Presidency responds to Atiku’s criticism of Lagos-Calabar highway project

The presidency has reacted to former Nigeria Vice-president and presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s claims that the Lagos-calabar highway construction is a gateway to corruption as Tinubu has vested interests in it.

Atiku on Sunday said the road project didn’t follow due procedure hence the rush to demolish it quickly. He also alleged that Tinubu’s son, Seyi was a shareholder in a company owned by Chagoury, the owners of the construction company, Hitech, responsible for the Lagos-Calabar highway project.

Taking to Twitter today, May 6, to counter the claims, Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and strategy wrote;

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

The post Presidency responds to Atiku’s criticism of Lagos-Calabar highway project appeared first on 36ng.