Works Minister criticizes Atiku For Remarks On The Coastal Highway Project

David Umahi, Minister of Works

FORMER Vice President Atiku Abubakar's comments about the expense of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project under the Bola Tinubu administration have drawn criticism from Minister of Works David Umahi.

Atiku, the PDP's presidential candidate for 2023, alleged that the N700 km road project was granted to Tinubu's ally Hitech without competitive bidding and that it lacked transparency.

Speaking in Port Harcourt during his inspection of the Eleme-Onne Road and Enugu-Port Harcourt Road developments, David Umahi described Atiku's remarks as regrettable, claiming that the former Vice President had misinterpreted the numbers.

He declared, “I read something on social media credited to His Excellency, the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, on the coastal road.

“I am going to give him proper information. I will address a world press conference in Lagos. If there is anything he thinks is wrong with the procurement, he should approach me. He should leave the President alone.

“It is quite degrading on my part for him (Atiku) to think that a former party chairman, former deputy governor, governor for eight years, a senator, that I am not a stakeholder in this country and that I will do the wrong thing.

“So he doesn't understand figures and I'm going to run figures for him to understand and for him to understand how prudent the administration of President Bola Tinubu is.

“He will understand how prudency is taking centre stage especially in my ministry. The President had once engaged me on the cost of the project and I had to run the figures with Mr President. He (Tinubu) still thinks I should bring down the cost of projects.

“At the same time the contractors are crying that I am oppressing them so much because what they were getting better before they are no longer getting. So, Mr. Vice President, Atiku Abubakar must know that I am between and betwixt.”

Umahi promised to provide transparency and inform all Nigerians by disclosing the project's cost to the public.

In a statement, Atiku, via Special Assistant Paul Ibe, asked the Tinubu administration to reveal the project's cost rather than using derogatory language to answer questions from the public.

The speaker underscored the significance of transparency, asserting that Nigerians have a right to know the truth about the initiative.

He then put the government through six questions, “When I run the figures, Nigerians will see what this present administration is doing. I am not here to run the figures, I have seen the figures they are parading, but my figures are quite better than those figures and I understand this engineering.

“Both the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan and that of President Muhammadu Buhari, for one reason or the other could not do that.

“But this present administration will do it and I will tell the world the economic benefit and how the coastal road will tie the entire country together, it is not just the South-South and South-West. It's tying the North together.”