‘From Where To Where?’ Makinde Questions FG’s Coastal Road, CNG Projects

The presidential candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Seyi Makinde, has questioned the policies of the Federal Government, including the Lagos-Ibadan Coastal Road and the Presidential Initiative on CNG & EV. 

Makinde, who is also the governor of Oyo State, spoke on Tuesday during the APM Presidential Campaign Organisation South-South Town Hall Meeting held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

“I have also told them, ‘You cannot keep complicating the lives of Nigerians’. Everything from them is mega. They want to do a superhighway from where to where? They want to do mega this and mega that,” the APM presidential candidate for next year’s election said.

“There’s a Presidential Initiative on CNG—it came to nothing. ‘Naira for Crude’ came to nothing. Has it translated to lower costs of transportation for millions of Nigerians?”

His comment adds to the widespread criticism of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road project, which is to connect Lagos — in the South-West of the ountry — to Calabar in the South-South and near the border with Cameroon.

It will run along the Nigerian coastline for 700 kilometres (435 miles) and is one of the flagship projects of President Bola Tinubu, who is seeking a second term in elections in January. The highway is meant to deliver on his campaign promises to “revolutionise” transportation and boost tourism.

“We have a road that will outlive all of us here,” he said at the inauguration of the first stretch of the highway, held the same day as his two-year anniversary in office.

But many are questioning the sustainability of this mega-project amid rising sea levels that are eroding the coast along the Gulf of Guinea and the soaring cost of living in the country.

Makinde Criticises FG’s Price Modulation Policy

Makinde also criticised the government’s promise to introduce a price modulation policy for petroluem products more than three years after the removal of subsidy on fuel.

“So now they say they want to modulate the price of petroleum products. They want to modulate the lives of millions of Nigerians. They want to modulate the destiny of the most populous Black nation on the face of the Earth,” the former member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said.

“My question is very simple. Let’s assume that we are not evil, we’re not smart—I’m not saying we’re smart—but provide for Nigerians your pricing template. We will see Nigerians that can tell us how to make it work for millions of Nigerians. So don’t complicate things and say, ‘This policy, that policy, we want to modulate the prices.’

“Give us the template. Once we have the template, we can point out the real figures and tell you how to make this thing work for millions of Nigerians.”