Lagos-Calabar Highway Lacks Master Design, Says Works Minister David Umahi

Hibbatullah Shittu

October 26, 2026
1 min read
Lagos-Calabar

Minister of Works, David Umahi, has revealed that the 750-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway lacks a single comprehensive engineering design, more than two years after construction commenced in March 2024.

Speaking during a television interview on Friday, Umahi explained that the Federal Government is designing and costing the project in separate sections rather than under one master blueprint.

He noted that while the highway concept dates back to 1955 and was gazetted in 2006, ministry archives contained no complete engineering designs or subsoil technical reports covering the full route.

“There is no one single design that the 750 kilometres of Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is holding,” Umahi said. “The Federal Executive Council-approved procurement arrangement required the project to be procured section by section.”

The minister defended the pricing structure against public estimates suggesting a 15 trillion naira overall total. He argued that multiplying an average figure across the full distance remains inaccurate because soil terrain, bridge requirements, and shore protection needs vary along the coastal line.

Umahi put the cost of a standard two-lane carriageway at approximately 5.5 million dollars per kilometre, citing comparable technical benchmarks from a coastal road project in the neighbouring Republic of Benin.