Former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s claims that the N15.6 trillion Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project is fraudulent and wasteful has been parried by the government of President Bola Tinubu.
In a new book written by the Obasanjo to mark his 88th birthday, the former President claimed that the project which has been on the drawing board of several administrations was conceived with the intention of ripping off the country. He also questioned the N21 billion approved by Tinubu for the construction a new official residence for Vice President Kashim Shettima
Responding to the charge President Tinubu’s aide on social media Dada Olusegun said Obasanjo was being hypocritical in his assessment of the project.
“By underplaying the importance of the Lagos-Calabar project in his latest book, President OBJ has not only affirmed to those who witnessed his administration’s several failures to address the needs of the country when he had the opportunity, but he has also put in written form, a position which generations to come will indeed question when the road that will end up as one of the most significant endeavors of any Federal Government in the history of the country finally becomes a reality,” Olusegun wrote on X social media platform
“It took former President Buhari just three years to deliver the first modern rail to pass through Baba’s backyard in Abeokuta. The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, one of Nigeria’s most important road projects, remained incomplete under Baba and the PDP for 16 years until Buhari completed it.
“Should we delve into the corruption that brought Nigeria’s power sector to its knees despite the claims of spending billions of dollars to fix the same under his administration? Or his failure to revive our refineries, killing our steel industry, and the fraudulent privatization of NITEL, among others?” Olusegun added.
He said the road projects will open up the country to more development.
“Like the Sokoto-Badagry Highway and Lagos-Abuja Highway, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road is a project that will change the economic landscape of our country for life.
“Former President OBJ must pretend not to be jealous of the master strategist who is rewriting the history of the southwestern presidency by fixing all that needs to be fixed across the country.”
