Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has criticised the N15.6 trillion Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project, calling it a wasteful and corrupt endeavor. He also condemned the Bola Tinubu administration for allocating N21 billion to construct a new official residence for Vice President Kashim Shettima, describing it as a misplaced priority and a conduit for siphoning public funds. Obasanjo made these remarks in Chapter Six of his new book, Nigeria: Past and Future, where he analyzed the leadership qualities of federal and state executives. The book was among two released to mark his 88th birthday last week. Minister of Works David Umahi recently disclosed that the 700km highway would cost N4.93 billion per kilometer and that the contract was awarded through a counterpart-funding arrangement rather than a Public-Private Partnership. So far, N1.06 trillion has been disbursed for the pilot phase—six percent of the project—stretching from Eko Atlantic to Lekki Deep Sea Port. The project has faced criticism, with many, including 2023 PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, questioning why it was awarded to Gilbert Chagoury’s Hitech Construction Company without competitive bidding. Chagoury is widely regarded as a long-time business associate of Tinubu. Reflecting on Tinubu’s two years in office, Obasanjo expressed concerns that corruption remains entrenched, stating, “Everything is said to be transactional, and the slogan is ‘It is my turn to chop.’” Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga declined to comment on Obasanjo’s remarks when contacted on Wednesday night. The former president further criticized Nigeria’s leadership, stating that many in power—including governors, presidents, ministers, and local government officials—are ill-prepared, self-serving, and primarily focused on personal enrichment while the country suffers from poverty and underdevelopment. He lamented that many aspiring leaders take out billion-naira loans, confident that they can repay them using public funds once elected, ultimately leaving the nation in worse condition than they found it. He stated, “How do you explain the situation of a chief executive, a governor, whose business was owing the banks billions of naira and millions of dollars before becoming a governor and within two years of becoming governor, without his company doing any business, he paid all that his businesses owed the banks. “You are left to guess where the money came from. Having got away with that in the first term, he consigned to himself almost half of the state resources in the second term. He was a typical example of the goings-on at that level almost universally in the country with only a few exceptions. “State resources are captured and appropriated to themselves with a pittance to staff and associates to close the mouths of those that could blow the whistle or raise alarm against them while in office and when they are out of office.’’ He further noted that “The ones that are criminally ridiculous are the chief executives that deceive, lie and try to cover up on the realities and truth of action and inaction on contract awards, agreements, treaties, borrowings and forward sales of national assets. Such chief executives are unfit for the job they find themselves in. “Typical examples of waste, corruption and misplaced priority are the murky Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road on which the President had turned deaf ears to protests and the new Vice-President’s official residence built at a cost of N21bn in the time of economic hardship to showcase the administration hitting the ground running and to show the importance of the office of the Vice-President. What small minds!”