By Ikechukwu Samuel
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and Former Cross River State Governor, and Presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) Donald Duke has taken a swipe on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration over the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway, dismissing the 15 trillion naira project as an impractical “swamp” that can be completed in the life of the Tinubu administration.
Duke said the project will require “100 to 200 bridges” to traverse and arguing the funds would be better spent on electricity and healthcare.
The former Cross River State governor who was a guest on Arise TV said the project, recently renamed after President Bola Tinubu, has been dogged by controversy since its commencement in March 2024, with critics pointing to its astronomical cost, opaque procurement process, and questionable environmental and social impact.
“You cannot build a road on the coast from Lagos to Calabar. And you couldn’t even go through Bayelsa. It is a swamp, you probably have to build about 100 or 200 bridges to go through those swamps,” Duke said, noting that a road already exists between Lagos and Calabar that simply needs repair.
Duke’s argument for prioritizing electricity over highways is grounded in his broader economic philosophy that “everything is energy” and that affordable energy is the essential stimulus for productivity. “The sun is energy. The humankind started making progress when they discovered fire, which is also energy. We are blessed with all the known forms of energy from hydro to solar to gas to petroleum, you name it, recently to lithium,” he said.
The PRP Presidential candidate for the 2027 elections argued that making energy “very affordable” would stimulate productivity across all sectors, generating far greater economic returns than a single coastal highway.
As the former governor who transformed Cross River into a tourism destination through the Calabar Carnival and Obudu Ranch, Duke speaks from experience about what targeted investment can achieve. He notes that during his tenure, Calabar airport became the fourth busiest in Nigeria after Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, with nine daily flights. His point is that infrastructure investment should serve clear economic purposes and create productive capacity—criteria he believes the coastal highway fails to meet.
The coastal highway project has also raised concerns about political motivations ahead of the 2027 elections. Duke’s intervention adds a credible opposition voice to concerns, challenging the administration’s signature infrastructure project on both technical and fiscal grounds.
“Why build a new road through swamps when existing roads are crumbling, hospitals are underfunded, and electricity remains unaffordable for most citizens,” Duke wondered.
