By Bayo Wahab

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has branded the N15.6tn Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway project as wasteful and corrupt.

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

The ex-president described the new vice president’s residence as a misplaced priority, adding that it was a ploy to embezzle public funds.

Obasanjo said this in his new book, Nigeria: Past and Future, which was launched last week to mark his 88th birthday.

The Lagos-Calabar highway is a 700km project, and according to the Minister of Works, David Umahi, it will cost N4.93bn per kilometre.

Umahi disclosed that the contract was awarded on a counterpart-funding basis, not a Public-Private Partnership.

However, in his book, Obasanjo said the road project typifies waste and corruption.

He said, “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!”

The ex-president also slammed political office holders and political office seekers in the country, saying the majority of those in power are satanic and self-centred.

Obasanjo said, “Majority of those who have been opportune to hold leadership positions in the country as governors, presidents, ministers, commissioners even as local government chairmen are ill-prepared, satanic, self-centred.





https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/03/lagos-calabar-highway-project-wasteful-and-corrupt-obasanjo/