Umahi Bags Silverbird ‘Extraordinary Personality of the Year’ Award, Dedicates Honour to Tinubu
By Onwe Wisdom, Pan Afric Reporters
The Honourable Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, has been honoured with the Silverbird Group Extraordinary Personality of the Year Award, describing the recognition as “another feather” that will spur him and his team to greater performance in Nigeria’s infrastructure sector.
The award according to press statement e-signed by Senior Special Assistant to Honourable Minister of Works (Media), Francis Nwaze, was conferred on Sunday, March 1, 2026, at Eko Hotels & Suites, Lagos, during a ceremony attended by top government officials, lawmakers, technocrats and key stakeholders from across the country. The event celebrated what organisers described as transformative leadership in public service.
Represented at the ceremony by the Minister of State for Works, Bello Muhammad Goronyo, Umahi expressed appreciation to the Silverbird Group for the honour, noting that it reflected visible performance and difficult decisions taken in the national interest. Goronyo said the minister’s tenure has been marked by experience-driven leadership and the deployment of innovative construction technologies to address long-standing infrastructure deficits.
“This man brought to bear lots of experience, skills and innovative technologies in the road construction industry,” Goronyo said, adding that the recognition was well deserved given the scale of projects being executed under Umahi’s watch.
He highlighted four major legacy projects currently reshaping national connectivity: the 750-kilometre Lagos–Calabar Coastal Highway, the 1,068-kilometre Sokoto–Badagry Super Highway, the Trans-Sahara corridor linking Calabar through Ebonyi and Benue to Abuja, and the 420-kilometre Akwanga–Jos–Bauchi–Gombe–Borno corridor. According to him, these projects, alongside accelerated road and bridge construction across the six geopolitical zones, have raised expectations about infrastructure delivery within a single administration.
Goronyo attributed the progress to the infrastructure-focused policy direction of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, stating that the achievements recorded by the Ministry of Works were made possible by presidential support. In a symbolic gesture, he disclosed that Umahi directed that the award be dedicated to the President and the entire ministry team, including management and contractors.
“For us in the Ministry of Works, it is another feather for us to continue to fly and work hard so that Nigeria will reach the desires and aspirations of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” he said.
In its remarks, Silverbird Group noted that since Umahi assumed office as Minister of Works, the ministry has been overseeing 2,065 ongoing projects nationwide. The organisers said his mission has remained consistent: rehabilitate existing roads, construct new ones and ensure durability, stressing that the scale and ambition of the legacy projects underscore his leadership profile in Nigeria’s ongoing infrastructure drive.
