Salihu Lukman
Salihu Lukman, a former National Vice Chairman, North-West, of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has raised concerns over some infrastructural projects embarked upon by the Tinubu-led administration.
He lamented about the Lagos-Calabar coastal road project, which is expected to gulp ₦15 trillion.
The APC chieftain expressed his reservations, suggesting that the funds could have been better allocated to sectors in dire need, such as education.
Lukman criticized the approach taken by his party, the ruling APC, towards handling certain national projects and social investment programmes, describing some of the management as poor.
According to him, the massive financial commitment to the coastal road project might not align with the immediate socio-economic needs of the country, especially in enhancing human capital development in education.
The coastal road project, aimed at boosting economic activities along Nigeria’s coastline from Lagos to Calabar, has been touted by its proponents as a developmental leap.
Speaking on Channels TV, Lukman said, “Now we poorly manage it: the problem of corruption now under Asiwaju (President Bola Tinubu). So far it has been suspended because the minister (Betta Edu of the Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development) is suspended and almost everything appears to be suspended with respect to social investment.
“But when you look at some of the key decisions taken by this government, one of which is the Lagos Calabar coastal highway – you look at the amount of money, we are talking of ₦15 trillion, that is going to go – you ask yourself, given the challenges facing this country, is that the right priority?
“Imagine you invest ₦15 trillion in equipping our armed forces and trying to recover all the ungoverned spaces in the country. Imagine you invest that in terms of providing classroom blocks and recruiting teachers.”
According to him, with the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria increasing, the authorities should go beyond talking and start taking action.
Lukman said, “You know, now we talk about this statistic of 10 million out-of-school children but we do nothing.
“If, for instance, we are now going to mop up the state of some of these classes, you check online, you see certainly there is anything but class classroom.
“In many of our schools, you see a school with more than 500 pupils with only one teacher.”
