Donald Duke, presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party and former governor of Cross River State, has described the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway as a misplaced priority for President Bola Tinubu’s administration, warning that Nigeria lacks the financial capacity to complete the project.
Speaking on ARISE Television’s Prime Time programme, Duke predicted the highway would not extend beyond the Epe area of Lagos State. He argued that government spending must reflect current economic realities, contending that several ongoing projects do not represent prudent use of scarce public resources.
“I’ll bring this up. Take the Lagos-Calabar highway. I know the country cannot afford it,” Duke said. “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.”
Duke pointed out that an existing road already links Lagos and Calabar, a route he has travelled multiple times. He maintained that rehabilitating and upgrading the current highway would be more cost-effective than constructing a new coastal alignment.
“There is already a road to Calabar. I’ve driven from Lagos to Calabar several times. If the road is poor, fix it,” he said. “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.”
The former governor argued that funds allocated to the coastal highway could deliver greater public benefit if directed toward electricity and Healthcare. He criticised what he described as inadequate budgetary allocations to both sectors, citing a capital budget release of barely N36 million for health in the previous year, a figure he attributed to the health minister.
“Last year, the capital budget that was released for health was barely N36 million. This came from the minister himself. That’s pathetic for a country of 230 million people,” Duke said. “Not to talk about the schooling system that is hardly funded. So you prioritise, focus on your priorities, recalibrate your revenue system.”
Duke’s intervention adds to growing public debate over infrastructure spending priorities amid mounting fiscal pressures. The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, flagged off earlier this year, spans approximately 700 kilometres and is projected to cost trillions of naira. Critics have questioned its viability given terrain challenges across the Niger Delta and competing demands on the national budget.
The presidency has defended the project as a strategic economic corridor that will unlock coastal communities, boost Tourism, and reduce travel time. However, Duke’s remarks underscore concerns that capital-intensive projects may divert resources from sectors with more immediate impact on citizens’ welfare.
As the administration seeks to balance infrastructure ambition with macroeconomic stability, the debate over resource allocation is likely to intensify in coming months.
