NIGERIA: The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, has warned that the 750-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway may not be completed if President Bola Tinubu fails to secure re-election in 2027.
Umahi gave the warning on Friday during an interview on Arise Television, describing the coastal highway as a personal initiative of Tinubu that requires continuity to be completed.
According to the minister, Tinubu’s return to office is crucial to the completion of the coastal highway and other major road projects being undertaken by his administration across the country.
“If President Tinubu does not come back in 2027 (God forbid), the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway will be gone,” Umahi said.
He, however, dismissed claims that the coastal highway project had been abandoned in favour of the East-West Road, insisting that the 750-kilometre project remained intact and was progressing.
“The 750-kilometre coastal highway is intact and cannot be changed, and nobody has the powers to change it, because it’s already designed and it’s ongoing,” he said.
The former Ebonyi State governor explained that Tinubu had approved the reconstruction of an additional 400 kilometres of the East-West Road, stretching from Edo State to Cross River State, alongside the coastal highway project.
He said the President directed that the coastal highway should run through the existing East-West Road corridor rather than require the opening of entirely new alignments.
Umahi attributed the change in alignment to the difficult terrain in Ondo State, where he said construction pits were more than 100 metres deep and suitable sharp sand was unavailable even at depths of up to 300 metres.
The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is one of the Federal Government’s major infrastructure projects, designed to connect Lagos with coastal communities and states in southern Nigeria. Its scale, cost and construction arrangements have attracted public attention, including questions about its alignment, funding and implementation.
Umahi’s warning has also raised questions about the continuity of major infrastructure projects across changes in government, given that the highway is a long-term undertaking whose completion could extend beyond a single presidential term.
