Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Labour Party’s 2023 gubernatorial candidate in Lagos State, has taken a swipe at President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the recent commissioning of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road, which he claims is less than 5 percent completed.
The ambitious 700-kilometre infrastructure project is expected to span from Lagos Island to Calabar in Cross River State, traversing several coastal communities.
However, Rhodes-Vivour has described the federal government’s celebration of its progress as not only premature but also misleading.
In a strongly worded statement posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account on Thursday, Rhodes-Vivour expressed dismay over what he described as an attempt to “roll out the drums” for a project still in its infancy.
“Not only is it shameful to roll out the drums to commission less than 5% of a project, they still had to lie and spew propaganda on the so-called 30km,” he said.
He drew parallels between the event and a recent controversy involving the Finance Minister, whom he accused of presenting inaccurate economic data abroad—figures that were later contradicted by data from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“This is the same way the minister of finance went abroad to reel out fake data only to be checkmated by data from the CBN days after. So embarrassing,” he added.
Rhodes-Vivour further criticized what he termed as the government’s obsession with optics and political propaganda, rather than genuine governance.
“The harsh truth is that a party fixated on politics and propaganda cannot govern effectively. That is why Nigerians are much poorer today than they were less than a decade ago,” he said.
READ ALSO: Tinubu Warns Against Building on Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway Setbacks
He also condemned the glorification of the National Security Adviser amid growing security concerns across the country.
“While insecurity is on the rise, they are shamelessly promoting the ‘genius’ of the NSA,” he remarked.
The federal government has yet to issue a formal response to Rhodes-Vivour’s comments.
However, the Ministry of Works has maintained that the coastal highway is a transformative infrastructure investment that will boost tourism, facilitate trade, and open up Nigeria’s coastal economy upon completion.
The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road project has drawn mixed reactions since its inception.
While some commend its long-term potential to reshape transportation in the southern corridor, others have raised concerns about transparency, funding, and displacement of coastal communities.
As political tensions simmer, the road’s progress—and how it is presented to the public—may become a recurring subject of national debate.