Nigeria can’t afford Lagos-Calabar coastal highway, says Donald Duke
Former Cross River State Governor Donald Duke has criticised the federal government’s Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project, describing it as a misplaced priority that Nigeria cannot afford amid pressing economic challenges.
Duke, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) for the 2027 election, made the remarks on Tuesday during Prime Time, a programme on Arise Television.
He argued that government spending should align with the country’s economic realities, saying scarce resources should be directed towards sectors with greater impact on citizens rather than expensive infrastructure projects.
“I’ll bring this up. Take the Lagos-Calabar highway. I know the country cannot afford it,” Duke said.
He questioned the feasibility of constructing the 750-kilometre coastal highway through the Niger Delta, particularly Bayelsa State, which he described as largely swampy terrain.
“You cannot build a road on the coast from Lagos to Calabar. I mean, you can’t even go through Bayelsa. Bayelsa is swamp. Even Yenagoa, the capital, is swamp. You’ll probably have to build about 100 or 200 bridges to go through those swamps,” he said.
Duke also claimed the highway would not extend beyond Epe on the Lagos end, despite sections already completed around Cross River and Akwa Ibom.
“I don’t think that road is going to go beyond Epe, and I think the road serves other purposes because I drove once on the road and all I saw on the right flank going towards Epe was land reclamation and all that,” he said.
