False Allusions – Presidency Clears Atiku’s Claims On Lagos/ Calabar Coastal Highway

The Presidency has taken on former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar over his assertions regarding the talk of the town Lagos – Calabar Coastal Highway.

The Presidency posited that Atiku has allowed himself to be led into a blind alley by his aides pointing out that the former Nigerian number two citizen “made false allusions, in his futile attempt, to denigrate and find faults in the audacious and transformational Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway project, which was recently inaugurated as one of the signature projects of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration.”

The Presidency addressed Atiku’s claims in a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Information & Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.

“The Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway has been rightly praised for the huge economic impact it will create and how it will be a game-changer in improving the quality of life of Nigerians, especially the economy of the nine coastal states it will pass through. Importantly, the road will boost agricultural and tourism economy on a grand scale” the Presidency reiterated one of the major gains of the project in the response to Atiku.

Accusing Atiku and his team of “badly” seeking to “nail the government”, the Presidency disclosed that it decided to “respond to Atiku’s misrepresentation of facts in matters of the coastal road if only to set the record straight so that unsuspecting Nigerians are not misled and misinformed.”

The Presidency emphasized that “we owe it a sacred duty to ensure Atiku and his handlers do not continue to spread disinformation”

Taking on the claims raised by the Presidential candidate of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) frontally. the Presidency explained that “contrary to the claims in Atiku’s endorsed press statement, at no time did the administrations of former Presidents Muhammadu Buhari and Goodluck Jonathan award contracts for the construction of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway to any company at any varied and revised amount. So the question of costs comparison does not arise. 

The contract that was awarded was that of Lagos-Calabar Coastal rail. The rail was designed as part of the standard guage national rail network. The contract was awarded on August 4, 2021 by the Federal Executive Council presided over by former Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN at the cost of $11.17billion. The contract was to be completed in six years. The project didn’t take off. 

“The Lagos-Calabar Coastal rail project has always been on the card. It was another testament of the failure of the previous PDP-led government that it could not get it off the ground in 16 years it held sway.

The Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway and Lagos-Calabar Coastal rail are two distinct projects…”

And insisted that “President Tinubu should be praised for having the courage to embark on this transformative project and not vilified as Atiku Abubakar unsuccessfully sought to do.”

Reacting to Atiku asking why the project is starting in Lagos, an area that would benefit the more, the Presidency stated that  “Atiku queried the decision to start the Coastal road from Lagos and not Calabar, oblivious of the huge impact such will make on export-import flow around the industrial zones, 

“We are at a loss as to what the former VP hopes to achieve with his assertion. Is it not a received wisdom that a thousand miles journey begins with a step? Whether the project begins from Lagos or Calabar, Warri or Sapele, what should gladden the heart of any patriotic Nigerian is that this important project that has been in the pipeline for several decades has finally taken off. “

Restating the current administration’s position that “President Tinubu as a leader and nationalist will continue to drive and propel national progress through infrastructural development across the country”, the Presidency urged the former the chieftain of the opposition party to desist from exercises that do not add to nation-building

The statement issued on Monday. April 8, 2024, advised Atiku and his team to engage in proper research to have a better understanding of their claims about the Lekki Concession Company.