Tinubu Flags Off Another Trillion-Naira Highway in Niger After Quietly Killing the Coastal Road

President Bola Tinubu will on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, flag off the reconstruction and dualisation of the 376-kilometre Lambata–Bida–Mokwa–Makera–Kontagora Federal Highway in Niger State, a project valued at approximately N1.5 trillion and promoted as a major initiative under the Renewed Hope Agenda.

The flag-off ceremony is scheduled for noon in Bida and is expected to attract Minister of Works David Umahi, Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago, Aliko Dangote and the Chairman of Hi-Tech Construction. The government says the highway will connect farmers to markets and businesses to customers. But the statement announcing the project did not disclose the contract sum, the contractor, the construction timetable or the expected completion date.

The Niger highway flag-off comes just days after the Federal Government confirmed that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, a flagship project launched with great fanfare, will be rerouted inland. Works Minister David Umahi disclosed that President Tinubu directed the ministry to divert the coastal highway through the existing East-West Road from Ondo State into Edo State rather than construct a new alignment along the coast. The coastal highway was sold to Nigerians as a 700-kilometre engineering marvel connecting the South-South coastline to Lagos. Now it will no longer follow the coastline it was named after.

The Niger highway is not a new road. It is the latest metamorphosis of a corridor that has lived through multiple contracts and funding models. What is now called Lambata–Bida–Mokwa–Makera–Kontagora began as the 124.88-kilometre Bida–Lapai–Lambata reconstruction awarded to CGC in 2018 for N33.3 billion and was still incomplete by 2024. The Bida–Lapai–Lambata road was at 64 per cent completion despite the contract being awarded over a decade ago, according to Umahi himself.

The consequences have been deadly. The contract was abandoned after the completion of the Lambata–Lapai section, leaving a 70-kilometre stretch as a death trap. Tanker explosions on the Bida–Agaie–Lapai–Lambata road have killed dozens. Trailer drivers have reported being stranded for over a week on the same highway. The remaining stretch of less than 50 kilometres connecting Bida to Lapai was completely abandoned, creating a bottleneck for interstate commerce.

In mid-2026, the Federal Executive Council rescoped the corridor as 400.9 kilometres of dual carriageway and re-awarded it to the Dangote Group for N1.8325 trillion under the tax credit scheme, replacing the CGC contract. The N1.5 trillion figure in Tuesday’s flag-off is described as a revised envelope for the expanded alignment with Hi-Tech Construction as executing contractor.

This is the pattern. Announce a mega project with a big name and a bigger price tag. Hold a flag-off ceremony. Take photos. Move on to the next one. The coastal highway was supposed to be the crown jewel of Tinubu’s infrastructure agenda. Now it is being quietly buried while a new road in Niger State is presented as the next big thing.

In June 2026, the Federal Executive Council approved 27 road projects worth N3.9 trillion across 15 states, including the re-award of the Niger corridor to Dangote. In February 2026, a civic accountability report found that only 1,438 federal projects were completed, 660 were ongoing, 471 were not executed, and 99 were abandoned. President Tinubu declared in June 2026 that the era of abandoned projects had ended and that his administration finishes what it starts.

The coastal highway is the latest example of a project that was started and then altered beyond recognition. The Niger highway may be the next. The government will hold another flag-off on Tuesday. There will be another speech about economic connections and Renewed Hope. There will be another round of photographs. And Nigerians will be told to be patient while the roads they use every day remain unmotorable.

The Lambata–Bida–Mokwa–Makera–Kontagora highway has been awarded, abandoned, re-awarded and rescoped multiple times since 2013. Contractors have collected money for over ten years without executing the project, according to Umahi’s own admission. Nigerians will believe the new project when they see it. Until then, it is another promise from a government that has made too many.

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