Tinubu presidency, Chagoury and the N15.6trn highway controversy
minister should focus on other roads that are in bad shape,” he said.
Also speaking to Daily Trust on Sunday, the President of the Nigerian Institution of Structural Engineers, Engr. Johnson Adegboyega, said while the cost of the project cannot be contested because of the terrain, the project is not a priority.
“Coastal roads are good, but you have to ask the question: right now in Nigeria, is that what is needed? Is that what will solve the myriad of problems that face us on a daily basis? The answer is no,” he said.
He said, “What we need to do is re-establish the industries and make electricity available. It is very sad that we import virtually everything. If you want to buy a car tyre now, everything in your car is imported. There was a time we had Michelin and Dunlop working in Nigeria, and Nigerian graduates and non-graduates worked there. Even the battery—everything is imported.
“So, assuming we have a trillion naira, should it be on the coastal road? It is only the government that can justify how they are going to fund it; they have to tell us because there are more pressing assignments for the government to do.
“If the cost of something is so high, you must also tally it with the immediate benefit or the longterm effect. You must analyse. In the short term, this is what we are going to get; in the long term, this is what we are going to get, and this is how it would impact the citizenry,” he added.
All roads important but coastal highway has many economic benefits-Minister’s aide
When contacted on why the government embarked on the project while several others were abandoned, Orji Uchenna Orji, the Special Media Adviser to the Minister of Works, one of our correspondents that all roads in the country are important, but the coastal highway offers a lot of economic benefits to the nation.
He said the road, when completed, has the potential to increase Nigeria’s GDP and trigger industrialisation, create trade and more safety.
“It is important to state that the road is going to be the biggest super highway in Africa in terms of the structure and solidity as we all as utility value.
“The moment it is done, it is going to attract foreign investments to Nigeria and it is going to trigger economic development. It is going to develop the potential of our coastal businesses, the sea and all of that. There are businesses along the sea that are richer than the ones on the road,” he said.
Asked if the project would not turn into an elephant project, he said it was part of development road map of President Tinubu and assured that it would be completed within the eight-year term of the administration.
“Once it is done, you can see the power of the person that has the spirit of the private sector, if you are talking about development and don’t have a way of getting the private sector to partner in the development of the economy, you will not be getting it right.
“But with this coastal, the concept has to do with private sector participation and it will make local areas of the various states to develop and the individual organisation will be able to build industries and factories along the coast. We have a spur from the zero end up to North, in Sokoto State, through a highway. The whole of Nigeria will change with the road,” he said.
Chagoury, Hitech owner’s relationship with Tinubu
Many commentators that have questioned the propriety of awarding the contract to Hitech have made reference to the close relationship between its owner, Gilbert Chagoury, and the president, with many insinuating that the relationship might have influenced the way the contract was awarded and the subsequent u-turn as to the way the project was to be funded.
Several reports acknowledged that the relationship between President Tinubu and Chagoury, a Nigerian-Lebanese billionaire styled as a financial adviser to the late Gen. Sani Abacha, dated back to when the president was the governor of Lagos State. The Africa Confidential reported that after an initial clash over the sale of Lagos State shares in Eko Hotels to Chagoury by the last military governor of Lagos State, Buba Marwa, Tinubu and Chagoury buried the hatchets.
After that early clash, Chagoury’s Hitech and South Energyx Nigeria, also a subsidiary of the Chagoury Group run by Gilbert Chagoury’s younger brother, Ronald, started getting contracts from the Lagos State government. Such contracts include the upgrade of the 49.5-kilometre LekkiEpe Expressway awarded on the Build, Operate, Own and Transfer model. South Energyx Nigeria was commissioned to take on the landfill and reclamation, then build a new city known as Eko Atlantic, a project President Tinubu has ‘proudly’ identified with.
Apart from this, the company has also been involved in several projects in Lagos State, some of which include the 8.75km Lekki Regional Road in Eti-Osa Local Government Area, which started in 2020 after it was awarded by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. It also constructed the New Ajah and Abule Egba flyover bridges, commissioned in 2017 by former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.
A check on the website of the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency showed that only the 2020 annual report was uploaded, which shows five major projects carried out by the company. They included the rehabilitation of Idowu Taylor Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, at a cost of N900,691,940.64; the rehabilitation of Adeola Hopewell Street in Victoria Island, Lagos (N1,361,503,447.38); the rehabilitation of Adeyemo Alakija Street, Victoria Island,
Eti-Osa Local Government Area (N1,042,090,322.68); the rehabilitation of Afribank Road,Victoria Island, EtiOsa Local Government Area (N352,011,052.39); and the construction of Regional Road Lekki in Eti-Osa LGA, awarded at a cost of N53,396,215,669.74.
But beyond the contracts to the Chagoury companies, the acts and words of the president have revealed that Chagoury has attained a very influential position in the Tinubu presidency. He was described as conseiller personnel (personal adviser) to President Tinubu in Nigeria’s delegation to the UN Climate Summit in Dubai in November 2023. Before then, immediately after Tinubu won the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and after winning the 2023 general elections, the president jetted off to Paris and held meetings with Chagoury.
Earlier this year, in a birthday tribute, President Tinubu described Chagoury as a ‘valued and treasured person’ who was ‘generous with his heart and resources’. “With friends like him, one can sleep with a still mind,” the president said.
Presidency parries question on Tinubu, Chagoury’s alleged closeness
When contacted for comments on the reported closeness of Tinubu to the Chagoury family and whether this had any influence on the award of the contract, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, told Daily Trust on Sunday that there was nothing new to such allegation, adding that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had earlier made a similar allegation.
“You don’t have a story. Atiku made the same allegation two weeks ago. You just want to rehash Atiku allegations, which Umahi has thrashed,” Onanuga said in a terse reply to Daily Trust’s enquiry.
In an earlier response to Atiku’s allegation, Onanuga had said the former vice president got his facts wrong in challenging the president on the award of the contract.
“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,” Onanuga had noted in a statement.
Recall that the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, had, earlier this month, said that contrary to insinuations in some quarters, there was no personal interest in the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project.
The minister had, on April 11, when he appeared on Channels TV’s “Morning Brief ” said: “When you say the project is about personal interest, there is a contradiction there because the former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, said the Jonathan administration wanted to do that project and put a cost at $12 billion. So, whose interest was that administration promoting and wanting to do the project?”
Many commentators that have questioned the propriety of awarding the contract to Hitech have made reference to the close relationship between its owner, Gilbert Chagoury, and the president, with many insinuating that the relationship might have influenced the way the contract was awarded and the subsequent u-turn as to the way the project was to be funded.
From left: Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla; Minister of State for Defence, Dr Bello Mohammed Matawalle; the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu; President of Dearsan Shipyard, Aziz Yildrim and his wife at the launch of 2 High Endurance Offshore Patrol Vessels in Turkey by the First Lady on Friday.