season, the second Onitsha-Asaba bridge will commence," President Obasanjo explained.

On the Onitsha-Owerri road, the president expressed optimism that work on the road project will soon be completed, explaining that the project has been awarded to two contractors with each working from the Onitsha and Owerri axis respectively.

Commenting on the incessant power outage being experienced across the country, President Obasanjo assured of an improvement in power supply within the next few weeks as government will soon commission the 350 mega watts already generated by Agip Oil.

In his words, "Once we commission the 350 mega watts in March, these will be an improvement. Outage will not go but we will see an improvement.

Identifying water shortage at the country’s major dams at Kainji and Shiroro as well as vandalisation of National Electric Power Authority’s (NEPA) installations as major causes of the present erratic power supply in the country, President Obasanjo boasted that the nation will generate about 10,000 mega watts of electricity before he leaves office in 2004.