Lagos-Calabar coastal highway: Makinde-Daura presidential campaign seeks comprehensive audit, full disclosure

• Urges Nigerians to reject Tinubu in 2027

By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

The Makinde-Daura Presidential Campaign Organization (MDPCO) has demanded for a full disclosure of the procurement process, contractor selection and contract cost of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway awarded at a humongous cost of Fifteen Trillion Naira (N15,000,000,000,000).

The organization also called for the immediate publication of all relevant procurement and payment records and a comprehensive audit of the entire project’s costs, amount so far spent and further execution plan.

The Director General of the MDPCO and former Minister of Aviation, Hon. Felix Hassan Hyat made the demand at a press conference he addressed on Tuesday in Abuja in company of other members of the organization

The MDPCO has further asked for the safeguards built to protect public funds- critical factors of transparency and accountability that aberrant executive fiat and political grandstanding had earlier nullified concerning the coastal highway.

The organization pointed out that the award of the said contract to a company whose corporate group is linked to a firm where individuals allegedly linked with the Presidency, sit on the board, “raises legitimate conflict-of-interest concerns”.

The MDPCO lamented the fact that after re-directing the Lagos-Calabar Coastal road to an already existing road, the Federal Government had remained silent on the expected plunge in the cost, stressing that such raises issues of financial accountability.

Hyat pointed out that the controversies surrounding the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway have reached a punitive reckoning, a point where accountability can no longer be deferred.

According to the DG of the MDPCO, “As you are aware, the disoriented administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has re-routed the ill-planned and corruption-ridden Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway awarded at a humongous cost of Fifteen Trillion Naira (N15,000,000,000,000)

“The announcement by the Minister of Works, David Umahi of the realignment of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway route has once again brought to the fore, allegations of technical and planning incompetence, policy inconsistencies, and troubling questions of transparency and accountability that have dogged this multi-trillion-naira project since its inception.

“It is appalling that Minister Umahi, in a desperate bid to contain the gathering storm of public outrage, brazenly denied his earlier announcement of a Presidential directive to realign the highway despite overwhelming video evidence of that announcement. Such denial is unbecoming of a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

‘In any event, knowing full well that the enduring test of government does not orbit in the grandeur of its projects or the boldness of its announcements, rather in the conveyance of common good, we are compelled to submit that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project as conceived and presented to Nigerians by this administration has failed in major ways.

“While we have nothing against the construction of roads in any part of the country, it is important to state that the afterthought realignment of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is an admission of technical incompetence, failure of proper planning and gross underestimation of the project’s engineering challenges.

“The vague reasons of Climate change and environmental challenges adduced by Minister Umahi at this point, beg the question.

“It only confirms that the Tinubu administration embarked on this huge project without the required statutory environmental impact assessment in gross violation of our extant laws.

“The circumstances of the award of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, gives a glimpse into the capricious and arbitrary manner with which the Tinubu Presidency rules Nigeria resulting in the crippling of virtually all the vital sectors of the economy under his watch.

“We urge Nigerians to judge this latest development against the troubling circumstances surrounding the project’s conception and award in 2024 which came without an approved engineering design, without transparent, open and competitive bidding process as required by the Public Procurement Act 2007 and without any budgetary provision and statutory appropriation by the National Assembly.

“Such gross abuse of office by a President deserves very serious sanctions.

‘Interestingly, the award of this contract to a company whose corporate group is linked to a firm where individuals allegedly linked with the Presidency, sit on the board, raises legitimate conflict-of-interest concerns.

“Moreover, the fact that after re-directing the Lagos-Calabar Coastal to already existing road, the Federal Government had remained silent on the expected plunge in the cost raises issues of financial accountability.

“Time is therefore here to demand once more, a full disclosure of the procurement process, contractor selection, contract cost and safeguards built to protect public funds- critical factors of transparency and accountability that aberrant executive fiat and political grandstanding had earlier nullified.

“Regrettably, all these conundrums are unfolding at a time of pervasive poverty, arising from an economic crisis avoidably imposed on Nigerians by an incompetent federal government.

“This is happening at a time energy crisis has brought Nigeria and Nigerians to bended knees; when citizens are struggling with soaring food prices, transportation costs and healthcare expenses; and when university tuition fees have increased by as much as 300 per cent, and the Federal Government in seeming mischievous glee, ask students to take to loans to finance their education without any guarantee for gainful employment after successful completion of studies.

“Political power is legitimate only when exercised for the public good. The controversies surrounding the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway raise a fundamental question as to whose interests the project ultimately serves-the Nigerian people or those in power?

“The controversies surrounding the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway have reached a punitive reckoning, a point where accountability can no longer be deferred.

“Despite widespread caution from Nigerians over the rationality of an unprecedented stretch of a new highway when existing federal roads have become deathtraps that leave motorists stranded for days, with attendant economic losses, the federal government without due process, committed a staggering ₦15 trillion to a project whose immediate or foreseeable future benefits are questionable.

“We demand that the President Tinubu-led government should publish the relevant engineering assessment, alternative-route analysis, accompanying cost implications and comprehensive audit of the work and amount so far spent.

“Nigerians are tired of official assurances without verifiable evidence, particularly against the backdrop of allegations that the contract, from inception, was designed as a conduit for financing APC’s election expenses. These serious allegations demand transparency, not evasive explanations.

“In view of the above therefore, the Makinde/Daura Presidential Campaign Organisation demands as follows:

*An immediate publication of all relevant procurement and payment records, and an independent engineering assessment of the Ondo realignment, as well as a comprehensive audit of the entire project’s costs, amount so far spent and further execution plan. Nigeria is in dire need of infrastructures, no doubt, but not opaque contracts and expensive excuses.

*We urge Nigerians to reject President Tinubu in the 2027 Presidential election, the President having not demonstrated the acumen to govern, and having failed in his campaign promises thus plunging the nation into an unprecedented economic crisis.

*We therefore call Nigerians to continue in their support for the Presidential Candidate of the Allied People’s Movement (APM), Engr. Seyi Makinde, as the only viable alternative, whose leadership prowess, as encapsuled in the RESET NIGERIA Agenda, offers a compelling vision for national renewal.

The organization pointed out that Engr. Makinde has shown the capacity for a broad national consensus and wide appeal to Nigerians across party and regional divides, including other presidential candidates.

It added that the future of Nigeria must take precedence over President Tinubu’s personal ambition.