Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Tope Ajayi, on Wednesday dismissed comments by former Cross River State Governor and Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) presidential candidate, Donald Duke, on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, saying the former governor was ‘arguing against reality’ because of ‘bad politics.’
Ajayi’s reaction followed remarks by Duke during an interview on Arise Television in which he expressed doubts about the flagship infrastructure project, claiming it would not extend beyond Lagos State and adding it was a misplaced priority.
Responding in a post on his verified X handle, @TheTope_Ajayi, Ajayi said political considerations were pushing some opposition figures into making claims they neither believed nor could substantiate.
‘Politics makes a lot of people say loads of what they don’t mean or believe in. They just talk for the sake of talking or because of bad politics. There is actually no sense in arguing against reality’, he said.
The presidential aide also took a swipe at Duke’s political ambition, describing the Peoples Redemption Party as ‘an unviable political platform’, while accusing the former governor of joining critics of the coastal highway project without acknowledging developments already recorded on the ground.
According to Ajayi, contrary to Duke’s assertion that the highway would not progress beyond Epe in Lagos State, construction has already advanced into neighbouring Ogun State, while work is simultaneously ongoing on sections of the road in Ondo and Akwa Ibom states.
‘While Duke was talking on TV that the Coastal Highway won’t go beyond Epe, the project has reached Ogun State, and work is going on in the Ondo and Akwa-Ibom states sections of the Coastal road,’ Ajayi stated.
The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is one of the signature infrastructure projects of the Tinubu administration, designed to link Nigeria’s coastal states through a major transport corridor aimed at boosting connectivity, trade and economic development.
The project has, however, attracted criticism from some opposition figures over its execution and feasibility, claims the Federal Government has consistently rejected.