Minister of Works David Umahi has warned that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway could remain unfinished if President Bola Tinubu fails to secure re-election in 2027.
Umahi made the statement during an interview on Arise Television on Friday, describing the 750-kilometre highway as a major initiative of Tinubu that requires continuity to be completed.
“If President Tinubu does not come back in 2027, God forbid, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway will be gone,” he said.
The minister maintained that the project remained ongoing and that its planned route had not been abandoned.
“The 750-kilometre coastal highway is intact and cannot be changed, and nobody has the powers to change it, because it’s already designed and it’s ongoing,” Umahi added.
Umahi Explains East-West Road Connection
The minister also dismissed reports that the Federal Government had abandoned the coastal highway in favour of the East-West Road.
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He said Tinubu had approved the reconstruction of an additional 400 kilometres of the East-West Road, stretching from Edo State to Cross River State, alongside work on the coastal highway.
Umahi initially said the President had directed that the coastal highway should follow the existing East-West Road corridor rather than create a new alignment through parts of the route.
However, in a clarification during the same Friday interview, he said the coastal highway’s alignment remained unchanged and that the government planned to construct a connecting spur to the East-West Road to provide motorists with an alternative route.
He described his earlier use of the word “divert” as a slip of the tongue.
Minister Cites Difficult Terrain In Ondo
Umahi attributed the proposed connection and construction challenges to difficult terrain in parts of Ondo State.
He said construction pits in the area were more than 100 metres deep and that suitable sharp sand was unavailable up to a depth of 300 metres.
The coastal highway is one of the Federal Government’s major infrastructure projects, intended to connect communities along Nigeria’s southern coastline.
