The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, has again defended the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road project and is challenging critics to a debate over the road infrastructure.
Umahi spoke on Sunday during a press conference and stakeholders’ engagement over the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, saying the road will help open up the country’s economy.
“Now, let anybody tell me any state that is not a construction site under President Bola Tinubu,” the minister said during the event in Lagos. “I am waiting for a debate on this. The debate is on why people attack the Coastal Highway. They don’t want the Niger Delta where we drill the oil to benefit [from projects]. They darken counsel without knowledge. You said, ‘This thing will not pass Epe.’ It has since passed Epe.”
According to the minister, work is in progress in various sections of the project estimated to cost N4 billion per kilometre, contrary to critics who claim the project won’t see the light of day.
“In fact, Lot 1 has since been completed, and Lot 2 is over 80 per cent done. We are in Ondo. We were there the other day. We have done over 30 per cent of the job in Calabar and Akwa Ibom. We have started the largest section – 180km by 2,” Umahi said.
The minister said, “We are just left with the Bayelsa, the Delta, Rivers and then the Edo sections.”
For critics, the former Ebonyi State governor said, “I do not blame those who think that it is impossible because this president [Bola Tinubu] has been doing the impossible because he is divine; God brought him.”
He also warned against loitering, selling, and sleeping on the Coastal Highway, insisting that the Federal Government won’t tolerate such actions.
Umahi’s comment came amid criticisms over the project, flagged off in May 2024. Opposition parties and some activists have faulted the Federal Government over the construction, accusing authorities of embarking on a white elephant project.
They argue that several existing roads are in disrepair, calling on the Federal Government to focus on those and channel the money to other areas.
The 700 km Lagos-Calabar coastal road is designed to connect Lagos to Cross River, passing through Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom states, before culminating in Cross River.
The project, which has caused some buildings to be demolished, has attracted a barrage of intense criticisms from many Nigerians who strongly felt that the timing of the project was wrong.
But Umahi said the project is in the best interest of Nigerians.
