The Tinubu administration’s ambitious Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project has been mired in conflicting statements and lack of clarity from the very start. As more details trickle out, Nigerians have every right to be concerned about the government’s level of accountability for this massive $6.9 billion (N2.8 trillion) infrastructure undertaking.
In an interview this week, Works Minister David Umahi provided the first real cost estimates, stating the 700km road will be built at N4 billion per kilometer using concrete pavement. However, his figures directly contradict claims made just a few months ago by then-vice presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar that the cost was a staggering N8 billion per km.
This $2 billion discrepancy alone raises major red flags about the opaque nature of the project’s planning and costing. Which figure is accurate? On what basis were these wildly divergent estimates reached? The government owes citizens a transparent breakdown considering the astronomical price tag involved.
Umahi also backtracked on earlier statements that the project would be executed as a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with the private contractor Hitech providing full financing. He now says it will be an Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Finance (EPCF) model with the government providing 15-30% in counterpart funding.
Such blatant reversals erode public trust and make it difficult to take the administration’s pronouncements at face value. The mode of financing and extent of public liability is seemingly a moving target designed to obfuscate rather than illuminate the true nature of the deal.
Perhaps most alarming is the admission by Umahi that there was no public bidding or competitive process to award this lucrative contract to Hitech, a relatively unknown entity controlled by the wealthy Lebanese Chagoury family. The government’s justification is that they have exclusive rights to invite and negotiate directly with companies they deem to have “specialized skills.”
This flies in the face of best practices around public contracting and opens the door wide for cronyism, corruption and self-dealing. Even if the procurement laws technically allow such opaque dealings, the perceived lack of transparency and due diligence is deeply worrying for a project of this scale and significance.
With N1.06 trillion already appropriated for the initial phase, the Tinubu administration has clearly set the wheels in motion on this ambitious road linking five coastal states. But the way it has been rushed through with minimal public scrutiny or open bidding process is highly problematic from a governance perspective.
Major infrastructure projects have huge potential for graft and rent-seeking when proper checks and balances are lacking. Simply telling Nigerians to trust that the “due process was followed” is no longer enough, especially when the specific nature of that process remains shrouded in secrecy.
The Lagos-Calabar highway could potentially be a game-changer for the country’s economy and connectivity between key regions. But public confidence in its prudent and ethical execution is already on shaky ground due to the persistent obscurity around key aspects like the real costs, financing arrangements and the murky contract award.
If the Tinubu administration wants to show it is truly an advocate of transparency and accountability, it needs to be much more forthcoming about this project’s particulars. The Nigerian people have a right to full visibility into how their money is being spent on such a consequential endeavor. Anything less will only fuel concerns that the new government could be recycling the same old habits of opaque deal-making and lack of due process that has tainted so many similar initiatives in the past.
Reference
Lagos-Calabar coastal highway costs N4bn per kilometre – Umahi published in Punch By Damilola Aina