The Minister of Works, David Umahi and Presidential Candidate for People’s Democracy Party Atiku Abubakar have exchanged words over the cost of the Lagos-Calabar Highway Project.
The ex-vice president through his media Adviser Paul Ibe had on Tuesday challenged President Bola Tinubu to divulge the full cost of the project to the general public.
Atiku noted that the Tinubu led administration could not continue to keep mute over the amount of public funds that would be spent on the project at the time the country is experiencing economic hardship.
The former Vice president queried president Tinubu’s decision to award the contract to Gilbert Chagoury’s Hitech without a competitive bidding.
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.
In Atiku’s statements, “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. I, therefore, present six posers to the administration.
“How much is the total cost of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway? Why is the project being funded by the Nigerian government despite being a PPP?, Why is the project taking off from Chagoury’s Eko Atlantic?, Why is N1.06 trillion being spent on the pilot phase, which is just 47km?
“Why did the N1.06trillion not get the approval of the National Assembly? Why wasn’t there a competitive bidding for the project?
”Finally, how did the Tinubu administration get the design as well as the right of way in just seven 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.”
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, while reacting to Atiku claims on the Lagos Calabar Highway project noted that despite the high cost of materials in the construction industry, the administration has maintained prudence, cost effectiveness, speed and quality in the delivery of road projects.
The minister described Atiku’s analysis as a “gross misrepresentation of facts, and figures and a ploy to mislead Nigerians by darkening counsel without knowledge”.
“He (Atiku) doesn’t understand figures. I am going to run figures for him to understand, and he will understand how prudent the administration of President Tinubu has been. He will understand how prudency is taking the centre stage in this administration.
“The President has once queried me on the cost of on-going projects nationwide. I had to analyse every basic rate of construction materials to arrive at our unit rates. I showed it to Mr. President. He still thinks I should bring down the cost of projects.
The Minister through his Spokesperson Uchenna Orji noted, “At the same time, the contractors are crying that I am oppressing them so much by reviewing the costs of their projects downwards. They lamented that what they were getting before, they are no longer getting it now. They cried out. But when I run the figures, Nigerians will see what this present administration is doing. So, I am not here to run the figures now. I will do that in a press conference on my visit to Lagos from 10th April 2024 to 12th April 2024.”
Speaking on the economic importance of the coastal highway, he noted the project will tie the entire country together.
In Umahi’s word: “I will tell you the economic benefits of the project and how the coastal road is tying the entire country together. It’s not tying just South-South and South- West. It is tying the North and South together. We are starting a project from Badagry to Sokoto, and we have a spur on this coastal route to that route and the African Trans Sahara Road that is passing from Enugu to Abakaliki to Ogoja to Cameroon which has a spur to the North.”
