A former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, called on President Bola Tinubu on Friday to suspend the ongoing Lagos-Calabar coastal road project.
In an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Chidoka noted that the call to suspend the project is to allow for public conversations.
He noted that instead of focusing on the Lagos-Calabar Highway, the federal government should improve Nigeria’s inland waterways and build small seaports across the coastal areas in order to move goods from one coastal city to another by ship.
The PDP Chieftain also noted that the award of the contract for the coastal road did not follow due process and the whole process was shrouded in secrecy, showing a clear lack of transparency.
He said, “Stop it now and subject it to public conversation because the financiers cannot raise finance for this project except if they use budgetary funds to fund it. Nobody can raise finance if they know they have no competitive bid. If what the minister (Dave Umahi) said is correct, then there is an absolute breach because the first thing that would have happened is that ICRC would have received this.
“The second thing is that even with the designs done by them and the desire to be able to get funding, neither the IFC, World Bank, European Bank, nor African Development Bank would fund a project that doesn’t go through competitive bidding. Ask any of the financial institutions where they would get the money from. It was never advertised.”
News About Nigeria reports that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway has been criticised by various stakeholders, including the Labour Party flagbearer in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, and Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.
