The government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is rattled by the barrage of criticisms trailing the government’s coastal road contract that will link Lagos in the South west with Calabar in the South south regions of the country
By Lukmon Ojerinde
Many Nigerians woke up to face the biggest surprise of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration on Saturday, April 27, 2024. President Tinubu government flourishes in dishing out surprises, no doubt. But the one of that day was considered one surprise, too many, by millions of citizens. The event was the commencement of the enforcement of right of way for the construction of the biggest road contract ever to be awarded in the history of the country, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.
The right of way enforcement saw on that day the demolition of properties the highway construction would affect. Although a short notice was alleged to have been served owners and occupants of the affected buildings, they had woken up to see the sudden destruction of their place of abode and business offices when the Federal Government was yet to compensate them to enable them secure alternative places of abode.
While flagging off the demolition exercise, the Minister of Works, Engr Dave Umahi had noted that the enforcement of the right of way would be done with a human face. He said, “This demolition is going to have a pure human face, and so with the utmost fear of God Almighty and commitment with the Renewed Hope agenda of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in our infrastructural development, in particular, I wish to flag off this demolition exercise to get a right of way within the coastal corridor which is the legitimate right of the Federal Government”.
Speaking about the short notice given to the occupants of the buildings, the Special Adviser to Umahi on Media, in a statement said, “We are doing some minor adjustments, and our commitment is to stay within the coastline. When the initial demolition order was passed to all the affected investors, so to speak, I graciously increased the period to another seven days, and here we are because the project stopped because of the part of demolition”.
The demolition exercise was to bring the attention of many Nigerians to the knowledge of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the alleged infractions of the Federal Government in awarding the contract. The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, was among the first prominent Nigerians to pick holes in the most prestigious highways contract award in Nigeria. Obi basically criticized the government for insensitive approach to embark on a project that threatened the livelihood of many Nigerians at a time when unemployment ravaged nation.
Obi described the demolition exercise as heart-wrenching, and advised the Federal Government to do a rethinking job that might result in the discontinuation of the highway project. “Contrary to reason and the necessity for compassion in public policy, the Federal Government has commenced the controversial Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project.
“It’s time to question the rationale and timing of this and similar projects. The nation is in its worst economic state in history, with poverty and hunger spreading. The basic necessities of life are beyond the reach of most Nigerians.
“The urgent necessities are the nationwide security, poverty eradication, especially for the poor and the underprivileged. It’s not too late, we cannot afford another expensive abandoned project”, Obi said on his X handle.
Obi basically focused on the effects of the demolition exercise, however his timely criticism did a lot to unravel some hidden, illegal and suspicious details of the contract for which many Nigerians are calling for either its review or outright termination. Obi’s outburst also became an eye opener to numerous other Nigerians that the contract hurriedly awarded, never followed due process.
The 700 Kilometers Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is a 10-lane bimodal/rail Autobahn that will pull out of the Federal Government coffers a whopping N15.6 trillion. A kilometre of the highway will cost Nigeria about N4.3 billion with an estimated 180 bridges of various sizes and specifications in-between.
Though the Federal Government is to provide only 30 percent of the funding on a Public-Private Sector Partnership (PPP), the private sector partners who will provide the other 70 percent of the funding, are to collect tolls on the road for many years in order to recoup their money with profit.
The construction contract was awarded to a company identified as Hitech Construction Company Limited owned by Chagoury Group with its subsidiary company, the CDK Integrated Industries, where Tinubu and his son Seyi have alleged vested interest. Seyi is alleged to be on the Board of CDK.
Many questions and concerns have been raised by Nigerian opinion leaders across geopolitical zones over the method of the award of the contract. Nigerians are reacting to why the highway contract should be awarded to a company where Tinubu family has deep seated interest, without competitive bidding process. Many are worried that in less than one year of the Tinubu government it is awarding such a humongous project never seen before in the history of the country. Yet, others criticized the project for its shoddy Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) exercise which they alleged was done without due diligence.
Analysts also argue that most Federal Roads in the country have remained in bad shape for ages, across geopolitical zones without the All Progressives Congress (APC) government that began since 2015 batting an eyelid. They made mention of the East-West Road that connects the South south and South west regions which has remained an eyesore for many years and others across the country which the Federal Government appears to have abandoned in their dilapidated state. Analysts stress that those old Federal Roads should have been given proper attention before the coastal highway.
In their estimation, the contract for the construction of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway smacks of foul play, corrupt tendencies, and equally amounts to impeachable offence.
To fire the first salvo against the unlawful and alleged inordinate award of the contract is Alhaji Atiku Abubarkar, a former Vice President and the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in last year’s general election. Atiku accused the Federal Government of corruption, conflict of interest and lack of due process and transparency in the contract award.
Atiku said, “It has become obvious even to the undiscerning that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is being done in a hurry purely because of the business relationship between Tinubu and Gilbert Chagoury, the owner of Hitech, the contractor that was awarded the contract for the highway project in contravention of the procurement laws”.
The Yoruba Council Worldwide also lent its voice in condemning the alleged lack of due process in the award of the contract. A chieftain of the group, Mr Oladotun Hassan, condemned the contract for what he described as Tinubu’s impunity, use of rule of man instead of rule of law, as well as being unconstitutional in the process of the contract award. Hassan insisted that the contract should have followed what he referred to as “valid opinion of stakeholders and due process to avoid being autocratic. According to him, the “project came as a rapture, creating fear and scampering”, and failed to go through EIA.
Dr. Austin Maho, a journalist and newspaper analyst said only Tinubu and his cronies understood the rush to fund the highway. Maho added that “it is one project to fund corruption”, as well as a project which alleged proceeds may be deployed to fund the next presidential election.
For the Chairman of the Young Progressive Party (YPP), Bishop Amakiri, “Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is not our priority. We have over 10.5 million out of school children in this country, give that money to power, education and security N3 billion each, and you will see the multiplier effect”.
Amakiri said further, “We have not fixed the core roads people travel on. The East-West Road is still there linking Edo, Delta and Rivers. Today, you can’t travel from Lagos to Enugu”.
The YPP boss also argued that the coastal road project was not a realistic project because it is not possible for Tinubu government to complete it, even if Tinubu remained in power for eight years. He further pointed out that the contract did not pass through due process or bidding process which is in line with the nation’s Procurement Act.
The Labour Party (LP), while reacting to the coastal highway construction, admonished the APC-led Federal Government to come clean through the barrage of allegations that trail the construction of the coastal highway. LP’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Iloh, said in another medium that, “It behooves government to tell Nigerians the truth about this project. Nigerians need to know whether indeed the contract was awarded without regard to our extant laws and due process.
“The administration needs to tell us whether indeed it was awarded to a business partner of the president, because his doing so would be a breach of his oath of office.
“These explanations are equally required to clear the air considering the fact that there was nowhere in the 2024 Appropriation Act passed by the National Assembly and assented to by same president where the money for this project was laid bare, except if the budget being operated by Tinubu-led administration is different from the one in the public domain”.
The Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-cultural group, in its own reaction, demanded outright cancellation of the project. A statement issued by the Yoruba organization and signed by Prince Justice Faloye of the Publicity Department, read in part, “Despite numerous complaints and objections, the Federal Government has refused to listen and review the 700 km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, but instead is rushing headlong into the project. The $13 billion Lagos-Calabar project is not only environmentally and economically destructive, but it also irrationally replaces the, 400 km $12 billion Lagos-Calabar railway project along East-West Road, adjudged to be the single most important economic empowering infrastructural development project in Southern Nigeria over 100 years, commissioned by both the Jonathan (2014) and Buhari (2021) governments.
“The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway must be reexamined, for not only breaching competitive tendering stipulations, but also contravening the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, as stipulated in EIA Decree No. 86 of 1992, which places the project type in Category 1 and affecting the natural environment, making an EIA report mandatory before commencement.
“The 2021 Environmental Assessment Procedures and Charges would have taken six months from May 29 when this administration came to power to secure a genuine approval report, involving series of stakeholders’ meetings, multiple visits and studies of the environment to be impacted by the highway. The project in essence will affect the natural fauna, the coastal mangrove swamps that serve as natural barriers against tidal waves”.
In its reaction, the Federal Government through the office of the Minister of Works, Umahi insisted that the coastal highway contract passed through due process. According to Orji, the spokesperson for Umahi who reacted to Atiku’s criticism on Wednesday, May 8, 2024 in Abuja, “I wish to categorically state that such viewpoints are false analogies conceived by fertile imaginations of the former Vice President and which are clearly superficial, hypocritical, diversionary and undoubtedly motivated by ambitious political calculations.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project complied 100 percent with the provisions of the Procurement Act and was awarded based on the EPC+F procurement process, that is to say, the project is an unsolicited bid done on EPC+F.
“Under this model of procurement, the investor provides all the designs, part of the financing and construction, while the FGN pays counterpart funds.
“The bid of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project came through this process. The ministry received the bid, worked on it, and sent the same to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).
“The BPP worked on it in accordance with the stipulations of the Procurement Act and came up with a competitive price slightly lower than the ministry’s price and even lower than the cost of similar projects awarded five years ago, including the Bodo-Bonny project awarded to Julius Berger Nigeria PLC”.
The Works Minister, however, failed to clear the issue of the project in the 2024 Appropriation Act. To set the record straight, the House of Representatives had on Thursday, May 9, 2024, affirmed that project does not have legislative appropriation, and therefore, called on the Ministries of Works, Finance and Justice to ensure that all the project guarantees, and credit enhancement instruments were brought to the National Assembly for approval. The resolution was sequel to the motion brought by Austin Achado of the APC Benue titled, “Urgent Need to Investigate the Procurement Process for the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway”.
Achado had noted that the procurement strategy adopted by the Ministry of Works for the award of the contract violated the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission.
As the House of Representatives has now taken sides with those calling for the review of the contentious contract, the question on many lips remains: What option for the Federal Government, to dump the project, to review the award process or to carry on arbitrarily? Time will tell.
