Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has labelled the controversial Lagos-Calabar coastal superhighway project as a misplaced priority.

He said that in the Tinubu government, “Everything is said to be transactional and the slogan is ‘It is my turn to chop.’’’

President Bola Tinubu had last year flagged off the coastal highway project, estimated to cost about N15 trillion against the cries of Nigerians that the project was too expensive and that the contract was not thrown open for bidding.

The project, designed to stretch 700 kilometres and pass through nine states, was awarded to Hitech Construction Company Limited on an Engineering, Procurement, Construction, and Financing (EPC+F) arrangement, where the bulk of the risk falls on the contractor, and the federal government provides counterpart funding.

The Federal Government commenced the construction in March 2024, beginning with the first phase of the project, which stretches 47.47 kilometres from Lagos.

According to PUNCH, in “Nigeria: Past and Future”, one of the books released in commemoration of his 88th birthday, Obasanjo described it as a conduit designed to steal public funds.

Obasanjo said it appears that the game of short-changing Nigerians would continue because “Everything is said to be transactional and the slogan is ‘It is my turn to chop.’’’

He also tackled the government for spending N21bn on a new official residence for Vice President Kashim Shettima.

The former President said the majority of those who have been opportune to hold leadership positions in Nigeria are all out to corruptly enrich themselves while the nation continues to wallow in abject poverty and condemnable underdevelopment.

He said “How do you explain the situation of a chief executive, a governor, whose business was owing the banks billions of naira and millions of dollars before becoming a governor and within two years of becoming governor, without his company doing any business, he paid all that his businesses owed the banks.

“You are left to guess where the money came from. Having got away with that in the first term, he consigned to himself almost half of the state resources in the second term. He was a typical example of the goings-on at that level almost universally in the country with only a few exceptions.

“State resources are captured and appropriated to themselves with a pittance to staff and associates to close the mouths of those that could blow the whistle or raise alarm against them while in office and when they are out of office.’

“The ones that are criminally ridiculous are the chief executives that deceive, lie and try to cover up on the realities and truth of action and inaction on contract awards, agreements, treaties, borrowings and forward sales of national assets. Such chief executives are unfit for the job they find themselves in.

“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!”

-Daily Trust