The immediate past deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, has expressed confidence that President Bola Tinubu will reposition the country, as the administration was tackling challenges confronting the nation.
Omo-Agege, who spoke to journalists in Warri, Delta State, at the weekend, on some pertinent national issues, premised his optimism on the track record of the president as governor of Lagos State, coupled with the pedigree of his present economic team.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Delta State in the 2023 election said the gradual bouncing back of the naira against the United States dollar and other international currencies was an indication of brighter days ahead for the country.
He said: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has told us that he knows what to do. When he said that before he became president, people thought he was bluffing. But some of us were confident because of his track record as former governor of Lagos State.
“By May 29, he would have been in power for one year. The bulk of the challenges are being addressed. For instance, look at the issue of the foreign exchange and the bastardisation of the naira. From day one, even before the President was elected, he knew that Cardoso was going to be Central Bank of Nigeria Governor and that Edun would be the finance minister.
“For those, who followed the activities of naira, everybody thought that it had spiralled out of control and that there was no way it could be controlled.
“In fact, there was a serious threat when the thing was almost selling at N2,000 to a dollar.
“But today, it has been reduced to basically a thousand naira to a dollar.
“If they continue at this rate, before you know it, we might even do better than it was before they came on board which is about N750 to a dollar.
“From day one of his assumption of office, we were very comfortable and certain of the economic team. “While we did not know those who occupy other offices, everybody knew from Cardoso, when Tinubu was governor of Lagos State, that he was one guy that could tell Governor Tinubu at that time that ‘this is A’ and the governor would not argue with him because he had so much confidence in him, also in Edun. Do we call it the Lagos formula? And it is working. I believe that in no time, everything will fall into place.
“Of course, we still have challenges with power, but I am sure that will also be addressed. Look at the major infrastructure that he has embarked upon here, especially in the South-South.
“This coastal road project is very dear to our hearts. It was originally conceptualised during the time of President Goodluck Jonathan but nothing was done about it.
“But now, we have a President from the South-West, who has decided that this road is very very crucial for economic well-being and expansion of Nigerian economy. “
“He has embarked on it, not intimidated in any way by the cost. Some others, right now, are questioning whether N4 billion should be used per kilometre but what they failed to understand is that this road construction is novel, we are not using asphalt, we are using cement.
“It is moulded for low or zero maintenance as it will be there in perpetuity unlike asphalt that washes off after some years.
“So, the President is doing a great job and Nigerians are going to applaud him soonest.”
Atiku Abubakar: Is it right to assume that we are on autopilot?
I have been inundated by reports of the absence of the president and vice president from the country. It is unprecedented that the two leaders will be absent from the country at the same time, especially now that the nation is faced with daunting challenges. The question that readily comes to mind is who is in charge of government at this point, or is it right to assume that we are on autopilot? -AA
Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road: Leave the talk, Let’s face the business.
By Dada Olusegun
The Lagos-Calabar coastal road project is undoubtedly Nigeria’s most ambitious transport infrastructure project since independence. In terms of scope, distance covered, and connectivity, not even the 3rd Mainland Bridge in Lagos, the 2nd Niger Bridge in Onitsha/Asaba, or the Abuja-Kano expressway comes close. It is simply a world-class iconic project.
Before I go further, I want us to take a brief trip back to history. The idea for a major coastal federal road in Nigeria was first conceptualized in 1955 by the then Federal Commissioner of Finance, Late Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, who hails from present-day Delta State. Okotie-Eboh proposed the development of a network of rail and road routes from Lokoja-Benin City-Koko-Warri-Onitsha to aid the movement of goods. Specifically, he proposed the Koko-Ogheye-Epe dual carriageway project that was to traverse Delta and Ondo states and terminate at Epe in Lagos. This road is basically meant to hug the coastal areas of Delta and Ondo states and shorten travel distance between Lagos and the Niger Delta and the rest of the Eastern region. The project did not take off in the first Republic.
During the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo as civilian president, he elected to commence construction of a variant of the coastal road from Warri in Delta State to Calabar. This was what came to be known as the East-West road. In 2010, however, the government of President Goodluck Jonathan through NDDC also awarded the Koko-Ogheye-Epe road to Levant Construction Ltd. The Lagos State government on its part during the administration of then-Governor Bola Tinubu was also independently planning to build a coastal road that will span the entire Lekki-Epe axis, which it foresaw as the next major economic frontier in Lagos and the country. Thirteen years later, the chief visionary of that Lagos coastal road is now Nigeria’s President. President Tinubu then decided to marry his Lagos coastal road vision with that of Okotie-Eboh’s Koko-Ogheye-Epe coastal road vision in addition to the thinking behind the East-West road to come up with a variant of the Lagos-Calabar coastal road that we have now.
What is the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road Project?
This is simply a 700km mega-highway that starts from Victoria Island in Lagos and ends in Calabar, Cross River State. It will pass through Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom states before terminating at Calabar. This coastal highway is the first of its kind in the world. First and foremost, it comprises a 10-lane boulevard with five lanes on each side of the dual carriageway and a standard gauge train track in the middle. Concrete pavement technology is to be adopted in the construction of the entire stretch of the road.
The Lagos-Calabar coastal road has two major spurs. First is the 1000km Badagry-Sokoto road, which will connect the South West to the North Central and the North West through the shortest route possible, terminating at Sokoto. The second spur is the Enugu-Abakaliki-Ogoja road going to Cameroon, which essentially connects the South East to the coastal road. This spur continues from Enugu to Oturkpo to Nasarawa to Apo in Abuja. Essentially, the Lagos-Calabar coastal road is an arterial road that connects the six geopolitical zones.
Synopsis of the Funding for the Coastal Road Project
The total estimated cost of the 700km Lagos-Calabar Coastal road project is put at N15.6 trillion. The funding model for the Lagos-Calabar coastal road project is EPC+ (Engineering, Procurement, Construction, and Financing) where the federal government would put up a counterpart financing of around 30% while the contractor funds the remainder. Last October, FEC approved the EPC+ model for this project in favor of Hitech Construction company. Going by the estimated N15.6 trillion cost for the entire coastal road stretch, the federal government’s counterpart fund is around N4.68 trillion. The federal government, in a bid to hasten the commencement of the project, decided to finance construction of the first 47km in phase 1 of the road project, which runs from Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island to the Lekki Deep Sea port. The contract sum of N1.06 trillion was awarded for this section by FEC to Hitech, and construction is ongoing with unprecedented speed. Whatever funding FG is providing for this section of the road will come under the FG’s counterpart fund. I must emphasize that this funding model adopted by the Tinubu administration is the best model possible, considering the country’s revenue size. This is a monumental infra project being majorly funded with private finance. This is possible because the coastal road is extremely viable.
Benefits of the Coastal Road
Most of the unnecessary controversies that have been amplified by some people over this coastal road project have centered on demolition of structures along the path of the road, as well as misconceptions about the funding model, with critics of the project having an erroneous impression that the federal government would fund the entire project. Little attention has been paid to the staggering benefits that the Lagos-Calabar coastal road would bring about. I want to briefly lay them out now.
– Job Creation: Critics talk about exaggerated job losses that may be witnessed as a result of demolition of structures on the coastal road’s right of way, especially in Lagos, but few pause for a moment to look at the immense amount of new jobs that this massive project will create, both directly and indirectly. Already, the project has started creating thousands of direct and indirect jobs courtesy of the actual construction work currently ongoing at multiple sections of the 47km stretch. The workers that would be part of this project are not ghosts; they are Nigerians. The construction of the railway component of this coastal road is another source of massive job creation. Hundreds of permanent jobs will also be required after completion of construction, as people would be engaged to carry out toll management, road maintenance, etc. New industries, filling stations, CNG stations, auto-mechanic workshops, shopping malls, hotels, etc., will dot the iconic coastal road axis while creating many jobs in the process. This is one of the direct effects of having that road.
– GDP Growth: The Lagos-Calabar coastal project is a very important project with unparalleled economic value. This is a road that connects Nigeria’s biggest economic zone, Lekki Free Trade Zone housing the Dangote refinery, Lekki Deep sea port, and many existing and potential industries to the rest of the south and the north via a 10-lane dual carriageway. The potential impact of this road on our GDP growth is huge, considering the fact that it will facilitate an increase in economic activity as well as improve ease of movement of goods and people and invariably ease of doing business. Like I mentioned earlier, the road will drastically cut down travel time between Lagos to the South-South and South-East to less than six hours through an alternative shorter route and open new corridors of development. With the 1000km spur from Badagry in the Atlantic coast to Sokoto on the edge of the Sahel, we would also have a North-South modern highway that smoothens land transport, connectivity, and trade between the north and south. As a growing nation that keeps expanding, it doesn’t make sense to limit ourselves to existing roads (which are equally getting massive attention by the Renewed Hope administration). We need to plan for the future. When the 3rd Mainland bridge was being conceptualized, many back then argued that it was not necessary or not a priority since there were already two bridges connecting the Lagos island to the mainland, but look at the importance of the bridge today. In fact, the Lagos State government has approved the design for the 4th mainland bridge – a more ambitious undertaking. That’s grand vision!
– Tourism: One of the most regurgitated lines by critics of the Lagos-Calabar coastal road project is that it would kill tourism (especially along the existing coastline in Lagos) and destroy our beaches (also especially in Lagos). How wrong they are! Contrary to this false insinuation, the most immediate impact of the new Lagos-Calabar coastal road is definitely going to be a massive boost in tourism. This is not even debatable. Every known major coastal road across the world is always a magnet for tourism. The Lagos-Calabar coastal road, which will be one of the best coastal roads in the world upon completion, cannot be an exception. The coastal road is not going to run exclusively on the coastline. For example, around the Eleko axis, the road alignment is not on the beach front. Even in the landmark and Oniru beach axis, after construction of the coastal road, the tourism value of these areas would skyrocket. It simply requires innovation by players in the tourism industry to make the most out of the coastal road. In fact, there are countless beaches along the path of the coastal road in Lagos, Ondo, Bayelsa, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom that can become Nigeria’s top tourist destinations. The Ilashe Island beach off the Lagos coast along the Badagry Creek with its beautifully arranged coconut trees and crystal white sand is one of such that can benefit from the Badagry spur. The Ibeno beach in Akwa Ibom, which is the longest sand beach in West Africa and stretching for about 30 kilometers from Ibeno to James Town along the Atlantic coastline of Akwa Ibom State, is yet another tourism goldmine that the coastal road can trigger its extraction. It will only take innovative thinking and belief. Sadly, many of our compatriots are instead exuding pessimism and pedestrian thinking with their opposition to this grand project.
As I conclude, I want to state that the hallmark of extraordinary leadership is having the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. A leader inspires the power and energy to get things done. He has a poorly developed sense of fear and overlooks the concept of the odds against him. His focus is not usually on the present nor on the obstacles that may stand in the way of his vision but on how to attain that vision by surmounting the obstacles. While many critics of the colossal Lagos-Calabar coastal road are busy extrapolating how many decades it may take to complete the project using other existing roads of different models to judge or how the funding will come, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is looking at the various pathways that will deliver the project. On the evidence of the pace of construction on the project sites, it is obvious that he has found many pathways. President Bola Tinubu is a visionary. He creates the vision of the future. He sees what others do not readily see, which is why people usually criticize his vision at the onset and later turn to embrace or even copy them. This is one of such times.
The birth of a modern Nigeria has begun with President Tinubu in charge and I have only one admonition for our dear compatriots who are still skeptical about this journey; Leave the talk, let’s face the business!
PRESS STATEMENT
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NOT CONSIDERING ANY FOREIGN MILITARY BASE
The Federal Government is aware of false alarms being raised in some quarters alleging discussions between the Federal Government of Nigeria and some foreign countries on the siting of foreign military bases in the country.
We urge the general public to totally disregard this falsehood.
The Federal Government is not in any such discussion with any foreign country. We have neither received nor are we considering any proposals from any country on the establishment of any foreign military bases in Nigeria.
The Nigerian government already enjoys foreign cooperation in tackling ongoing security challenges, and the President remains committed to deepening these partnerships, with the goal of achieving the national security objectives of the Renewed Hope Agenda.
Mohammed Idris
Minister of Information and National Orientation
06 May 2024
STATE HOUSE PRESS STATEMENT
ATIKU ABUBAKAR’S PENCHANT FOR DISTORTING FACTS
Former Vice President and Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Candidate in the 2023 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, is fast developing a reputation for distorting and manipulating facts for his self-serving objective of discrediting the current administration.
In his latest press statement, the defeated PDP presidential candidate made wild claims on a number of issues that need to be corrected so that the public will not be misled into accepting fallacies as the truth.
The President Bola Tinubu-led administration believes that every true and patriotic Nigerian, regardless of political differences, should work to promote the unity and economic well-being of the country and not delegitimise genuine efforts of the Federal Government to encourage local and foreign investments into the economy.
Contrary to Atiku’s claim, the Tinubu administration, within its first year, has attracted over $20 billion into the economy. While President Tinubu was in New Delhi, India for G20 Summit last year August, Indian business leaders committed over $14 billion in new investments. A substantial part of this sum is already in the country.
In an unmistakable vote of confidence in the economic reforms being executed by the Tinubu administration, foreign investment in Nigeria’s stock market has ballooned, from N18.12 billion in Q1 2023 to N93.37 billion in Q1 2024, an increase of 415%. The last time Nigeria saw such level of investment was in the first quarter of 2019, when N97.6 billion was invested. The market, since Tinubu came to power, has broken records and created more wealth for the investors.
During President Tinubu’s recent trip to The Netherlands, the Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, announced a fresh $ 250 million investment by Dutch businesses in Nigeria.
Different sectors of the economy, especially telecoms, manufacturing, solid minerals, oil and gas, e-commerce, and fintech, are attracting new Foreign Direct Investments from discerning investors who know Nigeria is a good market for bountiful returns.
We found it strange that Alhaji Atiku could accuse President Tinubu of conflict of interest in the award of Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway to Hitech Construction Company which he claimed is owned by Chagoury family because the President’s son, Seyi Tinubu, sits on the board of CDK, a tiles manufacturing company, based in Sagamu, Ogun State.
Nigerians should, by now, be well accustomed to Atiku’s hypocrisy on many national issues. Is it not amusing that the former Vice President, a man who openly said he formed Intels Nigeria with an Italian businessman when he was serving in the Nigeria Customs Service, a clear breach of extant public service regulations, is now the one accusing someone else of conflict of interest?
When he was Vice President of Nigeria between 1999-2007, he maintained his business links with Intels that won major port concession deals.
Was this not an abuse of office, a flagrant violation of his oath, that a company where he was a co-owner won major government contracts and concessions when he was vice president?
As Chairman of the National Council on Privatisation, he approved sales of over 145 State-owned enterprises to his known friends and associates and openly said during his failed campaign for the presidency last year that he would do the same, if elected.
It is important to state clearly that Seyi Tinubu is a 38 year-old adult who has a right to do business and pursue his business interests in Nigeria and anywhere in the world within the limits of the law. The fact that his father is now the President of Nigeria does not disqualify Seyi from pursuing legitimate business interests.
For the records, Seyi joined the Board of Directors of CDK in 2018, more than six years ago. He is representing the interest of an investor company, in which he has interest. He is not a board member because his father is a friend of the Chagourys. Information about owners and shareholders of CDK is a matter of public record that can be openly accessed from the website of the Corporate Affairs Commission and CDK’s. Atiku and his proxy did not need a little-known journal to recycle open-source information to make a fallacious argument. The Chairman of CDK and the highest shareholder of the company is respected General TY Danjuma (rtd). The Chagourys are minority shareholders in the company, and only one member of the clan is on its five-man board.
We wonder how Seyi’s membership of the board of CDK conflicts with Hitech Construction Company’s work on Lagos-Calabar Coastal superhighway.
Alhaji Atiku has been waging an unrelenting war against this all-important and transformative project for no justifiable reasons other than bad politics. Atiku knows that its grand success and other projects to be unfurled, such as the Badagry-Sokoto superhighway, will be a major boost for President Tinubu and finally upend his perennial presidential ambition.
If not blinded by political ill-will, Alhaji Atiku knows that the right thing for him to do is to applaud President Tinubu for the ambitious and audacious Lagos-Calabar Highway, which was authorised by the Federal Executive Council.
It is important to remind Alhaji Atiku that infrastructural projects such as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway are used to galvanise the economy. In the US, President Joe Biden has used his $2 trillion bi-partisan infrastructure deal to revamp decaying American infrastructure and inject life into the US economy.
How can an elder-statesman be waging a campaign of calumny against the economic fortunes and prosperity of a country he wishes to govern or trying to scuttle a project that will bring prosperity to nine coastal states and the nation in general?
That Nigeria’s economy is being reclassified by the IMF as the fourth largest in Africa is stale news. This happened because of the devaluation of the Naira and President Tinubu’s determined effort to set the economy on the path of sustainable growth. Under the progressive, bold, inventive, and innovative leadership of President Tinubu, Nigeria will bounce back to where it rightfully belongs as Africa’s largest market and biggest economy.
The Tinubu administration targets a $1 trillion economy in the next few years, with audacious economic programmes and critical infrastructure projects in key sectors . With revenue rising in trillions and the creation of the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Fund, which is poised to raise over N20 trillion this year alone, we have no doubt that the $ 1 trillion economy is realisable.
Bayo Onanuga
Special Adviser to the President on Information & Strategy
May 6, 2024
STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE
PRESIDENT TINUBU TO COMMISSION CRITICAL GAS INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS
In line with his commitment to significantly leverage gas to grow the economy, President Bola Tinubu will commission three critical gas infrastructure projects being undertaken by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and partners.
The projects support the federal government’s effort to grow value from the nation’s gas assets while eliminating gas flaring.
The delivery of the projects was accelerated from the inception of the administration in keeping with the overall objective of deepening domestic gas supply as a critical enabler for economic prosperity.
THE PROJECTS
The projects lined up for commissioning include:
(1) AHL Gas Processing Plant 2 (GPP – 2) – 200mmscf/d
This project is an expansion to the Kwale Gas Processing Plant (GPP – 1), which currently supplies about 130MMscf/d of gas to the domestic market. The processing plant is designed to process 200MMscf/d of rich gas and deliver lean gas through the OB3 Gas Pipeline. This additional gas supply will support further rapid industrialization of Nigeria. The plant will also produce about 160,000 MTPA of Propane and 100,000 MTPA of Butane, which will reduce the dependency on LPG Imports. The AHL Gas Plant is being developed by AHL Limited, an incorporated Joint Venture owned by NNPC Limited and SEEPCO.
(2) ANOH Gas Processing Plant (AGPC) – 300MMscf/d
The ANOH gas plant is an integrated 300MMscf/d capacity gas processing plant designed to process non-associated gas from the Assa North-Ohaji South field in Imo State. The plant will produce dry gas, condensate, and LPG. The gas from ANOH gas plant will significantly increase domestic gas supply, leading to increased power generation and accelerated industrialization. The ANOH Gas Plant is being developed by ANOH Gas Processing Company, an incorporated Joint Venture owned by NNPC Limited and Seplat Energy Plc on a 50-50 basis.
(3) ANOH-OB3 CTMS Gas Pipeline Project
The project involves the engineering, procurement, and construction of 36”x23.3km ANOH-OB3 Project. The Transmission Gas Pipeline will evacuate dry gas from the Assa North-Ohaji South (ANOH) primary treatment facility (PTF) to OB3 Custody Transfer Metering Station (CTMS) for delivery into the OB3 pipeline system. About 600MMscf/d is estimated to be available from two separate 2 x 300MMscf/d capacity gas processing production trains from AGPC & SPDC JV.
When commissioned, the projects will increase gas supply to the domestic market by approximately 500mmscf/d, creating a better investment climate and promoting balanced economic growth cumulatively.
Chief Ajuri Ngelale
Special Adviser to the President
(Media & Publicity)
May 3, 2024