Afenifere, the Social-Political organisation, has described the visit of the Minister of Works, David Umahi to the Ilaje Ondo State sector of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway as a most commendable hallmark of democracy.

The Secretary General of the mainstream Yoruba organisation, Chief Sola Ebiseni, said the unscheduled visit of the Minister to Igbokoda, the headquarters of Ilaje Local Government and Agerige along the route of the Ondo State sector within a week of the group’s engagement with the President in an open letter is most commendable and a hallmark of democracy.

Ebiseni said the Ilaje people are highly appreciative of the President and this administration for the bold initiative of the project, contrary to the notion of the Honourable Minister

His words: “As a coastal Yoruba tribe we know our terrain and believe in the concept and feasibility of the road from day one and have looked forward to it with agitated enthusiasm.

“The road is beyond conjecture as we confirmed in our letter that works in the Ilaje sector are progressing and would reduce travelling hours from Lagos to Ondo State to about 30 minutes.

“Our petition to the President is that the entire coastline of Ondo State, which is about 100 kilometres linking the Itsekiri of Delta State, has been bypassed contrary to the original intention and declaration of the coastal Highway.

“We quoted the Minister to have said that 100 kilometres of the road had been approved to connect the neighbouring Edo, which is not a littoral state, and we reasoned that was the unacceptable reason for bypassing the entire coastline of Ondo State, though without prejudice to the benefits of our neighbour”

“The Ilaje portion of the coastal road is significant in terms of its length, and we appreciate that the Honourable Minister has finally come and now confirmed that the directive of the President was that the road should run two kilometres parallel to the Atlantic.

“The Minister has now told us that the coastal alignment was altered at the Ondo State sector due to soil challenges, which he said was peculiar to our environment.

“He did not give us any hope but expected that we would accept it as fait accompli. Of course, we are educated here and most conversant with our environment and its challenges, which are neither peculiar nor insurmountable.

“As far back as the early 1970s, some of our coastal communities like Aiyetoro have given scholarships for our youths to study similar terrains in other countries abroad.
Unfortunately, such knowledge could not be put into effect for lack of support from government.

“In our open letter, we wrote about the route having been traversed by telegraph poles and cables in the early 1900s, the creation of Victoria Island by the Colonial Government, and before our very eyes, the feat of Mr. Governor in taming the sea for the Atlantic city even as Governor of Lagos.

“We also know that facilities of international oil companies are sitting on a similar terrain in different parts of the Niger Delta with sands sourced even from the sea off Ondo State.

“We say without equivocation that no other project has boldly tackled the infrastructural development of the Niger Delta in this gigantic dimension. We are the Yoruba tribe of the Niger Delta. This project is one in a generation. We will not be assuaged by any lecture in civil engineering in the 21st century that our environment cannot be developed.

“This President has come to our environment working and giving us hope, and we stand by him in the execution of the project and in all his endeavours.”

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