By Michael Chibuzo
The former Governor of Anambra State and presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, Mr. Peter Obi has described the Lagos-Calabar coastal road project as unnecessary. Mr. Peter Obi who once said infrastructure does not grow an economy, voiced his opposition to the Lagos-Calabar superhighway mega project in a post on his X handle on Monday.
Mr. Peter Obi hinged his opposition to the project on the basis that there are numerous uncompleted roads scattered across the country, which according to him should be completed first before embarking on the monumental coastal road project. To an ignorant observer, Obi’s opposition to the Lagos-Calabar coastal road project may appear logical but on closer scrutiny one would realise that Obi’s take is one of the most ignorant posturing you can expect from a former public office holder, especially one who was Governor for 8 years and contested for President.
First and foremost, Mr. Peter Obi showed that he lacked basic information on the structure of the project itself and its financing model. The Minister of Works, Engr. Dave Umahi has on several occasions explained that this project is an EPC+ project where the federal government would put up a counterpart financing of around 30% while the contractor funds the remainder. The total estimated cost of the 700km Lagos-Calabar-Coastal road project is put at N15.6 trillion, which means that N4.68 trillion is the counterpart fund component of the federal government.
In October 2023, the federal executive council approved that this project be procured under EPC+ (i.e. Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Financing) in favor of HiTech Construction African Limited, which means that they were supposed to search for the funding.
The federal government has started with the first 47 kilometres, which it awarded to Hitech Construction company at a cost of N1.06 trillion. Whatever funding FG is providing for this section of the road that runs from Ahmadu Bello way in Victoria Island to Lekki Deep Seaport will come under the FG’s counterpart fund. Peter Obi feels N1.06 trillion is too much for the 47km section of the Lagos-Calabar-Coastal road, which is why he was listing ongoing projects he wants FG to rather channel the funds to and abandon the coastal road project.
However, one thing Obi failed to realise is that the ongoing section of the Lagos-Calabar-Coastal road is not so different in terms of cost when compared to many ongoing federal road projects. The 47km section is actually a dual carriage way with five (5) lanes on each side. When you calculate actual total distance by number of lanes, you would be getting 470km. So, Obi and others need to be told that the FG is actually constructing 470km of road by cumulative distance. This is aside the fact that the terrain is a challenging one that requires excavation and extensive sandfilling in some places.
To make a little comparison, let me use a road Mr. Peter Obi is very familiar with – the Enugu-Onitsha expressway. The Federal Government has been constructing that very important Enugu-Onitsha expressway for more than a decade now, in fact Obidients will always parade a section of the road partially funded by Obi’s administration from Onitsha head bridge through Upper Iweka to Odumodu as one of Peter Obi’s signature infrastructure achievements. Willie Obiano also constructed the Amawbia section to Amansea, which essentially passed through Awka the Anambra state capital.
Onitsha to Enugu is a distance of 109.8km. If you are constructing a dual carriageway on the road, that means total actual distance of construction is 109.8km multiplied by the number of lanes (in this case 4 lanes). It means the Enugu-Onitsha expressway is 439.2km in total distance.
Now let’s do a little mathematics:
Onitsha head Bridge to Umunya is 22.9km while Amawbia flyover to Agu Awka is 11.4km. In other words, 34.3km out of the 109.8km of the Enugu-Onitsha expressway had been reconstructed as at 2016. When you take account of the lanes, it means 133.6km out of 439.2km of the road had been done. Yet, the federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari and Fashola still spent some hundreds of billions on the road with funding coming from the N1.77 trillion Sukuk bonds offered between 2017 and 2021 as well as normal revenue inflows from FAAC. In the end, around 214km in total distance was constructed including completion of the one carriageway between Odumodu junction to Amawbia flyover as well as multiple sections within Enugu State.
By 2021, around 22km of the road (91km in total distance by number of lanes) was remaining and MTN was allowed to take over the completion of this remaining section in 2021 for N203 billion under Buhari’s infrastructure tax credit scheme. When adjusted for inflation following increase in cost of materials between 2021 and now when construction by MTN commenced, we will be looking at over N300 billion for the 22km. By the time you combine the total funds expended on the 108.8km Enugu-Onitsha expressway from start to finish, it will be nearing a trillion Naira.
This is the same amount FG is going to expend on the more challenging section 1 of the Lagos-Calabar-Coastal road, which has 10 lanes and a provision for a rail line in the middle. It must be added too that although Enugu-Onitsha expressway is an important road connecting the North and West to the South East, the Lagos-Calabar-Coastal Road with all its spurs is a far more important road. It is therefore funny for Mr. Peter Obi to suggest that the road should not be accorded high priority. This is a road that links Nigeria’s deepest Seaport and economically important important Lekki Free Trade Zone corridor to both the North and the East Coast with spurs to the south eastern corridor as well.
I think it is necessary at this point to state that Mr. Peter Obi has over the years shown he is incapable of grand visioning and rarely sees beyond the present. This is why he is not a fan of infrastructure not to talk of quality infrastructure work. Obi is a minimalist in terms of projects and is never known to have embarked on any monumental project as Governor. So, his opposition to the monumental coastal road project is hardly surprising. His minimalist inclination is evident in Anambra State where you will hardly see any surviving great legacy of Obi in any sector especially in the area of infrastructure.
Obi talks about abandoning projects as if the Tinubu administration or the Buhari administration before it is known for project abandonment. It is on record that abandoning projects is a legacy of Peter Obi’s former party, the PDP. The APC inherited hundreds of abandoned projects from the PDP in 2015. The Buhari administration despite paucity of funds was able to reactivate many of these projects and thanks to innovative financial engineering, the second Niger bridge is standing today, the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Abuja-Kano (which Obi listed), PH-Enugu, Enugu-Onitsha, Illorin-Jebba, Loko-Oweto bridge and many other roads across the six geopolitical zones have seen unprecedented funding with many of these roads nearing completion simultaneously. All these happened under 8 years. It is therefore petty for Obi to predict like an enemy of progress that the Lagos-Calabar-Coastal road may take 30 years to complete.
Nigeria will disappoint the pessimistic and ignorant Peter Obi on this project. The Tinubu administration is already showing uncommon speed in carrying out infrastructure projects. For example, the 3rd Mainland bridge rehabilitation was completed in record time, the 9th mile-Oturkpo-Makurdi Road that Obi was lamenting about is already undergoing reconstruction if only Obi cared to find out, MTN is steadily funding the remaining sections of the Enugu-Onitsha expressway project and latest by next year, the road will be totally completed, same with the PH-Enugu Road, all in Obi’s backyard.
It is very unfortunate to say the least that Peter Obi is not a big thinker and do not have thinkers in his corners who could tell him that Nigeria can actually afford to be constructing and funding multiple road projects simultaneously. All that is needed is an innovative financing mechanism and this is what the Tinubu administration is putting place – building on the PIDF model and infrastructure tax credit scheme of the Buhari administration. Peter Obi does not think big, therefore he sees only impossibilities. I wonder the volume of tears, Peter Obi would shed when the Tinubu administration begins work on the proposed Lagos-Abuja superhighway. Wait for it!