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Former Cross River State Governor Donald Duke has described Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri as a “local champion” over their disagreement on the feasibility of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.
Duke, the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) presidential candidate, made the remark during an interview on Arise Television’s The Morning Show on Thursday, insisting that the coastal road project was too expensive and impractical given Nigeria’s financial position and the terrain along its proposed route.
The exchange followed Diri’s criticism of Duke’s earlier position that constructing the coastal highway through Bayelsa would be impracticable because of the state’s swampy terrain.
Diri, through his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Alabrah, had argued that Duke was not familiar with the state’s progress in road construction and infrastructure development.
“Clearly, he is not abreast of current developments in road construction and infrastructure development in our state,” Diri said.
Responding, Duke argued that the governor was looking at the project from a state-level perspective rather than considering its cost and implications for the country as a whole.
“And the governor of Bayelsa, if he did say so, I don’t know the fellow, but if he did say so, I think he’s just being a local champion,” Duke said.
The former governor stressed that his South-South background did not prevent him from assessing the project from a national perspective.
“I’m from the South-South. I’m a Nigerian. South-South just happens to be where I originated from. But I’m looking at the totality of Nigeria,” he said.
Duke maintained that Nigeria could not afford the project, arguing that the government was already relying on borrowing to finance infrastructure development.
“It’s just not feasible. We don’t have the kind of money to do it. We’re literally borrowing to even stretch Epe stretch. We’re borrowing. We can’t do it,” he said.
He also questioned the Federal Government’s decision to divert a section of the coastal highway towards the East-West Road, asking whether the existing highway had been considered before the project began.
“Now, they have said that they’re going to divert the road onto the East-West Highway. Weren’t they aware of the East-West Highway from get-go?” Duke asked.
