Coastal highway: Presidency faults Atiku on Seyi Tinubu’s business relationship with Chagoury

The Presidency on Monday said the ongoing demolition of buildings to pave the way for the Lagos-Calabar highway will not deter foreign investments into Nigeria.

It also confirmed that the son of President Bola Tinubu, Seyi, is a Board member of Ogun State-based tile and sanitary ware manufacturer, CDK Industries Limited, adding that it poses no conflict of interest to the project.

The Presidency was responding to comments by the flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 elections, Atiku Abubakar, who alleged that the Coastal Highway project is being expedited solely due to the business ties between President Tinubu and Gilbert Chagoury, the owner of the highway contractor, Hitech Construction Company.

In a statement signed by Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy,  Bayo Onanuga, the Presidency said: “We found it strange that Alhaji Atiku could accuse President Tinubu of conflict of interest in the award of Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway to Hitech Construction Company which he claimed is owned by Chagoury family because the President’s son, Seyi Tinubu, sits on the board of CDK, a tiles manufacturing company, based in Sagamu, Ogun State.”

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The statement is titled: “Atiku Abubakar’s penchant for distorting facts.”

On Sunday, the former Vice President (1999 – 2007) argued that the lack of proper notification regarding the demolition of tourist and recreational amenities, as well as other properties within the Oniru corridor, including sections of Landmark in Lagos State, to facilitate the construction of the Coastal Highway, is a key factor contributing to Nigeria’s ongoing struggle to attract foreign direct investments.

However, the Presidency disagreed with Atiku. 

It asserted: “Various sectors of Nigeria’s economy, such as telecoms, manufacturing, solid minerals, oil and gas, e-commerce, and fintech, are attracting new Foreign Direct Investments from discerning investors who know Nigeria is a good market for bountiful returns.”

It argued that contrary to Atiku’s claim, the Tinubu administration has attracted over $20bn into the economy within its first year.

Onanuga cited President Tinubu’s trip to India for the G20 summit last September, saying “a substantial part” of the $14bn in new investments that investors promised “is already in the country.”

“Foreign investment in Nigeria’s stock market has ballooned, from N18.12bn in Q1 2023 to N93.37bn in Q1 2024, an increase of 415 per cent.

“The last time Nigeria saw such a level of investment was in the first quarter of 2019 when N97.6 billion was invested.

“The market, since Tinubu came to power, has broken records and created more wealth for the investors,” the statement read.

The former Vice President had also said, “The fact that President Bola Tinubu’s son and his surrogates are on the board of companies owned by Gilbert Chagoury constitutes a conflict of interest.”

Describing it as unsurprising that the Chagoury Group had emerged as the primary recipient of Tinubu’s generosity, Atiku stated, “Thanks to quality reporting by Africa Intelligence, our suspicions have been confirmed that Chagoury and Tinubu are indeed business partners and it has been formalized with Seyi on the board of one of Chagoury’s firms.”

He argued that instead of enhancing the ease of doing business, the Tinubu administration had allegedly demonstrated to the global community that his business endeavours and those of his family would consistently take precedence over national interests.

To this, the Presidency said should Atiku, who formed Intels Nigeria with an Italian businessman when he served in the Nigeria Customs Service, a “clear breach of extant public service regulations…be the one accusing someone else of conflict of interest?”

It said that as Vice President of Nigeria between 1999 and 2007, Atiku maintained his business links with Intels, which won major port concession deals.

“Was this not an abuse of office, a flagrant violation of his oath, that a company where he was a co-owner won major government contracts and concessions when he was vice president?” it queried.

It also accused the former VP of approving “sales of over 145 state-owned enterprises to his known friends and associates” as Chairman of the National Council on Privatisation.