Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has described the N15.6tn Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway project as wasteful and corrupt.
He equally slammed the President Bola Tinubu administration for spending 21 Billion Naira on a new official residence for Vice President Kashim Shettima, calling it a misplaced priority and conduit designed to embezzle public funds.
The ex-leader disclosed this in chapter six of his new book, ‘Nigeria: Past and Future’ where he painted the portrait and characters of chief executives at both the federal and state levels.
The book was one of the two new books unveiled to mark Obasanjo’s 88th birthday last week.
Assessing the two years of Tinubu in office, Obasanjo said it appears that the game of short-changing the over 230 million Nigerians would continue because “Everything is said to be transactional and the slogan is ‘It is my turn to chop.’’’
9News Nigeria reports that Presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, declined to react to Obasanjo’s criticism of his principal when contacted on Wednesday night.
The former President said the majority of those who have been opportune to hold leadership positions in the country as governors, presidents, ministers, commissioners even as local government chairmen are ill-prepared, satanic, self-centred and are all out to corruptly enrich themselves while the nation continues to wallow in abject poverty and condemnable underdevelopment.
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, had revealed that the 700km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway will cost N4.93bn per kilometre, stating that the contract was awarded on a counterpart-funding basis and not a Public-Private Partnership.
About N1.06tn has been released 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.
Many prominent Nigerians, including the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 general elections, Atiku Abubakar, have questioned the Federal Government’s decision to award the contract to Gilbert Chagoury’s Hitech Construction Company without competitive bidding.
