In recent times, there has been countless debates and touchy discussions on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway for so many reasons. These concerns which basically arose with respect to the amount the project will gulp to its holistic relevance, the attendant demolitions and loss of jobs and revenue to environmental disruption, etc are however not unexpected. The present Government must have ever before going into this audacious and ambitious project, considered all these very significant variables. Some high profile edifices such as the Landmark Beach Resort and others billed to be affected by the project equally heightened the discussions around this project with divergent trajectories of positions across the country. The hullabaloo also reverberated in certain uncomely comments from certain quarters, persons and interest groups.
However, no major milestone project in the mould of this Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, will come so silently, so unannounced and so uncelebrated (abeit divergently) in a multi-faceted and rapidly dynamic country like Nigeria. Therefore, this project is undeniably receiving the attention deserving of its magnitude and possible potentials.
A studied analysis of this beaming project touted to consume some amounts in the neighborhood of N15 trillion naira, reveals some stunning possibilities for the nation and its global relevance. Traversing through 9 states in the country, the project is a screaming announcement of a people in so many respects. The truth is that countries that have done world-class projects in any area of their economy, do so consciously, conscientiously, deliberately and deterministically, investing monumental resources into it. That is the story behind some mind-rendering infrastructure in certain countries such as UAE, USA, China, UK, Germany etc. The truth is that such projects are not for the faint-hearted and the mediocre. It takes a lion-heart. Therefore, if Nigeria must announce itself in the global space in ‘rocket science’ infrastructural development, this Lagos-Calabar Coaster Highway is a million times worth the candle. It is a barefaced entrance of a people in world-class infrastructural ingenuity and profiling. This project alone which is a curtain-raiser will headline Nigeria in no uncertain terms in cutting-edge road infrastructure and hospitality development across the globe.
The multiplier effect of this project is unimaginable, unquantifiable and largely unfathomable for a country in dire need of vibrant diversification of its economic matrixes. Apart of the unique transport system, the project will open up the sea side for all manner of businesses ranging from beach hotels and resorts, holiday inns, recreation centers, sea side estates and factories, fish port corridors as well as synergizing the hinterlands around the sea for commercialization and urbanization. It equally opens a link to other neighbouring countries such as Cameroun and so on. The comely ambiance of the sea scenery is soothing and healing for the mind and soul of the society. Tourism in Nigeria will surely take a turn as a result of this project because it will serve as a springboard for more FDIs (Foreign Direct Investments) and domestic investments in this sector and allied areas. Nicely and considerate enough, compensations are being extended to the affected and the project is evolving according to relevant concerns such as the adjustments to save so many ancestral homes and some critical underwater infrastructure as well as size restructuring. This project transcends every muddy politics and sectionalism. It is a peoples’ project; a peoples’ new story line.
With the benefit of both hindsight and foresight, this Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway will go down in living history as the most significant project of the Tinubu Administration, for so many generations to come.
The Minister of works, Engr. Dave Umahi needs no introduction when issues around exceptional milestone projects are discussed. He had inked legacies as a Governor in Ebonyi State and he is maximally poised to deliver significantly. Therefore, what he needs is the support of all key stockholders to globally “sign-post” a people via this project. He has already rolled up his sleeves and off to site. The job is on!
Dr. Igwe Oscar Obasi Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics and Deputy Director, Centre of Excellence on Root Crop Research and Development, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike.
