IYC Rejects Coastal Highway Diversion, Urges Tinubu To Retain Original Route
The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide has asked President Bola Tinubu to ensure that the 750-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway follows its original approved route through Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers…
The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is one of the Tinubu administration's flagship infrastructure projects, a roughly 750-kilometre road intended to link Lagos to Calabar through the oil-producing Niger Delta states and other coastal communities. Works Minister David Umahi has overseen the project since its announcement, and it has drawn scrutiny over its cost, environmental impact on mangrove ecosystems, and the communities it is routed to pass through or bypass.
The Ijaw Youth Council, which speaks for Ijaw interests across the Niger Delta, is pushing back against reported plans to alter the highway's course away from Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers states. The group frames the original alignment as critical to opening up Ijaw and other riverine communities long marginalised in federal infrastructure spending. What remains unclear from the coverage is the specific nature of the proposed diversion, who initiated it, and whether the Works Ministry or presidency has formally responded to the IYC's demand.