Local champion - Donald Duke slams Governor Diri over Lagos-Calabar coastal road

Peoples Redemption Party presidential candidate Donald Duke has described Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri as a “local champion” in a disagreement over the feasibility of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.

Speaking on Arise Television’s The Morning Show on Thursday, October 15, the former Cross River governor maintained that the project’s cost and the terrain along its route made it impracticable.

Diri had criticised Duke’s earlier assertion that constructing the highway through Bayelsa would be difficult because of its swampy terrain. Through his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Alabrah, Diri pointed to roads and bridges his administration had constructed across swamps and mangroves.

“Clearly, he is not abreast of current developments in road construction and infrastructure development in our state,” Diri said. 

 

Responding, Duke argued that the governor was considering the project from a state perspective rather than assessing its wider implications for Nigeria.

“And the governor of Bayelsa, if he did say so, I don’t know the fellow, but if he did say so, I think he’s just being a local champion,” Duke said. He maintained that his South-South background did not prevent him from examining national spending priorities.

“I’m from the South-South. I’m a Nigerian. South-South just happens to be where I originated from. But I’m looking at the totality of Nigeria,” he said. Duke questioned Nigeria’s financial capacity to complete the highway, citing the government’s reliance on borrowing for infrastructure.

“It’s just not feasible. We don’t have the kind of money to do it. We’re literally borrowing to even stretch Epe stretch. We’re borrowing. We can’t do it,” he said. 

 

He also questioned plans to divert part of the coastal highway onto the East-West Road, asking whether the existing route had been considered when the project was first designed.