Nigeria’s transportation minister, Rotimi Amaechi, has promised to build the world’s largest rail in the Niger-Delta region if elected president.

“If I don’t become the president of Nigeria, forget it (Lagos-Warri-Calabar railway project). Nobody will do that project. You know why they won’t do it? It’s $11.1 billion.

“That is for now the biggest project in the world,” Mr Amaechi said in his address to delegates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Asaba on Friday.

“If l don’t win the primary and the general election, nobody else can do it because it is capital intensive. The moment we complete the Lagos-Calabar-Warri, things will be okay.

“What should bother us is how do we move forward? It takes courage and that was why we came up with that theme ‘Forward with courage’. It requires courage to confront the challenges ahead,” added the minister.

Reeling out his achievements as Rivers state governor, the presidential hopeful promised to replicate the same success if given power at the centre. 

He cautioned the delegates to be careful of other aspirants who make promises they have no intention of fulfilling.

“Don’t listen to those who say l will do. Ask them what have they done. I fought insecurity in Rivers, l generated power which l cannot distribute because it is only the federal government that can distribute.

“If l’m elected president, l will make sure power is removed from the exclusive list,” Mr Amaechi vowed while courting the delegates at the party’s secretariat in Asaba.

Mr Amaechi tenure so far as transportation minister has been widely excoriated for the 1.9 billion dollars Kano-Maradi standard gauge railway lines, described as a wasteful investment by Russian-based financial institution, Renaissance Capital (Rencap).

The project would link Nigeria and the poverty-stricken Niger Republic upon completion.