Days after leaving the APC governorship race, Governor Siminalayi Fubara toured an unfinished road and set a deadline. The airport bypass, he said, was 65 per cent built and would open ahead of October. That month began on Thursday, so Rivers residents are right to ask where the road is.
The pledge carried a message. Fubara told residents that work already begun would be finished, whatever the political climate. With no ticket to defend, he had nothing to gain electorally. This road therefore became a measure of whether government keeps working once politics moves on.
The project deserves serious treatment. The road, about seven kilometres long, would give communities near the airport an access route of their own. It exists because angry protests against airport authorities have repeatedly shut the main road and stalled business. Separating community traffic from airport traffic is a reasonable fix.
Also Read: http://PH Refinery Staff Protest Salary Delay
Deadlines, though, are how citizens measure promises. At the December 2025 flag-off, which also covered a toll gate, officials gave seven months, pointing to about July. By May, the goal had become “before October.” Slippage alone is forgivable. Slippage without explanation is not.
I found no public report of completion at the time of writing. The same administration packed a string of commissioning ceremonies into December 2025, so it knows how to announce a finished project. The current quiet suggests otherwise.
Three disclosures are due.
First, a firm opening date, or a plain explanation for the delay. Second, a clear statement of how the toll gate will be run, including who collects the fees and where they end up. Third, progress on the host community’s three demands. At the flag-off, the governor said the clinic and power supply had been addressed, with jobs still under review. A road that calms a community without hiring its young people resolves only part of the dispute.
The timing sharpens all this. This week, residents are reckoning with flood damage and judging what their government can deliver. A finished bypass would be a modest but real sign that “Rivers First” means more than a slogan.
Having staked his word on completion, the governor should expect to be held to it.
