Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway wasteful, corruptly awarded – Former presidential candidate

•Martin Onovo

A seasoned activist and politician, Chief Martin Onovo, is the 2015 presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP). Currently, the Head, Policy Positions, Movement for Fundamental Change (MFC), Onovo, who is an oils sector expert, in this interview, speaks on the inability of some states to pay the national minimum wage, the planned hike in telecommunication tariffs, the problem with the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway among other crucial issues, reports Sunday Independent.

Excerpts:

Several months after the N70,000 national minimum wage was made legal, state governments are yet to implement it. Why do you think this is so?

Some state governments have implemented it. Some even im­plemented a higher minimum wage. However, some have not. This may be due to the impuni­ty that has become a norm in our country. The labour unions can insist on immediate imple­mentation with payment of arrears.

What do you think should be done to make the recalcitrant states and Organised Private Sector (OPS) im­plement the new minimum wage?

Led by the labour unions, we must all insist on immediate implementation with payment of arrears.

The National Communications Com­mission (NCC) recently approved a 50 per cent hike on tariffs by tele­communication companies (Telcos). How do you see this development?

The telecommunications companies are private busi­nesses and must make profit to remain in business. An in­crease may be necessary since all fixed and variable costs have increased due to the hyper-in­flation that arose from the in­competence and corruption of the Jagaban Tinubu regime. However, a 50% increase can be considered steep. A downward review of the increase will mit­igate the further impact on the unprecedented hyper-inflation in Nigeria.

The National Assembly is yet to pass the N49.7 trillion 2025 budget which the president presented to them in December. Why do you think the lawmakers are delaying the passage of the budget?

Delaying? Budget passage is a very serious task that requires meticulousness. It is definitely late to present a proposed bud­get in December. We also have to allow for the Christmas and New Year holidays. The re­views of the components of the budget start with the relevant oversight committees. These re­views are necessary to identify and verify estimates, to prevent duplications and wastages, etc. Reviews of the revenue esti­mates are also necessary and evaluation of the performance of the previous year’s budget is useful. In these processes, there are typical delays when the invited officials of MDAs do not attend and when the in­formation requested is not pro­vided. It will be appropriate to allow over three months for the thorough reviews and passage of budgets. (Note that President Tinubu has just increased the 2025 budget from N49.7 trillion to N54.2 trillion).

The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) and the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL) recently pos­ited that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road is a duplication and amounts to needless and wasteful spend­ing, considering that the federal government is yet to complete the West-East Highway. What is your take on this?

The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road project is definitely a du­plication considering that the East – West highway project is on-going. In addition, the proj­ect is very corruptly awarded and is in violation of the Con­stitution of Nigeria and several other laws. The Constitution of Nigeria prohibits extra-bud­getary expenditure. All costs incurred on the project were extra-budgetary, in a lawless violation of the Constitution and the Appropriation Act. Also, the N1.06 trillion paid for the 47.5km section of the road is outrageously corrupt. In addi­tion, the contract was award­ed to Jagaban Tinubu family’s business partners without a competitive bid in violation of the Procurement Act and the Oath of Office.

How do you see the way the government and the Police are implementing the Cybercrimes law? Going by the recent Dele Farotimi and Omoyele Sowore’s cases, would you agree that the implementation of the law is draconian and against the norms of civilised societies?

It is not the Cybercrimes Law that is being implement­ed. The Police are simply abus­ing their powers while trying to cover their abuses with the Cybercrimes Law. In the Dele Farotimi case, the Police had an additional charge of ‘Criminal defamation’, a crime unknown to the laws of Lagos State. All these were in their attempt to persecute Dele Farotimi. In the Omoyele Sowore case, the Po­lice claim that his valid inter­pretation of the Police Act and the Constitution is false and capable of leading to a break­down of law and order. How can his interpretation be ‘false’? Interpretations may be errone­ous, not ‘false’. English is the official language of Nigeria, but apparently the Nigerian Police has syntactic inadequa­cies and inaccuracies. Further, the Police claim that Sowore’s interpretation of Nigerian laws is for the purpose of causing a breakdown of law and order. That is definitely ridiculous. How can a simple and valid in­terpretation of Nigerian laws cause a breakdown of law and order? This is unacceptable. It is a waste of valuable Police re­sources and is also tantamount to burdening our overloaded judiciary with frivolous cases. The IGP (Egbetokun) should resign immediately.

In the fight against terror, the Air Force has recently bombed civilian communities and even Nigerians soldiers in error. Can this trend be attributed to sabotage within the system?

Sabotage is definitely possi­ble and investigations will be required to confirm such. Many cases of sabotage have previ­ously been reported, including the case of some of our soldiers selling weapons to insurgents; a Police officer supplying arm to criminals and operational information being disclosed to insurgents. The other possibili­ties include incompetence, poor coordination between tactical teams and errors of profession­al judgment.

The Kaduna State governor recently confessed that he has been negoti­ating with terrorists and bandits in his area. Would you say the gover­nor is right in his action?

It will depend on the objec­tives and strategies of such ne­gotiations. If the negotiations will lead to the surrender of the terrorists, then, the governor may be right. But, if it is sim­ply to stop attacks while main­taining their capacity to attack, then it is wrong in our opinion.

Some Northern and Southern poli­ticians are said to be strategising to wrestle power from the President Bola Tinubu in 2027. Do you think such moves can succeed?

Yes, such moves can succeed. The Labour Party’s Mr. Peter Obi defeated the same Jagaban Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election with a very wide mar­gin. Even Alhaji Atiku who was ostracised by the PDP ‘G6’ got a lot more votes than Jagab­anTinubu. The same Jagaban Tinubu was a very distant third and lost the election woefully. Clearly, the opposition has an exceptional opportunity to win landslide again in a free and fair 2027 presidential election. The challenge is: Will INEC conduct a free and fair elec­tion or will INEC again, publish fraudulent results in favour of the ruling party?

Looking at the current political set up in the country, can the Leftist political powers take over power democratically? Do you think the Leftist can come together under one umbrella to form a united front to actualise this mission and vision?

Politicians on the Left side of the political centre can easily take over power democratically. We do not need to “come togeth­er under one umbrella”. All we need to do is to agree on our ob­jectives, agree on our strategies and work together to take over power democratically in Nige­ria. We saw as ADC supported the Labour Party presidential candidate in 2023. We also saw as the PDP in some of the “G6” states like Benue, Enugu, Abia and Lagos states supported the same Labour Party’s Pres­idential candidate in 2023. Pol­iticians on the Left side of the political centre can very easily take over power democratically.