Two Appropriation Acts give the Lagos-Calabar highway N170 million; the government's own releases record $1.873 billion in loans for two sections

Atiku Abubakar wants the Federal Government to publish what it has paid on the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway. The budgets passed by the National Assembly name very little money for it. In the 2025 Appropriation Act, the Federal Ministry of Works has one line named for the highway, code ERGP12211940, "LAGOS-CALABAR COASTAL HIGHWAY", marked ongoing, worth N100,000,000 (page 1154). The 2026 Act has the same code, the same name and N70,000,000 (page 1508). Together that is N170,000,000. The government's own releases describe a much larger project. The Works Ministry gives the total cost of Section 1, the 47.474-kilometre stretch in Lagos, as N1,067,887,381,148.61. The Presidency and the Information Ministry have announced loans of $747 million and $1.126 billion for the first two sections. The two budget lines together come to 0.016 per cent of the stated cost of Section 1 alone.

The former Vice-President's statement was issued on Monday, 12 October 2026, by Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of the African Democratic Congress presidential campaign council. As reported by Vanguard, Tribune and Daily Nigerian, it asks the government to publish the original feasibility and environmental studies, the original and revised designs and route maps, the contract details and variations, a breakdown of work removed from the original contract, the payments already made and the revised project cost. It also asks the government to confirm or deny reports of a loan request "of up to US$20 billion" linked to the project and, if one exists, to disclose its purpose, terms, the projects it would finance and "the certified work it would cover". "You cannot change the work and refuse to change the bill," the statement says. The $20 billion is the only figure it cites; it names Hitech Construction Company as the contractor.

The budget record is short. The 2025 Act, in the version as passed and published by the Budget Office of the Federation, lists ERGP12211940 between a N15,000,000 line for Works Ministry field office libraries and a N20,000,000 road in Anambra and Enugu states. The 2026 Act, in the copy published by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, keeps the line in the same place at N70,000,000, which is 30 per cent less than in 2025. A search of the full text of both Acts for "coastal" found no other line naming the highway. The nearest is a 2026 line under the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, code ERGP20275008, "PROVISION OF RELIEF MATERIALS TO PEOPLE AFFECTED BY COASTAL ROAD ALIGNMENT", N140,000,000 (page 1077). It sits among Lagos constituency projects but does not name the Lagos-Calabar highway. A bill to repeal and re-enact the 2025 Act put that year's total at N48,316,242,591,785; its detailed schedule was not obtained.

The government has published the price of Section 1, though not the contract. A Works Ministry release of 13 December 2025, carried by the Federal Ministry of Information, announced that 30 kilometres of the 47.474-kilometre Section 1, from Ahmadu Bello Way on Victoria Island to Eleko Village, had been opened to traffic. It says the road "was awarded to Hitech Construction Africa Limited" and is funded under an EPC+F (engineering, procurement and construction plus financing) model, "which allows the contractor to handle both construction and financing". It goes on: "The total cost of the project is N1,067,887,381,148. 61K", and spells the sum out in words. The release does not say what the contract covers, when it was signed, or how much has been paid.

The loans are also on the public record. An Information Ministry release dated 9 July 2025 announced a $747 million syndicated loan, led by Deutsche Bank, for Phase 1 Section 1. First Abu Dhabi Bank acted as agent across all facilities; Afreximbank, the Abu Dhabi Exports Office, the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development, Nexent Bank and Zenith Bank also lent; and the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit gave partial risk cover. A State House release of 26 December 2025 quotes the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, saying financing of $1.126 billion for Phase 1 Section 2, about 55.7 kilometres from Eleko to Ode-Omi, was signed on 19 December 2025. It was underwritten by First Abu Dhabi Bank ($626 million) and Afreximbank ($500 million), which add to $1,126 million. The two facilities together come to $747 million + $1,126 million = $1,873 million. Neither release gives the interest rate, the tenor or how the loans are to be repaid. The July release says a tolling strategy "is currently being finalised".

The Debt Management Office's quarterly tables of external debt show project loans from syndicates rising over the same months, but not what they paid for. Its table for 30 June 2025 lists "Syndicated Loan" of $209.97 million. By 30 September 2025, a line headed "Syndicated Loans (Projects)" stood at $1,389.97 million, $1,180.00 million higher, and by 31 December 2025 it stood at $2,511.91 million, a further $1,121.94 million. From 31 March 2026 the Office lists syndications by lender: First Abu Dhabi Bank $1,874.09 million and Afreximbank $637.82 million, which add to $2,511.91 million, the December figure. At 30 June 2026 the First Abu Dhabi Bank line was unchanged and Afreximbank's had risen to $835.78 million. Total external debt that day was $54,523.57 million. None of these tables names a project, so they cannot show how much of the two coastal facilities has been drawn. The Section 2 release says Afreximbank underwrote $500 million of that facility, so both coastal loans cannot sit wholly in the First Abu Dhabi Bank line, even though its $1,874.09 million is close to the $1,873 million total.

The government has published more than the statement suggests. On the record are the stated cost of Section 1 to the kobo, the name of the contractor, the financing model, the lengths of Sections 1 and 2, the size, lenders and dates of both loan facilities, and the split of the Section 2 facility between its two underwriters. The State House release also says a value-for-money assessment was carried out by the Works Ministry with its financial adviser, SkyKapital, and independently reviewed by the engineering firm GIBB. The Ministry has also given progress figures for the sections in Akwa Ibom and Cross River, including 71.4 kilometres under Sections 3A and 3B, and on 13 May 2026 it signed a memorandum of understanding with Hitech for a new Akwa Ibom alignment of about 82.8 kilometres, Section 5.

The records we read do not include what Atiku asks for. No contract document for any section has been published in those records, nor any variation, interim payment certificate or payment record. The loan agreements and their terms, the value-for-money report and the cost of any section after Section 1 do not appear in any primary release we found. The FEC approvals for later sections, put at N1.334 trillion and N1.65 trillion in press reports of Council briefings, could not be matched to a ministry or State House release, so this report does not rely on them. The Open Treasury portal and the Bureau of Public Procurement's open contracting portal did not respond when we tried them on 13 October 2026.

The releases also leave the government's own share unexplained. In the 13 May 2026 release the Minister of Works, David Umahi, says the Federal Government "would provide 30 percent counterpart funding for the projects, while the remaining would be sourced through a structured funding arrangement", with the roads to be tolled on completion. That release is about the legacy road contracts signed that day, and it does not say whether the same split applies to Sections 1 and 2. No line in either Appropriation Act names a counterpart payment for the coastal highway. Any such payment would therefore have come from lines that do not name the project, from loan proceeds, or from outside the annual budget; the documents do not show which.

The same gap applies to compensation. In a release dated 25 March 2025 the Information Ministry said over N15 billion had been paid to owners of affected properties, and at the commissioning on 31 May 2025 the State House reported Mr Umahi saying N18 billion had been spent on compensation. Neither figure matches a named line in the 2025 or 2026 Act. At the December 2025 opening, the release quotes the chairman of the Senate Committee on Works, Barinada Mpigi, pledging the National Assembly's support for completion "through adequate appropriation and oversight". The 2026 Act later gave the named line N70,000,000.

Atiku's figure of $20 billion cannot be tested against these records. None of the documents we read contains a borrowing request of that size, and we did not have access to any National Assembly paper that would show whether one has been sent. The Presidency's statement of 11 October 2026, which answered Atiku on fuel prices, lists the coastal highway among the government's infrastructure projects but does not deal with the demands he made the next day.

Nothing in these documents suggests that anyone has broken the law, and no such claim is made. The documents show a project whose announced financing is $1,873 million in loans, while the budget names it for N170,000,000 over two years. The government has published headline sums for the first section and for both loans. They do not show what has been paid to whom and when, what the later sections cost, or on what terms the money was borrowed. Those are the records the statement asks for. Neither the Works Ministry nor Atiku's campaign was asked for comment before publication; the figures above are the government's own, set against each other.

What this rests on

Primary documents downloaded and read on 13 October 2026: (1) 2025 Appropriation Act as passed, Budget Office of the Federation (2,185 pages, file '2025 Appropriation ACT as Passed.pdf'), Federal Ministry of Works 0234001001, page 1154 of 2185: ERGP12211940 Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, ongoing, N100,000,000. (2) 2026 Appropriation Act, copy published by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (2,604 pages), Federal Ministry of Works, page 1508: ERGP12211940, ongoing, N70,000,000; Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, page 1077: ERGP20275008 relief materials to people affected by coastal road alignment, N140,000,000. Full-text search of both Acts for 'coastal' and 'Calabar' returned no other highway line. (3) Works Ministry release via fmino.gov.ng, 13 December 2025: Section 1 total cost N1,067,887,381,148.61, 47.474 km, Hitech Construction Africa Limited, EPC+F. (4) fmino.gov.ng release, 9 July 2025: $747 million syndicated loan, Section 1. (5) State House release, 26 December 2025: $1.126 billion for Section 2 (55.7 km) signed 19 December 2025, First Abu Dhabi Bank $626 million and Afreximbank $500 million. (6) fmino.gov.ng release, 13 May 2026: 30 percent counterpart funding; Section 5 about 82.8 km. (7) DMO external debt stock tables at 30 June 2025, 30 September 2025, 31 December 2025, 31 March 2026 and 30 June 2026. Arithmetic re-done: N100,000,000 + N70,000,000 = N170,000,000; (70,000,000 - 100,000,000) / 100,000,000 = minus 30 per cent; N170,000,000 / N1,067,887,381,148.61 = 0.0159 per cent; $626m + $500m = $1,126m; $747m + $1,126m = $1,873m. DMO: $1,389.97m - $209.97m = $1,180.00m; $2,511.91m - $1,389.97m = $1,121.94m; March 2026 $1,874.09m + $637.82m = $2,511.91m (equal to the December 2025 project syndications); March 2026 syndications $30.51m + $1,874.09m + $637.82m + $319.27m = $2,861.69m (printed sub-total); June 2026 syndications $1,874.09m + $835.78m + $30.51m + $315.64m = $3,056.02m; commercial sub-total $18,547.47m + $3,056.02m + $1,500.00m + $51.52m = $23,155.01m (printed); Afreximbank $835.78m - $637.82m = $197.96m; December 2025 commercial $2,511.91m + $56.09m + $4.63m + $159.97m = $2,732.60m (printed); September 2025 $1,389.97m + $55.93m = $1,445.90m (printed); June 2025 $209.97m + $58.93m = $268.90m (printed). Dates: Section 1 loan closed 9 July 2025; Section 2 signed 19 December 2025, 163 days later (22 + 31 + 30 + 31 + 30 + 19 = 163).

What this does not establish

How much has been paid to Hitech Construction, when and from which account; how much of the $747 million and $1.126 billion facilities has been drawn; the interest rate, tenor, security and repayment terms of either loan; the contract texts and any variations, including any arising from changes to the route; the cost of Sections 3A, 3B, 4 and 5 in a primary document (press reports of FEC approvals were not relied on); the content of the value-for-money assessment reviewed by GIBB; whether the 30 percent counterpart share stated on 13 May 2026 applies to Sections 1 and 2, and from which budget lines any counterpart or compensation payment was made. Which loans make up the DMO's First Abu Dhabi Bank and Afreximbank lines: the tables name lenders, not projects. Whether the N140,000,000 relief line in the 2026 Act concerns the Lagos-Calabar alignment. Whether the 2024 Appropriation Act or its 2024 amendment carried a coastal highway line: the 2024 Act on the Budget Office site is a scan, and on its printed page 1052 the Works Ministry's codes pass from ERGP12211931 to ERGP12212035 without ERGP12211940, but the whole Works section was not read. Whether the N100,000,000 line survived in the 2025 repeal and re-enactment, whose detailed schedule was not obtained. Whether any request for a loan of up to $20 billion exists. Open Treasury and the BPP open contracting portal could not be reached. Nothing in the documents suggests wrongdoing by anyone, and none is alleged. Neither the Works Ministry nor the campaign was asked for comment.