Anyone caught off guard by the administration’s decision to drop the N15.6 trillion Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway simply was not paying attention. The entire undertaking was an illusion from the outset, an attribute deeply woven into the governing All Progressives Congress. The Bola Tinubu presidency perpetually delivers breakdowns because it was never designed for authentic accomplishment. Much like the biblical builder who anchored his foundation upon shifting sand, an administration founded on deceit cannot sustain its grand illusions. Predictably, this monumental venture has unraveled in full view of the world.
Many observers recognized this outcome early on. In April 2024, as Works Minister David Umahi aggressively promoted the scheme, I publicly labeled it a work of fiction. I challenged him to examine his track record and consider the state in which he would leave the country’s transport corridors. Comparing this venture to previous unfulfilled pledges—such as Muhammadu Buhari’s phantom Abuja-Lagos Greenfield route and long-delayed thoroughfares like Enugu-Onitsha and the East-West corridor—it was obvious that an eight-year, 700-kilometer mega-highway costing N15.6 trillion, wrapped around an unbudgeted rail line to nowhere, was pure fantasy.
Rather than face reality, Umahi forged ahead. Just months earlier, he had pledged to overhaul the Lokoja-Benin link in half a year. Two and a half years later, that corridor remains incomplete and neglected. Umahi mirrored the posturing of his predecessor, Babatunde Fashola, trading in exaggerated competence while leaving behind half-finished commitments.
No citizen monitoring the numbers should have bought into the Coastal Highway narrative. The Tinubu government inherited 2,604 active road undertakings valued at roughly N13 trillion and piled on another 65 ventures. Following currency devaluation and fuel subsidy cuts, total road liabilities surged toward N20 trillion. Out of this, capital disbursements for 2025 hovered at a meager 9.7 percent, even as builders were owed approximately N2.2 trillion.
The price inflation is equally staggering. Reports from BusinessDay indicate that under the current regime, Nigeria pays an unprecedented average of N3.7 billion ($2.31 million) per kilometer of road, ranking as the priciest in Africa. For context, Egypt spends $1.6 million, Kenya commits between $300,000 and $1 million, and South Africa manages for as low as $200,000. At an estimated N4 billion per kilometer, this single highway carried a price tag exceeding the consolidated 2024 budgets of all 36 Nigerian states combined.
The engineering reality is just as grim. Studies indicate that the majority of federal routes laid over the last six years crack within six to twenty-four months, largely because pavement depth routinely falls between 30 and 60 percent below mandatory standards. Umahi’s own N1.589 billion concrete-paved Enugu-Abakaliki corridor, completed during his tenure as Ebonyi State governor, began fracturing in under ninety days—shattering his boast that rigid concrete technology would endure for half a century to a hundred years.
The collapse of this project is particularly galling because it served to obscure the abandoned Lagos-Calabar Coastal Rail. The APC originally campaigned on delivering that rail line within two years. Instead, the venture was stalled while substantial resources were diverted into non-physical expenditure. Between 2015 and 2023, the federal government cleared over $1.3 billion for consultancy and supervision services alone—including a $328.87 million package authorized in 2022 under then-Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi. Tremendous sums went to advisers, yet tangible infrastructure never materialized.
Ultimately, this failure is not solely about asphalt or rails; it encapsulates twelve years of systemic deceit. The APC pledged transformative progress, yet delivered retreat. It vowed to defeat insecurity, yet safety deteriorated. It promised to combat graft, yet became synonymous with it. The promises of 2014—millions of new jobs annually, world-class healthcare, modernized learning environments, lifting 100 million people out of destitution, downsizing the presidential air fleet, and guaranteeing electoral transparency—were abandoned. Aside from isolated completions like the Second Niger Bridge and sections of the Lagos-Ibadan transit links, modern infrastructure has remained largely theoretical.
Now, this failed project is being folded into the twenty-year quagmire of the East-West Road, another poorly managed venture lacking fiscal accountability. It echoes the protracted delays on the A2 corridor, including the Abuja-Kano stretch, which missed its advertised 2023 completion deadline and dragged into 2025. Bypassing regulatory safeguards and sound engineering doomed the Coastal Highway from day one. Given the scale of this deception, the only acceptable next step is a rigorous, independent public inquiry.
