The owner of the construction firm awarded the N15 trillion Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project without competitive bidding is President Bola Tinubu’s “confidante”, according to a government record.
The 700-kilometer coastal road was awarded in September to Hitech Construction Company Ltd., a company owned by tycoon Gilbert Chagoury.
Mr Chagoury, a Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire, was listed by the government as “confidante of Mr President”, in Nigeria’s delegation to COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates last December.
In a government-compiled list published by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Mr Chagoury’s organization was listed as the State House (Presidency). It indicates he was in a “paid relationship/contract with the nominating entity”.
No other country registered a “confidante” of its president in its delegation to the event. Nigeria had 1,411 delegates to COP28 — the third-highest alongside China.
Business Partners
The relationship between President Tinubu and Mr Chagoury became a subject of discussions after the tycoon was announced the contractor for one of Nigeria’s biggest and most ambitious projects without a competitive bidding as required by the public procurement law.
Civil society groups and opposition leaders have questioned the selection process, the cost of the project and its urgency at a time the nation faces a cost-of-living crisis.
“It is curious that the terms of such an audacious project continue to be shrouded in secrecy,” former vice president and opposition leader Atiku Abubakar said in a statement. “It is no secret that both Tinubu and Chagoury are business partners.”
Works minister Dave Umahi claimed Chagoury’s Hitech was chosen because of its expertise in coastal construction, and said the government approved a “restrictive bidding” for the project. He did not elaborate on what other companies were involved or why it wasn’t made public.
“With the cost involved, you can see that it’s an inflated contract that has been given simply because some people believe that they will make money out of it,” Auwal Rafsanjani, Nigerian head of Transparency International, told Bloomberg.
He said lack of transparency around similar projects is “the reason why we are not making any progress in terms of improving transparency and accountability in public sector.”
Chagoury and the Road
Mr Chagoury, born to Lebanese immigrants in Nigeria, co-founded the Chagoury Group in Lagos in 1971, a conglomerate with holdings in construction, real estate, hospitality, glass, and flour milling sectors. He is a financier of the Eko Atlantic project through South Energyx Nigeria Limited, a Chagoury Group subsidiary.
He was convicted in 2000 of money laundering and aiding a criminal organisation.
Hitech has constructed two highways in Lagos. It also built the privately developed Banana Island luxury housing estate and the 10-square-mile Eko Atlantic development — both on land reclaimed from the sea.
The coastal road project which has been mired in controversy since being in September.
Last week, the federal cabinet last week approved construction work on the second section of the road.
Work on the first phase had earlier started, but many fear the project will likely be abandoned after large amount of money has been spent, like several other huge projects.
The highway is part of a 23-year plan to improve Nigeria’s infrastructure. It was first designed as a railway under President Goodluck Jonathan and awarded to the China Civil Engineering Construction Corp. for $12 billion but fell apart when he left office in 2015.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration revived the project for $11 billion and given a timeline of three years but made no progress. The Tinubu administration awarded the job to Hitech Ltd., owned by Mr Chagoury.
Users of the road will pay N3,000 as toll for a one-way trip, the government says.
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