‘You Don’t Understand Figures’ – Umahi Replies Atiku Over Comments On Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway

The Minister of Works, David Umahi, has berated the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, over his comments on the ongoing 700km Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project.

Recall that Atiku had questioned the Tinubu administration’s decision to award the contract to Gilbert Chagoury’s Hitech without competitive bidding, daring the President to disclose the full cost of the Lagos-Calabar highway project.

He also wondered why the Tinubu administration released N1.06tn for the pilot phase, or six per cent of the project, which begins at Eko Atlantic and is expected to terminate at the Lekki Deep Sea Port.

The former vice president said the Tinubu administration could not continue to conceal how much public funds would be spent on the project at a time when Nigeria was still facing dire economic challenges.

But in a statement signed by his spokesman, Orji Uchenna, on Tuesday in Abuja, Umahi said the total cost and breakdown of the project will be made available to the public on Friday.

He described the analysis of the coastal road project figures and the economic importance of the all-important coastal highway project as a gross misrepresentation of facts and figures.

Speaking during his inspection visit to the ongoing rehabilitation of the Enugu-Port Harcourt dual carriageway, Umahi said Atiku’s comments were a ploy to mislead Nigerians by darkening counsel without knowledge.

Umahi also explained that despite the soaring costs of materials in the construction industry due to commodity price inflation and supply chain disruptions, the ministry is committed to prudence, cost-effectiveness, promptness, and quality delivery of road projects remain unmatched.

He said, “He (Atiku Abubakar) doesn’t understand figures. I am going to run figures for him to understand, and he will understand how prudent the administration of President Tinubu has been. He will understand how prudency is taking centre stage in this administration. The President has once queried me on the cost of ongoing projects nationwide. I had to analyse every basic rate of construction materials to arrive at our unit rates. I showed it to Mr. President. He still thinks I should bring down the cost of projects.

“At the same time, the contractors are crying that I am oppressing them so much by reviewing the costs of their projects downwards. They lamented that what they were getting before, they are no longer getting it now. They cried out. But when I run the figures, Nigerians will see what this present administration is doing.

“So, I’m not here to run the figures now. I will do that in a press conference on my visit to Lagos from April 10, 2024 to April 12, 2024.”

On the economic importance of the coastal highway, he stated, “I will tell you the economic benefits of the project and how the coastal road is tying the entire country together. It’s not tying just South-South and South-West. It is tying the North and South together. We are starting a project from Badagry to Sokoto, and we have a spur on this coastal route to that route and the African Trans Sahara Road that passes from Enugu to Abakaliki to Ogoja to Cameroon which has a spur to the North.

“His Excellency, former Vice President Akitu Abubakar, may not know that the third section of the project is starting in Calabar by July 2024.”