A former vice president Atiku Abubakar says the awarding of the contract for the Lagos-Calabar coastal road was rushed, accusing President Bola Tinubu of having a personal interest in the project.
Atiku made the claim in a Sunday statement by his media aide Paul Ibe, saying Nigeria has other priorities instead of the construction project.
“The awarding of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway was rushed; the environmental impact assessment report was not even completed; the right of way for the 700 km stretch of the highway project was not secured; it was converted from a PPP to a government-funded project within the twinkle of an eye,” he said.
“The N500m that was approved by the National Assembly for the project was ignored, while over N1tn was released by Tinubu’s administration without approval from the National Assembly.”
“To add insult to injury, this project that is being done in excess of $13bn was awarded without a competitive bidding,” Atiku said.
“From all indications, the so-called Badagry-Sokoto highway would be awarded in a similar fashion at an enormous cost to taxpayers purely because Tinubu has put his personal interest ahead of the Nigerian people.”
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Atiku claimed that since Tinubu’s son and his surrogates are on the board of a company owned by Gilbert Chagoury – the parent firm of the contractors for the coastal road – it constitutes a conflict of interest for the Federal Government to award the project to Hitech Construction Ltd.
“The former Vice President noted that Tinubu’s son, Seyi, is a director on the board of CDK Integrated Industries, a subsidiary of the Chagoury Group, which manufactures ceramic tiles and sanitary towels,” the statement read.
“Thanks to quality reporting by Africa Intelligence, our suspicions have been confirmed that Chagoury and Tinubu are indeed business partners and it has been formalized with Seyi on the board of one of Chagoury’s firms,” the PDP chieftain.
According to Atiku, the demolition of some businesses for the construction of the Lagos-Calabar coastal road sends a bad signal to investors about the country.
“Investors are seeing how local businesses are being treated and will not come to a place where their investments will not be protected,” the statement read.
“In saner climes, businesses such as Landmark would have been given at least two years’ notice in order for effective planning. But Tinubu’s eagerness to satisfy his business partners impaired his ability to coordinate the project properly.”
He also faulted President Tinubu’s economic reforms including the removal of fuel subsidy, accusing the Federal Government of being insincere with the handling of the economy.
“Tinubu has been globetrotting in search of foreign direct investments. He claims to have secured over $30 billion from various companies, but none has been forthcoming. Rather, all manufacturing firms have been posting heavy losses while some are exiting due to his poorly implemented exchange rate unification policy with even Aliko Dangote describing it as a huge mess at the recent annual general meeting of Dangote Sugar Refinery,” he said.
“The IMF in its latest report stated that Nigeria will by the end of the year become the 4th largest economy in Africa behind South Africa, Egypt and Algeria, a disgraceful development for a nation which was the largest in Africa by a mile when the PDP left the stage in 2015,” the former vice president noted.
“From falsely claiming to have removed subsidies to secretly paying billions monthly based on the revelation of Nasir el-Rufai, the Tinubu administration has shown a lack of coordination and transparency, failing to even explain to Nigerians why there is petrol scarcity across the country,” Atiku added.
