The Minister of Works, Sen. Dave Umahi, on Saturday clarified that he never said former President Olusegun Obasanjo should not use the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway when completed.
Umahi made the clarification during an inspection tour of the highway project in Lagos.
He reacted to some comments to the effect that he said Obasanjo should not use the road for describing the highway project as wasteful.
“The point is that the former president is not only my former president, he is also my father and he is my in-law; so, I have my respect for him.
“ I never said the former president should not use the road.
“He is not the only one among the few criticising the road project.
“ I said, ‘If you say the road is not good, you have a choice to use it or not to use it.’
“That is what I said. I didn’t say the former president should not use the road,” Umahi told journalists during the inspection tour.
The minister said that the 700km road project was never wasteful but a vital investment with huge socio-economic benefits.
“If you say the project is wasteful, it is an ambiguous statement. Is it wasteful in the sense that it shouldn’t have been?
“Is it wasteful in the sense that we are going to be earning carbon credit from the concrete pavement and from solar light?
“Is it wasteful in the sense that along this corridor, we are going to have windmill energy connecting all the communities we are going through?
“Is it wasteful that it is from Lagos to Calabar? Well, we have the Sokoto-Badagry Highway project, which is 1,068km,” he asked.
The minister added that the Federal Government was executing a 462km Akwanga-Jos-Bauchi- Gombe Road project, among other projects.
“ Why then single out this one to say that it is wasteful?”
He said that travelling from Lagos to Calabar through the highway would take only five hours, reducing travel time.
“It is an evacuation corridor; so, the amount that the Federal Government spends in doing transhipment will be saved.”
Umahi said that in the next six months, section one of the highway project would be completed.
“Is it wasteful in the sense that this road is going to be passing a number of existing roads?
“Is it wasteful in the sense that the Bua Refinery, this is passing through it?
“Is it wasteful that it is going to be an evacuation corridor for Dangote Refinery?
“I cannot see the sense in saying that it is wasteful,” he added.
Umahi also said that the project had nothing to do with corruption.
He said that Obasanjo praised his administration’s transparency and achievements when he was the Governor of Ebonyi.
“He is my father. If a father suddenly says that his son is corrupt, it is up to the son to say he is not corrupt.” (NAN)
