- Atiku:”Tinubu And Chagoury Are Business Partners, His Interest Is Behind Hasty Project.”
- Presidency:”Atiku Is Blinded By Political Ill-Will, He Can’t Speak The Truth”.
By Abiola Olawale
The ongoing construction of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway has continued to spark a fierce war of words between former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and the the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The latest showdown began when Atiku brought forth an accusation of conflict of interest against Tinubu, on the ongoing construction of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway.
Atiku, in a statement issued by his media aide, Mr Paul Ibe, alleged that there is a business link between Tinubu and Gilbert Chagoury, the owner of Hitech Construction, who was awarded the contract to construct the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.
Atiku, citing a report by a Paris-based Africa Intelligence News Agency, alleged that Mr Seyi Tinubu, the son of the President holds a position on the board of CDK Integrated Industries, a subsidiary of the Chagoury Group.
He alleged further that Tinubu awarding the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway to one of his alleged business partners, stressing that it amounts to a violation of the procurement laws of Nigeria.
Atiku further stated that the alleged lack of proper notification regarding the demolition of tourist and recreational amenities, as well as other properties within the Oniru corridor, including sections of Landmark in Lagos State, to facilitate the construction of the Coastal Highway, is a key factor contributing to Nigeria’s ongoing struggle or inability to attract foreign direct investments.
The statement reads in part: “Thanks to quality reporting by Africa Intelligence, our suspicions have been confirmed that Chagoury and Tinubu are indeed business partners and it has been formalized with Seyi on the board of one of Chagoury’s firms.”
“It is on record that this project is the most expensive single project ever embarked upon by the Nigerian government. The fact that it is happening at a time when Nigeria is facing its worst economic crisis ever is a red flag.
“To add insult to injury, this project that is being done over $13bn was awarded without competitive bidding. From all indications, the so-called Badagry-Sokoto highway would be awarded similarly at an enormous cost to taxpayers purely because Tinubu has put his interest ahead of the Nigerian people.”
However, while reacting to the accusations, the presidency berated the former Vice President for his comments which claimed that Tinubu purportedly has a personal interest in the ongoing Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.
This is as the presidency knocked Atiku “for allowing his political ambition to blind him from telling the truth.”
Reacting to the comments of the former Vice President, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, described Atiku’s comment as false, saying it is imperative to set the records straight so that the citizens won’t be misled into accepting fallacies as truth.
Onanuga clarified that while Seyi Tinubu sits on the board of CDK Integrated Industries, the Chagourys are minority shareholders in the company, and only one member of the clan is on its five-man board. He added that the Chairman of CDK and the highest shareholder of the company is General TY Danjuma (rtd).
He also wondered why Atiku is bent on discrediting the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The presidential aide also stated that the President’s son has the right to pursue his business affiliations anywhere in the world, urging Atiku to desist from distorting and manipulating facts.
Onanuga’s statement reads in part thus:
“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 several 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 delegitimize 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 the G20 Summit last year in 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 a 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, 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 a conflict of interest in the award of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway to Hitech Construction Company which he claimed is owned by the 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 which 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 failed campaign for the presidency last year that he would do the same if elected.
“It is important to state clearly that Seyi Tinubu is a 38-year-old adult who has a right to do business and pursue his business interests in Nigeria and anywhere in the world within the limits of the law. The fact that his father is now the President of Nigeria does not disqualify Seyi from pursuing legitimate business interests.
“Seyi joined the Board of Directors of CDK in 2018, more than six years ago. He is representing the interest of an investor company, in which he has an interest. He is not a board member because his father is a friend of the Chagourys. Information about the owners and shareholders of CDK is a matter of public record that can be openly accessed from the website of the Corporate Affairs Commission and CDK. Atiku and his proxy did not need a little-known journal to recycle open-source information to make a fallacious argument. The Chairman of CDK and the highest shareholder of the company is General TY Danjuma (rtd). The Chagourys are minority shareholders in the company, and only one member of the clan is on its five-man board.
“We wonder how Seyi’s membership of the board of CDK conflicts with Hitech Construction Company’s work on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal superhighway.
“Alhaji Atiku has been waging an unrelenting war against this all-important and transformative project for no justifiable reasons other than bad politics. Atiku knows that its grand success and other projects to be unfurled, such as the Badagry-Sokoto superhighway, will be a major boost for President Tinubu and finally upend his perennial presidential ambition.
If not blinded by political ill-will, Alhaji Atiku knows that the right thing for him to do is to applaud President Tinubu for the ambitious and audacious Lagos-Calabar Highway, which was authorized by the Federal Executive Council.
It is important to remind Alhaji Atiku that infrastructural projects such as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway are used to galvanize the economy. In the US, President Joe Biden has used his $2 trillion bi-partisan infrastructure deal to revamp decaying American infrastructure and inject life into the US economy.
How can an elder statesman be waging a campaign of calumny against the economic fortunes and prosperity of a country he wishes to governor trying to scuttle a project that will bring prosperity to nine coastal states and the nation in general?
That Nigeria’s economy is being reclassified by the IMF as the fourth largest in Africa is stale news. This happened because of the devaluation of the Naira and President Tinubu’s determined effort to set the economy on the path of sustainable growth. Under the progressive, bold, inventive, and innovative leadership of President Tinubu, Nigeria will bounce back to where it rightfully belongs as Africa’s largest market and biggest economy.”
