Former Cross River State Governor and Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) presidential candidate, Donald Duke, has renewed his criticism of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, arguing that Works Minister David Umahi’s reported plan to divert part of the route to the East-West Road validates his concerns about the project’s feasibility and planning.
Duke insisted that the highway, as currently conceived, would struggle to reach Calabar because of the difficult terrain along the coastal corridor and the enormous cost of construction.
He argued that the project was more likely to serve as a coastal road linking Victoria Island to Epe in Lagos, questioning the rationale for describing it as a highway connecting Lagos and Calabar.
The former governor spoke on Arise Television’s The Morning Show on Thursday, where he also criticised Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri for defending the feasibility of constructing roads through the state’s swampy terrain.
“There is no Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. What we have is a Lagos Coastal Highway that will never get to Calabar. Minister Umahi’s comment on the terrain has vindicated me,” Duke said.
“Roads can be built in places like Bayelsa, but the terrain makes it prohibitively expensive. This project, from Victoria Island to Epe, is simply a land grab.”
Duke’s comments came amid an exchange with Diri, who had challenged his earlier position that the swampy terrain in Bayelsa would make the coastal highway difficult to construct.
The Bayelsa governor, through his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Alabrah, had described Duke’s position as evidence that he was unfamiliar with developments in road construction and infrastructure delivery in the state.
Diri maintained that his administration had constructed roads and bridges across swamps and mangrove areas, demonstrating that challenging terrain was not an insurmountable obstacle to infrastructure development.
“Clearly, he is not abreast of current developments in road construction and infrastructure development in our state,” Diri said.
However, Duke dismissed the governor’s criticism, suggesting that Diri was defending the project from a narrow regional perspective rather than considering its implications for Nigeria as a whole.
“And the governor of Bayelsa, if he did say so, I don’t know the fellow, but if he did say so, I think he’s just being a local champion,” the former governor said.
He added that his origins in the South-South did not prevent him from evaluating the project on the basis of national priorities.
“I’m from the South-South. I’m a Nigerian. South-South just happens to be where I originated from. But I’m looking at the totality of Nigeria,” he said.
Questions project’s affordability
Beyond the engineering challenges, Duke questioned whether Nigeria could afford the project at a time when the government was borrowing to finance infrastructure and the country faced significant social and economic problems.
He argued that the cost of constructing the highway through difficult terrain needed to be weighed against other pressing national needs.
“It’s just not feasible. We don’t have the kind of money to do it. We’re literally borrowing to even stretch Epe stretch. We’re borrowing. We can’t do it,” he said.
Duke also questioned the government's development priorities, arguing that claims about Nigeria’s economic size did not adequately reflect the hardship facing millions of citizens.
“We have the largest number of poor people in the world. We have the largest number of out-of-school kids in the world, then you turn around and say you are the largest economy in Africa. It is not true,” he said.
The PRP candidate maintained that the proposed highway appeared to prioritise the stretch between Victoria Island and Epe, rather than deliver the full connection to Calabar.
“The Lagos-Calabar Highway should be called Lagos Coastal Highway. It will not get to Calabar. The Minister has vindicated me by talking about the terrain. The project is so shady. We can't afford it,” he said.
He further alleged that land reclamation was a major motivation behind the project, pointing to the sand-filling activities associated with the coastal development.
“I think the idea behind the road was to give a coastal road from Victoria Island to Epe. To me, it's a land grab because they're sandfilling,” Duke added.
Raises concerns over route diversion
The former governor also questioned the reported decision to divert a section of the coastal highway to the East-West Road, asking whether the existing highway had been taken into account when the project was initially conceived.
“Now, they have said that they’re going to divert the road onto the East-West Highway. Weren’t they aware of the East-West Highway from get-go?” he asked.
His comments raised questions about the project's route planning and the extent to which existing infrastructure and terrain-related constraints had been considered before construction began.
The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is a major federal infrastructure project intended to link Lagos with coastal communities and states extending towards Calabar in Cross River State.
Its proposed alignment through parts of the Niger Delta has attracted debate over the engineering requirements and financial implications of building roads across swampy and mangrove terrain.
While Diri has defended the ability of his state to overcome similar construction challenges, Duke maintains that technical feasibility alone does not justify the expenditure, insisting that the government must consider the project's overall cost and competing national priorities.
The disagreement has therefore broadened from the question of whether the road can be built to whether its proposed alignment, financing and execution offer sufficient value to Nigeria.
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