The Presidency, yesterday, dismissed criticism of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway by the former Cross River State Governor and Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) Presidential candidate, Donald Duke, insisting that the multi-billion-naira project is progressing beyond Lagos State, describing his remarks as politically motivated.

While being interviewed on Arise Television, the former governor claimed that the 750km project, with completed sections already straddling a few kilometres in Cross River and Akwa Ibom on the Calabar end, and making incursions into Ondo from the Lagos end, would not go past Epe near Ogun State.

“I’ll bring this up. Take the Lagos-Calabar Highway, for example. I know the country cannot afford it,” he said.

“You cannot build a road on the coast from Lagos to Calabar. I mean, you can’t even go through Bayelsa. Bayelsa is a swamp. Even Yenagoa, the capital, is a swamp. You’ll probably have to build about 100 or 200 bridges to go through those swamps.”

Duke stated that there is already a road linking Lagos and Calabar, adding that the government should rehabilitate the existing infrastructure rather than embark on a new project.

However, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Tope Ajayi, said Duke was “arguing against reality” by claiming the highway would not extend beyond Lagos and questioning the project’s priority.

In a post on his verified X handle, @TheTope_Ajayi, the presidential spokesman said some opposition politicians were allowing partisan considerations to cloud their judgment and public comments.

“Politics makes a lot of people say loads of what they don’t mean or believe in. They just talk for the sake of talking or because of bad politics. There is actually no sense in arguing against reality,” Ajayi wrote.

He also noted that the former governor ignored the progress already made on the project while joining its critics. According to Ajayi, contrary to Duke’s claim that construction would stop at Epe in Lagos State, the highway has already extended into neighbouring Ogun State, while work is simultaneously underway on sections of the road in Ondo and Akwa Ibom states.

“While Duke was talking on TV about the Coastal Highway not going beyond Epe, the project has reached Ogun State, and work is going on in the Ondo and Akwa Ibom sections of the road,” he stated.

Ajayi further took a swipe at Duke’s political platform, describing the PRP as “an unviable political platform,” suggesting that partisan politics had informed the former governor’s criticism of the project.

The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway remains one of the flagship infrastructure projects of the Tinubu administration. The coastal corridor is expected to connect several states along Nigeria’s Atlantic coastline, with the Federal Government projecting significant gains in transportation, trade, tourism and regional economic integration.

Despite attracting criticism from some opposition figures over its cost, execution and feasibility, the Federal Government has consistently defended the project, maintaining that it is critical to the country’s long-term infrastructure and economic development agenda.