Former presidential candidate and Peoples Redemption Party chieftain Donald Duke has declared the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway financially unsustainable, predicting the project will stall before reaching significant milestones.
Speaking during an interview on Arise Television’s Prime Time programme, Duke argued that Nigeria’s current fiscal realities cannot support the massive infrastructure undertaking. He estimated the highway would not progress beyond Epe, questioning its fundamental purpose after observing extensive land reclamation activities along the proposed route.
“Nigeria cannot afford the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway,” Duke said. “I don’t think the road will go beyond Epe. And I think the road serves other purposes because I drove once on the road, and all I saw was land reclamation and all that.”
The former Cross River State governor contended that a functional road corridor already exists between Lagos and Calabar, having driven the route multiple times. Rather than constructing a new coastal highway, he advocated for rehabilitating the existing network.
“There is already a road from Lagos to Calabar,” he said. “If the road is poor, fix it.”
Duke framed the project within a broader pattern of misaligned government spending. He urged authorities to redirect resources toward critical social infrastructure, specifically electricity and Healthcare, citing data he attributed to the health minister regarding last year’s capital budget allocation for health.
“Last year, I think the capital budget that was released for health was barely 36 million naira, and this came from the minister himself,” Duke said. “That’s pathetic for a country of 230 million people. Not to talk of the schooling system that is hardly funded.”
The intervention adds weight to ongoing public debate over infrastructure prioritisation in Africa’s largest Economy. Critics of the coastal highway have consistently raised concerns about contract transparency, environmental impact on coastal communities, and opportunity costs relative to pressing human capital needs.
Duke’s remarks reflect a growing chorus questioning whether prestige megaprojects align with the immediate developmental requirements of a population grappling with power deficits, inadequate healthcare access, and education funding shortfalls. As the government defends the highway as a strategic economic corridor, the opposition perspective underscores the tension between long-term vision and present-day fiscal constraints.
