Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has lashed out on the administration of President Bola Tinubu, branding its much-touted Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway venture as a “rip-off” and criticizing the federal government’s failure to ship tangible developments.
Lawal, a distinguished determine in Nigeria’s political panorama, aired his grievances throughout an interview on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a Channels Tv programme aired Friday.
In a no-holds-barred evaluation of the present authorities’s efficiency, the ex-SGF declared that there’s little to indicate for Tinubu’s time in workplace up to now.
“For those who ask me, ‘What initiatives has this authorities carried out up to now which might be seen to Nigerians and have impacted their lives?’ I can’t see any,” Lawal acknowledged. “In northern Nigeria, the place I journey incessantly, I don’t see any new or rehabilitated roads. Within the South-West, it’s the identical story.”
He cited the long-standing Lagos-Ibadan Expressway venture for instance of a recurring authorities promise that has seen minimal progress regardless of repeated price range allocations.
But it surely was the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway — a venture closely promoted by the Tinubu administration — that drew his harshest critique.
“Their so-called coastal highway is only a rip-off,” Lawal stated. “Each Nigerian is aware of it’s a rip-off. Even earlier than they began, we knew it will be a rip-off — and it has grow to be one.”
The Tinubu authorities had earlier commissioned a 30-kilometre stretch of the venture, working from Ahmadu Bello Approach to the Eleko Village space on the Lekki Peninsula.
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The commissioning was adopted by the announcement of a $747 million mortgage to help the broader 700-kilometre improvement — a transfer that triggered widespread backlash over the nation’s rising debt burden.
Critics, together with Lawal, query the justification for such large-scale borrowing within the absence of seen outcomes.
“You borrow cash from Europe, and earlier than it even arrives, it’s already spent over there,” he remarked.
“So, I don’t perceive — what can Nigerians see? The President goes to fee 30 kilometres out of 700, and that turns into a media occasion. What are they doing with our cash?”
The federal authorities has not but formally responded to Lawal’s feedback.
Nevertheless, the rising refrain of concern — particularly from inside the political class — displays growing public frustration with the tempo and transparency of infrastructure initiatives below Tinubu’s management.
As the talk intensifies over infrastructure, debt, and governance, many Nigerians will probably be watching carefully to see whether or not the administration can flip the tide or whether or not criticism like Lawal’s will grow to be the prevailing narrative.
