Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway: Presidency accuses Atiku of distorting facts

The controversy trailing the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is yet to abate, as the Special Adviser to the President on Information & Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, on Monday tackled the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, accusing him of distorting facts to score cheap political gains.

According to Onanuga, the former Vice President and Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate is fast developing a reputation for distorting and manipulating facts for his self-serving objective of discrediting the current administration.

Onanuga said Atiku made wild claims on a number of issues that need to be corrected so that the public will not be misled into accepting fallacies as the truth.

He said the President Bola Tinubu-led administration believes that every true and patriotic Nigerian, regardless of political differences, should work to promote the unity and economic well-being of the country and not delegitimise genuine efforts of the Federal Government to encourage local and foreign investments into the economy.

“Contrary to Atiku’s claim, the Tinubu administration, within its first year, has attracted over $20 billion into the economy. While President Tinubu was in New Delhi, India for G20 Summit last year August, Indian business leaders committed over $14 billion in new investments. A substantial part of this sum is already in the country.

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“In an unmistakable vote of confidence in the economic reforms being executed by the Tinubu administration, foreign investment in Nigeria’s stock market has ballooned, from N18.12 billion in Q1 2023 to N93.37 billion in Q1 2024, an increase of 415%. The last time Nigeria saw such level of investment was in the first quarter of 2019, when N97.6 billion was invested. The market, since Tinubu came to power, has broken records and created more wealth for the investors.

“During President Tinubu’s recent trip to The Netherlands, the Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, announced a fresh $ 250 million investment by Dutch businesses in Nigeria.

“Different sectors of the economy, especially telecoms, manufacturing, solid minerals, oil and gas, e-commerce, and fintech, are attracting new Foreign Direct Investments from discerning investors who know Nigeria is a good market for bountiful returns.

“We found it strange that Alhaji Atiku could accuse President Tinubu of conflict of interest in the award of Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway to Hitech Construction Company, which he claimed is owned by Chagoury family because the President’s son, Seyi Tinubu, sits on the board of CDK, a tiles manufacturing company, based in Sagamu, Ogun State.”