*Raises six fresh posers for President Tinubu
By Mohammed Danlami
The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election, Atiku Abubakar, has remained adamant in his criticism that the 700-kilometer Lagos-Calabar Highway Project is anything but transparent.
Atiku has in a fresh outing today, Tuesday April 9, dared President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to disclose the full cost of the Lagos-Calabar highway project, and has also raised six key posers for President Tinubu to answer.
Recall that Atiku had on Sunday April 7 accused the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration of “shady deals in the face of this 700km Lagos-Calabar coastal highway.”
A statement by Paul Ibe, Atiku’s Media Adviser noted that in September 2023, barely weeks after being appointed by Tinubu, Works Minister, Engr. Dave Umahi announced that the project had been awarded to Gilbert Chagoury’s Hitech Construction Company Limited (Hitech) without any record of a competitive bidding or a decision by FEC.
“Umahi refused to reveal how much the project would cost. He only explained that it would run through nine states and would have a rail road running through the middle. Most importantly, the works minister said the project would come at zero cost to Nigeria, which is currently facing an all-time high level of debt”, the statement said.
The Presidency in a reaction on Monday, April 8 picked holes with Atiku’s accusation saying that he missed the point and had confused the issues.
According to the presidency, Atiku simply misunderstood or confused the project with the rail project awarded by the past administration which failed to take off.
In a reaction to the issues raised by the former vice president in his criticism, the presidency explained that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Rail are two distinct projects, urging Atiku to always seek to get his fact right before going public.
The presidency, in a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said that the Coastal Highway Project would be of huge economic benefit to the nation, and urged Atiku to desist from futile endeavour that would not be beneficial to the nation.
Apparently dissatisfied with the defence provided by the Presidency, Atiku released yet another statement today, Sunday April 9, this time signed by Phrank Shuaibu, Special Assistant on Public Communication to Atiku Abubakar, calling on President Tinubu to answer six key posers on the controversial road project. He demanded the President to also disclose the full cost of the Lagos-Calabar highway project.
The posers include the following:
- That how much is the total cost of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway?
- That why is the project being funded by the Nigerian government despite being a PPP?
- That why is the project taking off from Chagoury’s Eko Atlantic?
- That why is N1.06tn being spent on the pilot phase, which is just 47km?
- That why did the N1.06tn not get the approval of the National Assembly?
- That why wasn’t there a competitive bidding for the project?”
- Finally, and that how did the Tinubu administration get the design as well as the right of way in just 7 months, since it claims the past administration of Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari never touched the project?
Atiku asked the Tinubu administration to, in the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act, respond to the questions line by line instead of taking the mundane and jejune route of “insulting their way out of every inquiry”.
He had also wondered why the Tinubu administration released N1.06tn for the pilot phase or 6% of the project, which begins at Eko Atlantic and is expected to terminate at the Lekki Deep Sea Port.
Today’s statement by Atiku read in part: “The Tinubu administration cannot continue to respond to public inquiry with insults. They must come clean on this project because Nigerians deserve to know the truth.”
Earlier in his originating criticism, Atiku had recalled that this project returned to public discourse at the twilight of the Goodluck Jonathan administration in November 2014 wherein it was announced that President Jonathan had signed the 10-state, 22-station project with China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) at a cost of $11.97bn.
He added that however, the former President Jonathan could not begin the project before he lost the election. But his successor, former President Muhammadu Buhari expressed his intention to begin it and announced in 2016 that the project had been renegotiated downward by $800m to $11.1bn and that it would be ready within three years. But it continued to stall.
Atiku noted also that in August 2021, while Buhari was on vacation, it was announced by then Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, that the FEC had “approved the memo for the ratification of the president’s approval for the award” of the $11.1 billion project, and that it would be completed in six years, but that nothing was done.
