The Minister of Works, David Umahi, has bagged the Silverbird Group Extraordinary Personality of the Year award.
The honour was conferred on him on Sunday, March 1, 2026, at the Eko Hotels & Suites, Lagos.
The award ceremony, organised by Silverbird Group, brought together top government officials, lawmakers, technocrats, and stakeholders from across the country.
Speaking at the event on behalf of Umahi, the Minister of State (Works), Bello Goronyo, described the honour as a deserved recognition of visible performance and hard choices taken in the national interest.
This was contained in a statement issued on Monday by the minister’s Senior Special Assistant on Media, Francis Nwaze, and made available to journalists in Abakaliki.
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“We cannot but register our sincere gratitude and appreciation for this award for identifying our own, the Minister of Works, David Umahi, for the works he has been doing in this country,” the minister said.
Goronyo told the audience that Umahi’s impact since assuming office has been defined by experience-driven leadership and the deployment of innovative construction technologies to solve long-standing infrastructure challenges.
“This man brought to bear lots of experience, skills, and innovative technologies in the road construction industry,” he added.
He pointed to landmark achievements in road construction, anchored on four legacy projects now reshaping national connectivity.
These include the 750km Lagos–Calabar Coastal Highway, the 1,068km Sokoto–Badagry Super Highway, the Transahara corridor stretching from Calabar through Ebonyi and Benue to Abuja, and the 420km Akwanga–Jos–Bauchi–Gombe–Borno corridor.
According to him, these projects, alongside accelerated roads and bridges construction across the six geopolitical zones, have redefined expectations of what is possible within a single administration.
Goronyo was emphatic that these gains did not occur in isolation, attributing the momentum to the infrastructure-first posture of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He added that within the ministry, the recognition serves as renewed motivation rather than a moment of rest.
The Silverbird Group noted that since Umahi took charge as minister of works, the ministry is currently managing 2,065 ongoing projects across the country.
The organisers observed that his mission has remained clear and consistent: fix existing roads, build new ones, and ensure they stand the test of time.
According to them, the scale and intent of the legacy projects alone speak volumes about his leadership.
