Lagos-Calabar Highway Project Is Not Wasteful, Shehu Sani Replies Obasanjo

Lagos–Calabar Highway Project Is Not Wasteful, Shehu Sani Replies Obasanjo

Former lawmaker representing Kaduna Central in the National Assembly, Shehu Sani, has stated that the N15.6 trillion Lagos-Calabar coastal highway is not a wasteful project.

PUNCH Online reports that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had described the coastal highway project as a wasteful and corrupt venture.

He also criticised the President Bola Tinubu administration for spending N21 billion on a new official residence for Vice-President Kashim Shettima.

Obasanjo made these remarks in chapter six of his new book ‘Nigeria: Past and Future’, which was unveiled last week to mark his 88th birthday.

He said, “State resources are captured and appropriated, with a pittance to staff and associates to silence whistleblowers.

“Typical examples of waste, corruption and misplaced priority are the murky Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road on which the President had turned deaf ears to protests and the new Vice-President’s official residence built at a cost of N21bn in the time of economic hardship to showcase the administration hitting the ground running and to show the importance of the office of the Vice-President. What small minds!”

Reacting in a post via his official X handle on Thursday, Sani said the highway project is not wasteful, adding that the funds for the project could have been stolen.

He wrote, “I don’t think Lagos Calabar highway is wasteful, taking cognisance that such amount of money for the project can be stolen by one man, as it happened in the CBN in the past.”