The Presidency has replied former President Olusegun Obasanjo who described the Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway as a waste and fraudulent project, saying he was being jealous of President Bola Tinubu.
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, speaking in Akure, Ondo State, said, “His peers are jealous and angry but that means he is doing very well, especially on what nobody has been able to do.
“The project is not wasteful and corrupt. I have read on social media where people were saying that why is the government or the contractor not explaining, but as the Minister of Works, I am qualified to explain the project.
“It is natural and normal for people to criticise, but I’ve run the benefits of the project and the cost analysis. The jobs are already done about 70 per cent and the project will bring a lot of prosperity to the citizens. I’ll ask those criticising it not to follow the road.”
According to Umahi, the first section of the project would be completed next year, Umahi said “The project is transparent; it is great in return of investment. I want to urge everyone to ignore distractions
In response to the criticismS, Presidential spokesperson, Sunday Dare, told a Television Continental crew that the N15.6tn coastal highway was a visionary legacy project with enormous economic potential.
Another spokesperson of Tinubu Temitope Ajayi, in a post on X, said “Former President Obasanjo seems to see himself as the only Nigerian created by God who knows what is good for Nigeria per time.
“If, as President for eight years, he couldn’t fix the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and Lagos-Abeokuta road, we can’t take his latest view on the Lagos-Calabar highway as well-informed.”
The former president also rated former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration as the worst in Nigeria’s democratic history.
Obasanjo, however, said the current government of President Bola Tinubu appears to be following the same path of misgovernance and corruption and may surpass Buhari’s record.
The former president made these assertions in the first chapter of his newly released book, Nigeria: Past and Future.
In the book, Obasanjo particularly criticised Buhari for failing to live up to the ideals he once championed as a military ruler in 1983.
He recalled how Buhari justified his coup against the civilian administration of Alhaji Shehu Shagari by condemning corruption and electoral malpractice, and accused Buhari of having headed the worst civil government in Nigeria.
Obasanjo said in 1983 while explaining why the democratically-elected government of the late Alhaji Shehu Shagari was toppled by the military, Gen Buhari (retd) had cited mismanagement of public funds hurting and making the country’s economy to be weak, lack of credible polls, among others as the reason for the military take-over.
