The Peoples Redemption Party presidential candidate, Donald Duke, has rebuked President Bola Tinubu over the billion-dollar Lagos to Calabar Coastal Highway, querying why the road project started from Victoria Island and not Badagry, the state’s starting point.
Speaking on Naija Unfiltered podcast posted on Saturday, Mr Duke faulted the sandfilling of Victoria Island to link Cross River State when the project could have started from Badagry without the need for sandfilling.
He submitted that Mr Tinubu was squandering the nation’s limited resources without justification.
“If you’re doing the Lagos to Calabar highway, you should start at Badagry,” Mr Duke said on the podcast. “That’s where Lagos starts in the South-West, not from Victoria Island. When you’re building a road from Lagos to Calabar but the focus on the Lagos end is from Victoria Island. And at the same time, you are sandfilling it.”
Mr Duke, a two-term Cross River State governor from 1999 to 2007, noted his friendship with Mr Tinubu and his admiration for the President’s guts and resilience.
He said, “President Tinubu is my friend. See, I like his guts. I admit it. He’s a determined person.”
He noted, however, that their friendship would not stop him from criticising Mr Tinubu whenever he makes mistakes.
He added that Mr Tinubu was leading Nigerians to the brink of collapse with the way he was managing the country.
“But I don’t like where (Tinubu) you’re taking us. So, you don’t stop being my friend but I will challenge you that where we are going, we are all going to fall into a ditch.”
Mr Duke said that the coastal highway highway project, estimated to cost N7.5 billion per kilometre, was not a priority.
He stated that the money spent so far could have repaired existing bad roads in both Lagos and Cross River states.
“So, you take on this road, the amount of money you’ve spent so far literally could have fixed all the existing roads between Lagos and Calabar,” said Mr Duke.
In May, Minister of Works, David Umahi, said the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway would cost N7.5 billion per kilometre.
Mr Umahi said, “This is the rundown of the figures. Number one, the first section, 47.47, is costing N1.067 trillion and it’s by six lanes. Now, when you divide this N1.067 trillion by 47.47 by two, you will get N11.57 billion per kilometre of three lanes.
“A standard road is two lanes. Standard federal highway is two lanes. So, by the time you now divide it by three and multiply by two, you will now say that a standard coastal road is going for N7.5 billion per kilometre of standard highway.”