Former Cross River State Governor Donald Duke has voiced strong opposition to the alignment of the multi-billion-dollar Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, arguing that beginning construction at Victoria Island instead of Badagry represents a major strategic error that inflates costs through unnecessary sandfilling.
​Speaking on Saturday, August 22, 2026, during an appearance on the Naija Unfiltered podcast recorded in Lagos, the former presidential candidate highlighted the geographic logic of starting the project from the westernmost boundary of Lagos State.
​”If you’re doing the Lagos to Calabar highway, you should start at Badagry,” Duke said during the interview. “That’s where Lagos starts in the South-West, not from Victoria Island. When you’re building a road from Lagos to Calabar, but the focus on the Lagos end is from Victoria Island, and at the same time, you are sandfilling it.”
​Despite describing President Bola Tinubu as a personal friend whose determination he respects, Duke stressed that the economic trajectory of the project poses severe risks to the nation’s financial stability.
​”President Tinubu is my friend,” Duke remarked. “See, I like his guts. I admit it. He’s a determined person. But I don’t like where you’re taking us. So, you don’t stop being my friend, but I will challenge you that where we are going, we are all going to fall into a ditch.”
​The former governor emphasized that at a cost of N7.5 billion per kilometer, the capital spent on the coastal corridor could be redirected to fix existing infrastructure, power networks, and public health systems across the region.
​The criticism comes shortly after responses from executive officials. On August 5, 2026, Temitope Ajayi, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, dismissed Duke’s critiques on Arise Television as politically driven.
Meanwhile, Minister of Works David Umahi previously clarified that the initial 47.47-kilometer phase carries a budget of N1.067 trillion, maintaining that the project addresses long-term infrastructure needs despite rising concerns over cost and execution.
