Coastal Highway: Tinubu Faces Scrutiny As Atiku Queries Award of Contract To President’s Business Partner, Chagoury, Without Official Bidding

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has come under fire for the cost of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, as former Vice President and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has challenged the Nigerian leader to come clean about the project’s total cost.

Atiku said in a statement on Tuesday that the administration is playing hide and seek over the status of the project, which he claims was awarded to the president’s business partner without a competitive bid, and that Tinubu cannot continue to remain silent on how much public funds would be spent on the project at a time when citizens are facing dire economic challenges.

In the statement, Atiku’s Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, disclosed that the highway was awarded to Gilbert Chagoury’s Hitech without a competitive bidding process.

He also questioned why the Tinubu administration released N1.06 trillion for the pilot phase of the project, which begins at Eko Atlantic and is expected to end at the Lekki Deep Sea Port.

Remember that the Lagos State government recently issued notices of right of way to property owners along the waterfront, signalling the start of work on the project.

Atiku said it is unpresidential and disrespectful to Nigerians for public inquiries to be met with insults, and he demanded answers to six pressing questions.

“The Tinubu administration cannot continue to insult the public in response to inquiries. They must come clean about this project because Nigerians deserve to know the whole truth. As a result, I present six questions to the administration.

*What is the overall cost of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway?

*Why is the Nigerian government funding the project, even though it is a PPP?
*Why is the project taking off from Chagoury’s Eko Atlantic?

*Why is N1.06 trillion being spent on the 47-kilometre pilot phase?

*Why did not the National Assembly approve the N1.06tn?

* Why was not a competitive bid process used for the project?

* Finally, how did the Tinubu administration obtain both the design and the right of way in just 7 months, given that it claims the previous administrations of Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari never touched the project?”

Atiku requested that the Tinubu administration respond to the questions line by line, by the Freedom of Information Act, rather than taking the mundane and jejune route of “insulting their way out of every inquiry.”