Umahi: South-east Voted Obi In 2023 Over Marginalisation, But Will Reward Tinubu in 2027

.Says Obi ‘can never be the best’ presidential material from region

.Lagos-Calabar coastal highway cheaper than comparable Nigerian, international road projects

.Accuses Landmark of ‘land-grabbing’ on Lagos beach, vow to take them to court

.Hitech got coastal highway contract through legal direct procurement; Seyi Tinubu not on board

Demola Ojo

Nigeria’s Minister of Works, David Umahi, has said the South-east’s overwhelming support for Peter Obi in the 2023 presidential election was driven by anger over years of marginalisation, but predicted the region would respond differently in 2027 because of President Bola Tinubu’s treatment of the region.

Umahi, who was emphatic that Obi failed to consult South-east leaders before his presidential bid, argued the region has other qualified political figures.

The former governor of Ebonyi State also defended the cost of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, arguing that the project is cheaper than comparable road projects in Nigeria and internationally when its specifications and difficult terrain are taken into account.

The minister who accused Landmark Africa of “land grabbing” on the Lagos beachfront, threatened legal action against its chief executive, Paul Onwuanibe, over claims surrounding the impact of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway on the business.

Umahi, who defended the award of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway to Hitech Construction, also rejected claims that President Bola Tinubu’s son, Seyi Tinubu, sits on Hitech’s board, amid longstanding questions about the relationship between the President’s family and companies associated with the Chagoury Group.

Speaking in an interview on Arise News Channel, Umahi described the South-east’s 2023 voting pattern as an “accident of history,” arguing that voters were expressing dissatisfaction with the region’s treatment under the previous administration.

“In 2023, it was an accident of history,” Umahi said. “It was a demonstration of the anger of the people of South-east on how they were treated.”

The Works Minister said the region had legitimate reasons to feel aggrieved at the time, citing what he described as inadequate federal appointments and infrastructure.

“We’ve been marginalised in the past, but it’s no longer so,” he said.

Umahi argued that Tinubu had changed the political equation through increased federal infrastructure and appointments for the South-east, predicting that voters would acknowledge that treatment when they return to the polls in 2027.

“If in 2023 they demonstrated their anger, in 2027 they are going to demonstrate their joy on how the President has treated them,” he said.

Umahi maintained that the South-east would “pay the President” for what he described as Tinubu’s commitment to the region, particularly through major infrastructure projects.

He pointed to ongoing federal road projects and other investments as evidence that the region had received greater attention under the current administration.

The minister also argued that the political environment had changed significantly since 2023, saying serving governors, former governors, traditional rulers and other influential figures across the Southeast were increasingly aligned with Tinubu.

He said voters would be reluctant to abandon what he described as tangible infrastructure gains in favour of another political “gamble.”

Umahi rejected suggestions that support for Tinubu amounted to a betrayal of the South-east or Peter Obi, arguing that the region’s political interests should not be tied permanently to one candidate.

He also criticised social media supporters who insult South-east political leaders for backing Tinubu rather than Obi, saying such attacks were counterproductive.

According to Umahi, ethnic and regional antagonism would not advance Obi’s political interests or those of the Southeast.

The minister said the region’s long-term political interests required engagement and negotiation with other parts of Nigeria, particularly if the South-east hoped eventually to produce a president.

He maintained that Tinubu’s record in the region would ultimately determine the 2027 vote rather than the voting pattern recorded four years earlier.

Asked whether he believed Tinubu would defeat Obi in the South-east in 2027, Umahi was emphatic.

“Why do you say I believe?” he responded. “That is what is going to happen!”

Umahi said the South-east would not repeat its 2023 electoral choice because, in his assessment, the circumstances that produced that result had fundamentally changed.

He said Obi “can never be the best” presidential material from the South-east, arguing that the former Anambra State governor failed to adequately consult political leaders in the region before his 2023 presidential bid.

Umahi said his position was not driven by personal animosity towards Obi, but by his assessment of the political leadership available in the Southeast.

“Peter Obi is not the best of our finest in South-east,” Umahi said. “He’s not the best, he can never be the best.”

He argued that a presidential candidate seeking to represent the political aspirations of the South-east should first build consensus among governors and other political leaders in the region.

“You cannot play politics in South-east without consulting people like us,” he said.

Umahi said that if he were seeking the presidency himself, he would approach the process differently by consulting extensively with political stakeholders before presenting himself as a candidate.

“If I were contesting, I would have consulted,” Umahi said, maintaining that a presidential ambition carrying the expectations of an entire region could not be pursued in isolation.

He argued that Obi should have consulted South-east governors and other leaders before emerging as the region’s dominant presidential candidate in the 2023 election.

Umahi also challenged the suggestion that Obi should automatically be regarded as the South-east’s strongest candidate for the presidency because of his performance in the last election.

He said the region had other qualified political figures and argued that presidential politics required negotiation and engagement with other parts of the country rather than relying principally on regional enthusiasm.

Umahi said he had “nothing personal” against Obi, stressing that different political circumstances required different qualities in a leader.

The Works Minister also questioned arguments that the presidency should automatically return to Anambra State if the opportunity arose for the South-east to produce a president.

He noted that Nigeria’s first President, Nnamdi Azikiwe, came from the area now constituting Anambra State and argued that other states in the South-east should also be considered.

Umahi identified Ebonyi, Enugu, Abia and Imo as states that should have an opportunity in any future discussion about producing a president from the region.

His comments came as he defended the growing support for President Tinubu among political leaders in the South-east ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

Umahi argued that the South-east’s path to the presidency ultimately depended on political negotiation and integration with the rest of the country rather than treating support for a particular candidate as a test of loyalty to the region.

He also rejected criticism of South-east political figures supporting Tinubu rather than Obi, saying it was wrong to portray them as betraying the region because of their political choices.

The minister maintained that the South-east must negotiate and build alliances across Nigeria if it wants to produce a president, insisting that no single politician should be treated as the region’s only viable presidential option.

He rejected criticism of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway’s cost, saying comparisons should be based on equivalent carriageways and engineering specifications rather than simply dividing the contract sum by the length of the road.

“I deserve kudos for the cost of the coastal highway,” Umahi said as he compared the project with other major road developments.

Using Section One of the highway as an example, the minister said the 47.47-kilometre stretch from Victoria Island to Eleko Village had a contract value of about N1.06 trillion, but argued that the figure had to be assessed against the number of carriageways and the extensive infrastructure included in the project.

He said that when the cost was normalised to a standard two-lane carriageway, it amounted to approximately N7.3 billion to N7.5 billion per kilometre, or about $5.5 million at the exchange rate he used in his calculation.

Umahi argued that the figure compared favourably with other major road projects, including the Bodo-Bonny Road, the East-West Road and coastal road projects elsewhere in West Africa.

“You have to compare apple to apple,” he said, insisting that comparisons which ignored differences in road width, pavement type, bridges, drainage and terrain created a misleading impression of the project’s cost.

The minister said the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway was being constructed with reinforced concrete pavement and would include solar lighting, underground drainage, two-metre walkways, crash barriers and a corridor reserved for a railway line.

He also pointed to the extensive ground improvement required along the Lagos section, saying that approximately 30 kilometres involved the removal of unsuitable material to an average depth of about 10 metres, while the road level had to be raised by an average of about five metres.

“You remove the pit, average of 10 metres, and then you fill it back,” Umahi said, describing the engineering work required before the pavement itself could be constructed.

He said those features needed to be factored into any meaningful comparison of the project’s cost with conventional highways built on less challenging terrain.

Umahi also cited the changing cost of construction materials, saying the price of concrete had increased significantly since the contract was awarded without a corresponding increase in the contract price.

“When we started, concrete was N350,000 per cubic metre. Today, it is N460,000 per cubic metre,” he said. “The contract price has not changed.”

The Works Minister compared the Coastal Highway with the Bodo-Bonny Road in Rivers State, as well as portions of the East-West Road, arguing that their costs demonstrated that the Lagos-Calabar project was not unusually expensive when assessed on equivalent engineering terms.

His defence follows sustained public scrutiny of the project’s cost. Umahi has previously argued that the price approved for the Coastal Highway was lower than comparable projects and has repeatedly disputed calculations based on a simple cost-per-kilometre formula.

In October 2025, he publicly challenged Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde to a debate after the governor questioned his explanation of the project’s cost.

Umahi said international financiers had also scrutinised the project’s pricing before committing funding to it.

He said Deutsche Bank, which led the financing for Section One, examined the project before the financing was syndicated and reached a favourable assessment of its pricing and construction quality.

“They said the project was underpriced,” Umahi said, adding that the financing was subsequently “oversubscribed by $100 million.”

Umahi has previously made the oversubscription claim publicly, saying international financial institutions regarded the project’s cost as competitive.

He maintained that the cost of one section could not simply be extrapolated across the full 750-kilometre highway because terrain and engineering requirements vary significantly along the route.

“There are no two sections that are the same,” Umahi said, arguing that bridges, soil conditions and other engineering requirements would ultimately determine the cost of individual sections.

The minister insisted that when those factors were considered alongside the highway’s specifications, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway represented value for money rather than the excessively priced project portrayed by its critics.

Umahi also strongly disputed Onwuanibe’s account of the losses Landmark suffered following the federal government’s demolition of structures along the highway’s right of way.

“He was land grabbing,” Umahi said, referring to Landmark’s occupation of portions of the beachfront affected by the project.

The Works Minister challenged Onwuanibe to make public the company’s Certificate of Occupancy and other documents establishing its legal title to the affected land.

“Let him publish his C of O,” Umahi said.

He maintained that the federal government had deliberately adjusted the highway around Landmark’s permanent structures to prevent the destruction of its main facilities.

“We saved his permanent structure,” Umahi said, arguing that what was removed consisted largely of “shanties” erected along the beachfront rather than Landmark’s principal permanent development.

Umahi also rejected claims about the scale of Landmark’s financial losses, pointing to what he described as inconsistencies in figures publicly associated with the company.

He said Onwuanibe had previously spoken of investments worth about $250 million but had more recently cited losses of about N42 billion arising from the demolition.

The minister questioned the basis of those figures and said the government should not be portrayed as having arbitrarily destroyed a legitimate investment without regard for ownership or compensation rights.

Umahi said smaller businesses and other affected occupants who were entitled to compensation had been identified and compensated by the government.

He said the affected people were enumerated and payments made directly into their bank accounts, maintaining that the compensation process was transparent.

The minister then warned that the continuing public claims surrounding Landmark could result in legal action.

“If he doesn’t refrain from misleading the public, I may take him to court,” Umahi said.

The dispute over Landmark became one of the earliest major controversies surrounding construction of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway after the federal government demolished parts of the Landmark Beach complex in April 2024 to clear the project’s right of way.

Onwuanibe had publicly maintained that the demolition caused significant losses to the Landmark ecosystem and businesses operating within it, while the federal government consistently argued that the affected structures were within the highway’s legally established corridor.

Umahi maintained that the government had gone out of its way to preserve Landmark’s principal investment, saying the highway was effectively divided around the permanent structure rather than demolishing it.

He insisted that the disagreement should ultimately be resolved on the basis of documentary evidence establishing ownership of the beachfront land.

Umahi confirmed that there was no public advertisement or open competitive bidding for the highway, but insisted the procurement method was lawful.

When challenged if there was advertisement or public bidding, Umahi retorted, “But there was direct procurement. It’s within the law.”

Asked specifically whether Seyi Tinubu was on Hitech’s board, Umahi responded: “He’s not.”

The minister said the government had examined Hitech’s board as part of the pre-qualification process.

“I’ve heard people that say, ‘Oh, Seyi Tinubu is on the board of Hitech’. We have the board of Hitech, because before we did pre-qualification,” he said.

Umahi explained that federal procurement rules provide different routes for awarding contracts, including open tendering, restrictive tendering and direct procurement, with emergency procurement available under particular circumstances.

“There are three kinds of procurement that are allowed,” he said. “There is a fourth one, which is emergency procurement.”

Explaining the distinction, Umahi said open procurement involves public advertisement, while restrictive tendering allows government to invite companies considered to have the necessary expertise to pre-qualify and bid.

“And so the third one is direct procurement,” he said. “Direct procurement is where there are no competitive bids. But it’s a specialised kind of procurement.”

Umahi said the decision to use that method for Hitech was driven by the engineering challenges expected along the coastline, particularly the threat posed by Atlantic Ocean surges.

“Our job was to construct road along the coast — coastal highway — and we knew that we were going to be confronted with the ocean surge,” he said.

The minister cited the historical threat of coastal erosion to Victoria Island and the eventual development of Eko Atlantic as evidence of Hitech’s ability to undertake specialised coastal engineering.

Umahi recalled that repeated interventions by expatriate contractors had failed to permanently resolve the threat to Victoria Island before Hitech became involved.

“All over the years, the federal government would engage expatriates from Belgium, from France and all over the country,” he said. “Each time the flood came, there would be that kind of intervention. But it could not solve the problem of the VI.”

He said Hitech initially resisted undertaking the coastal protection work because of the financial and technical risks involved.

“The President called Hitech and said, ‘Please, can you invest to do this, to tame the Atlantic Ocean?’ They said, ‘No. You’re going to liquidate us. We won’t be able to do it.’”

Umahi said the company eventually developed a solution involving massive concrete structures and geotextile materials to hold back the Atlantic.

“They were almost liquidated until they came up with that method,” he said, referring to the coastal protection system. “And today we have a beauty to behold, the Eko Atlantic.”

According to Umahi, that track record became central to the government’s justification for proposing Hitech for the Coastal Highway.

“So when we knew that we were going to be confronted with this, we were going to look for that kind of technical expertise,” he said. “And that’s why we sent the name of Hitech.”

He said the government presented Hitech’s Eko Atlantic work as evidence of its performance, technical capacity and capability to the Bureau of Public Procurement.

“They put the Eko Atlantic as the attraction and the evidence of performance and capacity and capability to the BPP,” Umahi said.

The BPP, he said, considered the proposal before allowing the government to proceed with direct procurement on a section-by-section basis.

“BPP looked at it and said, ‘Yes, but procure this thing in sections,’” he said.

Umahi said the government subsequently obtained a Certificate of No Objection before taking the procurement to the Federal Executive Council for approval.

“Federal Executive Council approved: go ahead, direct procurement, but procure it in sections,” he said.

Pressed on whether this amounted to confirmation that there had been no public bidding for the project, Umahi initially objected to the framing, insisting that the central question should be whether the procurement complied with Nigerian law.

“You should ask me whether we conformed to the law of the federal government,” he said.

When the interviewer ARISE News Anchor Ojy Okpe reiterated that there had been no advertisement or public bidding, Umahi ultimately confirmed the procurement method. He said, “It’s within the law.”