PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has appealed to Nigerians to be patient with him.
The president made the appeal at the inauguration of the completed Phase 1, Section 1 (30km by six lanes) of the 750km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway on Saturday.
The event was attended by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, Finance Minister Wale Edun, and second-term governors including Hope Uzodimma (Imo), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), and Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), among others.
Tinubu said, “I know at this stage, your expectation is still very high and our people are still going through difficult times. I take this opportunity to appeal to all Nigerians that the hope is here and it is realisable.
“You would be proud of the benefits, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Inflation is coming down, the corruption in the exchange rate is eliminated, the corruption in fuel subsidy is limited to the barest minimum.
“It is all for you the people, we are reducing the cost of manufacturing, and encouraging manufacturing locally. We give all incentives for everyone to abide by the principle. May God bless our country; may God bless Lagos State and keep our fighting soldiers safe.”
Tinubu warned developers, noting that development on land without approval would not be compensated.
“Let me at this stage warn all developers, the Federal Government reinforced the setbacks for the interest of our nation, development without approval will not be compensated. We have gazetted and published the setbacks, we are going to enforce it rigidly in every way possible,” he stated.
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, said the project was designed on a six-lane carriageway with a total corridor width of 60m.
According to him, only the landmark’s encroachment on the front shoreline was touched during the construction of the road.
“Mr President, I want to state that we did no harm to the landmark property. It is by your order that we should save as much infrastructure as possible even though they violated the gazetted route.
“The landmark infrastructure is intact, what went off was their encroachment on our front shoreline, and the Supreme Court ruled that 250 metres from the shoreline belong to the Federal Government, and so we didn’t do that,” Umahi said.
The minister announced that the President had ordered the governors of states with major Federal Government projects to give a minimum of 500 metres from the edge of the carriageway which would be part of the tolling arrangement.
He said by law, the Federal Government was not supposed to pay compensation for shanties along the road, but the President directed that compensation be paid.
Umahi further disclosed that a total of N18bn had been paid in compensation for the Phase 1 of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.
