If Coastal Highway Project Is Corruption, I Learnt It From Obasanjo — Umahi

The Minister of Works, Engr. Dave Umahi, on Saturday, urged former President Olusegun Obasanjo to stop making inflammatory and baseless statements not befitting a statesman even as he challenged him to explain to Nigerians why he said the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project was wasteful and corrupt.

Umahi made the declaration in Lagos while speaking against the backdrop of claims from the former president that the ongoing Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project was a wasteful and corrupt project.

He explained that the former president remained his mentor and political father who had visited him when he was the governor of Ebonyi State and applauded his transparency, saying if Chief Obasanjo, whom he considered father and mentor, was saying the projects he (Umahi) is handling as minister were corrupt, it meant that he learnt the act of corruption from Obasanjo, being his mentor.

Obviously saying that the former president lacked moral rectitude to make such a statement, he referenced the Siemens Power project, Nitel and privatization deals that were done under the former president’s watch from 1999-2007, but allegedly failed to achieve the desired results.

Piqued by the uncomplimentary comment by Chief Obasanjo, the minister said, “Is it wasteful that it would be an evacuation corridor for Dangote Refinery, deep sea ports and free trade zones? Is it wasteful that it would connect all existing roads infrastructure together? Is it wasteful that along the corridor, we would have windmill energy? Is it wasteful that it would help the Apapa Ports and other ports in Calabar.

‘’Is it wasteful that Dangote Refinery will pass through it? I am not seeing the sense that he is saying it is wasteful. When you say it is wasteful, you have not told us why it is wasteful, when you say it is corrupt, you haven’t told us why it is corrupt.

‘’The former president has been to Ebonyi many times when I was governor and he commended our transparency. Suddenly if a father says his son is corrupt, it is up to the son to say I am not corrupt and if the father is insisting that his son is corrupt, then he learnt it from his father.’’

The Minister said the former president merely bandied figures when he stated that the Lagos-Calabar project would cost over $11 billion to complete even as he stressed that the figures the president weaved together were not attuned with the economic realities on ground.

Umahi buttressed that the ongoing Lagos-Calabar project is one of the biggest road infrastructure of concrete pavement instead of asphalt roads that are prone to frequent destruction and potholes.

He advised the former president to channel his energy towards writing biographies and memoirs rather than publishing books to dismiss bold infrastructure that he couldn’t actualise when he was made president for eight years.

It would be recalled that the former President had disclosed 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 as corrupt elements in service to enrich themselves.

“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,” Umahi declared.