The Minister of Works, David Umahi, has said the government is constructing the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway at a total cost of N4bn per kilometre and not the N8bn per km reportedly claimed by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

This indicates that the total project will be completed at the cost of N2.8trn.

The minister also dismissed claims that the project didn’t follow the due procurement process, stating that the contract was awarded on a counter-funding basis and not on a Public-Private Partnership as widely claimed.

Umahi disclosed this information when he appeared as a guest on the Television Continental News Hour programme on Wednesday in Lagos.

Last week, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 general election, Atiku Abubakar, questioned President Bola Tinubu administration’s decision to allegedly award the contract to Gilbert Chagoury’s Hitech without competitive bidding, daring the president to disclose the full cost of the Lagos-Calabar highway project.

He also wondered why the Tinubu administration released N1.06tn for the pilot phase, or six per cent of the project, which begins at Eko Atlantic and is expected to terminate at the Lekki Deep Sea Port.

But responding in a statement on Tuesday, Umahi explained that despite the soaring costs of materials in the construction industry due to commodity price inflation and supply chain disruptions, the ministry is committed to prudence, promising to reveal the true cost.


However, in the interview, Umahi confirmed that the project would be completed within eight years, stating that with the use of concrete pavement on the four-lane carriageway, the project costs N4bn per km.

He also explained that although N1.06tn was appropriated, the full amount had not been disbursed.

The minister explained, “People are just building castles without knowledge and they don’t know figures, I will run the figures for you. We are going to compare the cross-section of the one the former vice president mentioned that was renegotiated for $11.1bn for 700 km. So you have to now ask what was there to be constructed. And what was there to be constructed is the only available design from NDDC. They had designed the entire 700 km but we are not following exactly that pattern or right of way. We have a different modification. The original design had two carriageways on each side of the road with four lanes.

“And in the middle, they did not provide for the train track. It’s just going to be a water-collecting basin. But the coastal road we are constructing has a total of 10 lanes, you know, not only that it has a total of 10 lanes, it also have what we called shoulders. And the total shoulders can be put at about 23 metres. So when you put the total concrete pavement we are doing, it’s about 59 metres. When you put the total flexible pavement that he quoted it’s about 23 metres.


“And so when you run the figures, you now find out that under his calculation, it is giving you about over N19bn per kilometre. Now if you divide it by the 23 kilometres that they are doing, it is about 2.225 times a standard superhighway carriageway, which is N11.55bn. Whereas what we are doing, if you divide it, you get N5.167bn, So when you now divide using our 1.067, you get about N4bn/km. If you go back to what he has quoted, you will get over N8bn. So using concrete, which should be more expensive because of the kind of terrain we have, and using flexible pavement, which shouldn’t stand the coastal route, you will find out that our cost is N4bn instead of the N8bn claimed by the former vice president.

On the mode of the construction process, the former Ebonyi governor explained that the administration never envisaged the project under a Private Public Partnership arrangement but under an Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Finance programme as currently used on the Abuja- Markurdi road project.

He said, “This administration never envisaged the project under Private Public Partnership. It has always been under engineering, procurement, construction and finance. And so under this kind of arrangement, as you have on the Abuja to Makurdi road project, the federal government is required to pay a certain amount for counterpart funding. And so in this particular project of Abuja to Makurdi, which is being handled by China Harbour, the government is paying 50 per cent counterpart funding. Then you have also from Makurdi to 9th Mile in Enugu state, where we are also paying 50 per cent counterpart funding. So, there’s a marked difference between PPP and EPC plus F. And in this particular project, there will be a negotiated counterpart funding of between 15 and 30 per cent

“When I was a governor, I had the African Development Bank fund a project through counterpart funding and I used some of the money to build some sections of the road. So part of what we are constructing under sections one, two and three currently funded by the federal government will fall under the percentage counterpartfunding. When we finalise the negotiation, it will be between 15 per cent and 30 per cent.

But findings by our correspondent showed that the statement is contrary to claims made by the minister on September 23, 2023, when he unveiled the design plan for the project.

Speaking to journalists, the minister also said Hitech Construction would fund the project under the Public-Private Partnership model.

Umahi said, “Let me announce that this project is under PPP. The Hitech group are going to look for the money. They have already found the money and that is the good news because we don’t waste our time talking and holding meetings and wasting resources.”

“We are engaging seriously because we have seen the financial capacity and capability of Hitech and this project is going to be delivered in phases. Any section that we complete, we will toll it and then business and transportation will start.”

Continuing, the works minister said the constructing company was only invited by the ministry based on their pedigree to construct the roads, adding that there was no public bidding process for the project.

“We followed all procurement acts and the act permits the Federal Ministry of Works to invite a company that has specialised skill in a particular work. For instance, we have some problems on the Third Mainland Bridge with some underwater works and whom did we invite? We invited Julius Berger because they have the skill to the exclusive rights of theirs and we submitted a bid for it and we negotiated and awarded the job. Of course, we ran through the Bureau of Public Procurement and of course also to the Federal Executive Council. So it followed due process,” Umahi concluded.


https://punchng.com/lagos-calabar-coastal-highway-costs-n4bn-per-kilometre-umahi/?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social

okoo

Umahi has just been told to say anything to cover the massive fraud being perpetuated by Tinubu through this white elephant project.

First, they said this project would be at no cost to the federal government. Now, having been caught with the approval of N1.6trn for the same project you claimed was at no cost to the federal government, you now turn around to claim that it's under the PPP. 

Gilbert Chagoury, the owner of Hitech Construction, is a known ally of Tinubu. Both have been involved in shady and dubious deals. The construction firm handling this huge project is notorious for abandoning projects. They abandoned the 50-kilometer Lekki-Epe Expressway despite installing two toll gates along that axis.

Unahi, all these stories are nothing to us. Nobody asked about the shoulder abi shoulder pad. The questions are:
1. Why was the project not subjected to the FF procurement process? Who else bidded?
2. What is the total cost of the project in $ terms?
3. Why are you using the Chagoury family business to construct a project that you made to start from the same family's business location -Eko Atlantic?
4. What informed your decision to pay advance fee for N1.6T for what only you and Tinubu know about?
5. Are you using gold to pave the road that you are paying N4 billion per kilometer?

Tinubu is a BIG Thief. Come 2027, we MUST take back Nigeria so that we can probe every KOBO stolen by APC and jail all perpetrators, including Buhari and Tinubu. If they die before that, we will clean rmtheir families of all they stole.

Were ( past tense of was) sounds same as

Were ( someone with kolomental).

N4bn per kilometer, na 16 lanes road?

4 bill .. per kilo

Of what economic importance is this to an average Nigeria from south ..

Lagos Kano railway is much more of importance and needed than this legit siphoning..

Yet them abandon am ..

Apc and bingos .. we dey greet

700km road. How many decades will they finish the project?

Criminals looting in looting spree under the guise of capital projects. This is how Dave Umahi wasted Ebonyi state resources building an expensive airport that has no bearing on the economic life of the state

Even the 4b is a rip off. These guys don't rate us at all

If total cost is 2.8 trillion and first phase which starts and end in lagos is 1.06. That means the remaining project will cost 1.74 trillion. How is this even project

Validated:
Unahi, all these stories are nothing to us. Nobody asked about the shoulder abi shoulder pad. The questions are:
1. Why was the project not subjected to the FF procurement process? Who else bidded?
2. What is the total cost of the project in $ terms?
3. Why are you using the Chagoury family business to construct a project that you made to start from the same family's business location -Eko Atlantic?
4. What informed your decision to pay advance fee for N1.6T for what only you and Tinubu know about?
5. Are you using gold to pave the road that you are paying N4 billion per kilometer?

Tinubu is a BIG Thief. Come 2027, we MUST take back Nigeria so that we can probe every KOBO stolen by APC and jail all perpetrators, including Buhari and Tinubu. If they die before that, we will clean rmtheir families of all they stole.

Cry me a river baby...


Town cryer need for 8 - 5pm job

Work from home

And then after two months the roads would be potholes headquarters... Generation without God

Still too expensive

Na wa oo

4B per kilometer ..

We deserve to suffer

Obi will not build this road more than 200b and in 2-3 years max

helinues:
Were ( past tense of was) sounds same as

Were ( someone with kolomental).

N4bn per kilometer, na 16 lanes road?

It's 10 lanes of thick concrete road highway with train lines in the middle of 5 lanes on each side.

Any project for the southern part of Nigeria is acceptable, Nigeria would not get money from the South and feed/do build roads in the North.
Buhari really showed Southern part shage pro max

Structures of criminality

COMRADES, still there is neither transparency nor accountability in this statement

The moment I saw Hitech construction, I know say this contract and for embezzlement. They gave Hitech reported owned by a very close ally and confidant of BAT without any form of competitive bidding speaks a lot.

Hmmm, by the time this government is through with Nigeria, there will be nothing left in the country again. We dey look.

#4b for 1 kilometer , hmmmmm

Is better this people give us train tracks from Lagos to east than this, is more profitable to Nigeria but as you know it will never work they will better use the money to construct load to Lome than use it for anything that will benefit south east just like buhari and Niger.

Plus kickbacks?




What an overbloated budget for Tinubu's Lebanese friends to help him siphon

Zulu11zulu:
Is better this people give us train tracks from Lagos to east than this, is more profitable to Nigeria but as you know it will never work they will better use the money to construct load to Lome than use it for anything that will benefit south east just like buhari and Niger.

And to you, South East is all you can think of? The South South that is involved should be sideline, abi?

We've had one from that you people don't appreciate from the South West to the South East; this is from South West to South South, deal with it.

Ofunaofu:
Umahi has just been told to say anything to cover the massive fraud being perpetuated by Tinubu through this white elephant project.

First, they said this project would be at no cost to the federal government. Now, having been caught with the approval of N1.6trn for the same project you claimed was at no cost to the federal government, you now turn around to claim that it's under the PPP. 

Gilbert Chagoury, the owner of Hitech Construction, is a known ally of Tinubu. Both have been involved in shady and dubious deals. The construction firm handling this huge project is notorious for abandoning projects. They abandoned the 50-kilometer Lekki-Epe Expressway despite installing two toll gates along that axis. 

1. 6trn is not the total cost. It is the amount for the first phase which is about 7 kilometers.

In Umahi we trust. A befiting future Nigerian President of Igbo extraction.

@topic.

It's amazing how Atiku is examining everything the Tinubu Governent does with a microscope and fine toothcomb.

Ironic his sense of patriotism and dedication to playing opposition is only deployable under a Southern President yet went totally missing in 8 years under Buhari. Ditto for most Northern leaders also.

It is obvious Northern leaders are very partisan with a very troubling and inordinate sense of entitlement, They only want Nigeria to operate their own way which will always be inimical to what is best for our nation.

The conduct of Atiku and Norrhern leaders under Tinubu, when they let Buhari do as he pleased for 8 years, is extremely dissapointing and worrying.

It only reinforce the popular opinion that Northerners are not and cannot be progressive. Their conduct is the main reason Yorubas are unequivocally insistent on regional autonomy today and are determined not to be dissuaded.

Juliusganduje:
1. 6trn is not the total cost. It is the amount for the first phase which is about 7 kilometers.

The entire highway from Lagos to Calabar is 700 km, and the total cost is N2.8 trillion.

From what you just posted, N1.6 trillion covers only 7 kilometers. Can you say with confidence that the balance of N1.74 trillion will cover the remaining 674 kilometers?

Just be truthful.

Ofunaofu:


The entire highway from Lagos to Calabar is 700 km, and the total cost is N2.8 trillion.

From what you just posted, N1.6 trillion covers only 7 kilometers. Can you say with confidence that the balance of N1.74 trillion will cover the remaining 674 kilometers?

Just be truthful.

You don't even know the origin of what you are reacting at. I doubt l if you know who accused Tinubu of handling this project in utmost secrecy and how much he quoted that Tinubu is fleecing Nigeria through this project. Just rushing to be the first to comment.

Juliusganduje:
You don't even know the origin of what you are reacting at. I doubt l if you know who accused Tinubu of handling this project in utmost secrecy and how much he quoted that Tinubu is fleecing Nigeria through this project.

Why avoiding my question

Here is the question, answer it

Ofunaofu:


The entire highway from Lagos to Calabar is 700 km, and the total cost is N2.8 trillion.

From what you just posted, N1.6 trillion covers only 7 kilometers. Can you say with confidence that the balance of N1.74 trillion will cover the remaining 674 kilometers?

Just be truthful.

Ofunaofu:


Why avoiding my question

Here is the question, answer it

I'm done with you.

Ofunaofu:
Umahi has just been told to say anything to cover the massive fraud being perpetuated by Tinubu through this white elephant project.

First, they said this project would be at no cost to the federal government. Now, having been caught with the approval of N1.6trn for the same project you claimed was at no cost to the federal government, you now turn around to claim that it's under the PPP. 

Gilbert Chagoury, the owner of Hitech Construction, is a known ally of Tinubu. Both have been involved in shady and dubious deals. The construction firm handling this huge project is notorious for abandoning projects. They abandoned the 50-kilometer Lekki-Epe Expressway despite installing two toll gates along that axis. 

White Elephant ko Pink Whale ni. Why dont you try and educate yourself before talking ignorant drivel out of nothing but hatred for personalities, like Tinubu, and ethnicities like the Yorubas.

You people are alway driven to talk out of extreme hatred coupled with the most ridiculous display of ignorance.

So you know more than the many expert who have sung the praises of this highway to death? It would help if you start reading weighty reports from business and economic newssources targeted at intelligent folks and experts instead of Gistlover type garbage.

You people are just hateful beyond redemption and irredeemably toxic.

Keegan:


And to you, South East is all you can think of? The South South that is involved should be sideline, abi?

We've had one from that you people don't appreciate from the South West to the South East; this is from South West to South South, deal with it.

so it will jumb south south to south east how you people think sometimes.

When Buhari was perpetuating same criminality through useless rail network construction from North to Niger Republic, northerners didn't see anything wrong with that.

Today, someone from the South is perpetuating same criminality, nobody should criticize it. What's good for the North is good for the South.

😋😋😋