The zeal with which the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu went about the Lagos-Calabar Superhighway upon its assumption of office in 2023 left no one in doubt that this is one government that is interested in connecting different parts of the country with quality roads. After the debate that the Lagos-Calabar Road was only a southern affair, the administration added the Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway to balance things out. Though I would say that not much is being heard about the Sokoto-Badagry Road, much noise and drama have concentrated on the Lagos-Calabar concrete Road.
Although not many Nigerians appeared convinced about the urgency of the project at the time it kick-started, the fact that the government was bent on making a statement with the project is not in doubt. While questions persist on the design, the cost, and the environmental impact reports, the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, had made it the topmost point of his agenda to supervise, discuss, debate, and inspect the road at regular intervals.
Some bureaucrats said that the plan for the road has been in the books of the Federal Government for a long time. They said the same of the Sokoto-Badagry Road, which some said was spoken of several times by the late President Shehu Shagari in the Second Republic. It is doubtful if the longevity of the idea can answer for its urgency at this time. Well, as we speak, the question of whether the contract should be given or not is off the table. The deed has been done. What Nigerians can demand right now is that the contractors should ensure a good job is done.
We have seen that nothing can take away the intent of Tinubu’s administration to execute the Lagos-Calabar and Sokoto-Badagry Superhighways. But not a few Nigerians are of the view that there is something to learn from history. We read in the books that the Royal Niger Company, which transferred the ownership of Nigeria to the British authorities, had earmarked access to sources of raw materials as a key policy initiative. We learnt that as a result of the need to easily ferry the raw materials from the inner routes down to the sea, the railway was construed as the veritable mode of communication. The channelization of rail access was also said to have been designed in a way that emphasised the business of the colonialists-ferrying resources as quickly as possible back to the home country. So, you saw that the rail stations and the road networks that were designed and all linked together in a way that fast-tracked the assignment of the British and enhanced the transfer of the much-desired goods to the ferry at the sea.
I do not know what business model was relied upon by the Tinubu government in zeroing in on the Lagos-Calabar and Sokoto-Badagry Roads as the most important superhighways in 2023. I am, however, convinced that if a simple survey had been undertaken among Nigerians in arriving at the answer, many would easily pick out the Lagos-Abuja Superhighway as a pressing priority. The traffic between Lagos and Abuja has been the heaviest in recent years, either by road or by air. The Abuja -Lagos route has become the most lucrative for airlines since the movement of the federal capital to the FCT. And if the government were to build a modern rail system to join a superhighway, commuting around the country, as well as tourism, would be greatly enhanced. If the government were to adopt a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) model or a model of concessioning that would ensure the road is tolled, investors across the globe would easily jump at it. How the shrewd businessmen that surround this government missed that opportunity beats one hollow.
It is, however, better late than never; David Umahi can still swing his engineering wand and land us the Lagos-Abuja Superhighway, linked with an express train system. It is even a surprise that governments over the years have failed to configure an expressway linking Lagos with the new capital. As it is, the expressway that should link Lagos to Abuja was terminated at Ilesa, Osun State. One cannot explain why the military, which actualized the movement of the nation’s political capital from Lagos to Abuja, did not contemplate an expressway to facilitate the movement of the people to the new capital. After Ilesa, a tiny, winding road navigates through Akure, Ondo State, parts of Akokoland, and to Kabba, in Kogi, or if you take the one to the right after Owo, you navigate through Ibillo, Ogorimagogo, and then Okene and Lokoja. Either route is a traffic snare. I was even told that the Ibillo end has been abandoned long ago, after it became a den of kidnappers.
Whether it is for the fancy of linking a nation’s economic capital to the political capital or we are determined to tap into the huge business opportunity provided by the relentless traffic around the Lagos-Abuja corridor, it makes sense to initiate the Lagos-Abuja Superhighway right now.
There is a message here for Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy. I was told he comes from one end of Akoko and that his compatriot, Olubunmi Tunji Ojo, the Minister of Interior, also hails from Ondo North, the area that houses the route that links Ondo with Kabba, Kogi State, which serves as the current plausible linkage between Abuja and Lagos. If the gentlemen would want to write their names in the hearts of their people, this is the time to lobby every segment of the federal system to approve the construction of a Lagos-Abuja Superhighway that would pass through their native land.
If finance is the challenge that would keep such a project at bay, I do not think that the Federal Government has an issue there. In the last two years, a company pioneered by Lagos businessman, Chief Kenny Martins, has highlighted measures by which such a road can be fixed through concession.
Martins, who claimed that the late President Muhammadu Buhari had bought into the project, had announced that his company AEC Unity Network Limited was working on a 470-kilometre Abuja–Lagos Superhighway, which he said would cut travel time between the two capitals to four hours. He spoke in Lagos in 2025, expressing the hope that the Federal Executive Council would give its nod to the project, valued at an estimated cost of $4bn.
Martins had said: “The project will take about $4bn, but with issues and adjustments, it can be rounded up to $5bn. The time for completion is four years, and when the road is ready, it will take just four hours to travel from Lagos to Abuja.”
So far, there have not been explanations as to why nothing is being heard from the administration on the project; suffice it to say that the superhighway is a worthy project, either as a public sector-funded assignment or a concession to a private concern. If you ask me, I will prefer that the proposed road and even the Lagos-Calabar project or the Sokoto-Badagry construction are handed through a concession, where strict supervision and adherence to timelines would be guaranteed. The size of the nation’s capital budget votes is another issue here. Last week, the National Assembly extended the capital component of the 2025 budget to December 31, 2026, which means that the N30.22 capital budget for 2026 would not be executed at all. If a project is tied to such uncertainty, you can be sure its fate is already determined before its takeoff.
It is not difficult to know why some simple riddles are so difficult to resolve in Nigeria. We have the Infrastructure Concessioning Regulatory Commission; we have Ministers of Works, who should be eager to deliver on big projects; you have directors of highways, who should want to ensure the road in their locality is motorable all year round. But they end up doing the opposite. Rather than unleash the capacity of the private sector to construct big projects on behalf of government and ensure they recoup their money by tolling the roads, the government has continued to take loans that ended up being subjected to the vagaries of Federal Character. For instance, when the Buhari government started obtaining SUKUK loans, I was shocked to see that a N100 billion loan would be distributed to the six geopolitical zones in equal halves. Tell me how many years a project would have to wait before it would be executed if it relies on such a funding pattern. The preferred option would have been to devote the N100 billion loan to one single project where the fund can make appreciable impact. Governments do unthinkable things in the name of political correctness.
While sounding enthusiastic last year about his company’s proposal for the Abuja-Lagos Superhighway, Chief Martins said that the company has devoted six years to the planned project. He said that the superhighway will connect Abuja, the Federal Capital, with Lagos, the economic hub, and open up communities in the Federal Capital Territory, Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Kwara, Kogi, and Niger. He also spoke of a spur to Baro Port.
“The superhighway will facilitate easier and cheaper means of commuting by road between the two great cities. It will also provide a convenient alternative for those travelling to any of the states along the corridor,” Martins said.
By all means, the superhighway is long overdue, and the Minister of Works shouldn’t waste much time bringing it to life.
(Published by the Sunday Tribune, October 4, 2026).
