- Fifty years after it was first proposed, construction of a $12 billion highway from Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos east across the Niger Delta to the city of Calabar has begun.
- Nigeria’s government says the project will improve transport links and stimulate economic development across a densely populated region.
- The highway passes through or near several biodiversity hotspots, including two that are known to be home to endangered Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees and critically endangered Niger Delta red colobus.
- Worrying questions have been raised over environmental and social impact assessments for the highway as well as compensation for people who will lose land and property.
On Apr. 30, 2024, as the sun rose over Lagos, bulldozers rolled in to the Oniru waterfront, a popular leisure hub, where they cleared kiosks, restaurants and other beachside businesses. The demolitions signaled the start of Nigeria’s most ambitious road project in decades. By December, 750 structures in densely populated stretches of this coastal state had been cleared as the project advanced 100 kilometers (62 miles) east toward its destination in the Niger Delta city of Calabar, 700 km (435 mi) away.
First proposed in the late 1970s, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is intended to link coastal communities and commercial hubs across Nigeria’s southern regions. The project stalled for several decades due to funding problems and changes of government.
“It was a vision of many years ago,” said Orji Uchenna Orji, an adviser to Nigeria’s public works minister, David Umahi. “The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway will be one of the greatest omens that will happen in the political and economic trajectory of this nation. It’s going to be a road with the biggest economic corridor in Africa and will stimulate economic development and transportation ecosystem.”
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, elected in 2023, has positioned the project as a defining legacy of his administration. According to Umahi, the works minister, it will reportedly cost $12 billion — 30% funded by the government, with the contractor, Hitech Construction Company Ltd., providing the rest. Construction is expected to take eight years. Hitech will collect tolls on the highway for 15 years to recover costs.
But the highway will alter landscapes, displace communities and threaten biodiversity as it advances along coastlines already suffering erosion and across the Niger Delta, an ecologically sensitive region that has endured decades of oil pollution.
“The construction and increased traffic can result in habitat destruction, ecosystem fragmentation and pollution, particularly affecting coastal and marine biodiversity,” said Peace Nwaerema, a lecturer in the Department of Geography, at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger state.
“The highway’s proximity to sensitive areas, such as wetlands and mangroves, raises concern about soil erosion, increased runoff and the disruption of migratory patterns for local wildlife.”
In 2022, Nwaerema published research into the environmental impact of the East-West Road, built across the Niger Delta in 2006, concluding that the road construction and traffic damaged aquatic ecosystems, fisheries, air quality, surface water, groundwater and soil. “Forests were opened, altering ecosystems, while wildlife faced regular exposure to hunting and roadkill,” he told Mongabay.
Inadequate funding for maintenance means many sections of the East-West Road are now in disrepair. The new coastal highway will offer a desirable alternative, but it will also pass through more ecologically sensitive areas than its predecessor.
According to the environmental and social impact assessments (ESIAs) prepared for the works ministry, 57 communities will be directly affected by the first sections of the project. Homes, schools and places of worship, including shrines, will have to be demolished or relocated.
Hundreds of people have already lost homes and property to demolitions so far. The government said it has set aside 18 billion naira ($11.6 million) to pay compensation for those affected by construction in Lagos state alone, but property owners say this is inadequate. Sikiru Sulaimon, a retired government worker, told Mongabay he lost three plots of land. The 79-year-old said he spent his savings developing the property for his family, but he has been offered only 2 million naira, the equivalent of $1,200, in compensation.
“I heard it from other house owners. What for? I have all my expenditure on paper because I can’t forget,” he said, displaying government papers for the property and documents he said proved he spent far more.
Construction has already encountered fierce resistance. In Okun-Ajah, a peri-urban area that’s home to several fishing communities, road-builders deviated from the route mapped out in the impact assessment, unexpectedly marking several properties for demolition, including the local chief’s palace. Residents erupted in protest, forcing the national works ministry officials to again revise the route.
Okun-Ajah’s residents are equally concerned that construction of the highway will cause erosion, pollute freshwater and disrupt fish habitat that many of their livelihoods depend on.
The potential disturbance of habitat in Okun Ajah — which has a mix of sandy beaches, estuarine waters and nearshore marine environments that support fishing — highlights the broader risk to ecologically sensitive areas along the road’s 700-km route. They include mangrove forests that serve as breeding ground for marine life, tidal flats that support biodiversity and coastal forests and wildlife corridors, home to diverse species.
“Eba Island Forest Reserve, between Ogun state and Ondo state, will be the first casualty,” wildlife conservationist Babafemi Ogunjemite, professor at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, told Mongabay. The reserve covers a 20-square-kilometer (7.7-square-mile) strip of land, almost entirely surrounded by water, where Ogunjemite noted chimpanzee nests in a 2006 survey.
Farther southeast, in Bayelsa state, the highway will cut through several coastal barrier island forests and pass close to the Edumanom Forest Reserve, 93 km2 (36 mi2) area of freshwater swamp forests and creeks.
Bayelsa is at the heart of the oil-producing region, criss-crossed with aging pipelines and canals serving oil wells and loading points for the whole Niger Delta. While forest reserves across Bayelsa state have been badly compromised by hunting and oil pollution, Edumanom is one of Nigeria’s last habitats for endangered chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes ellioti). It also shelters Sclater’s guenon (Cercopithecus sclateri) and the critically endangered Niger Delta red colobus (Piliocolobus epieni). Earlier in 2024, Edumanom and another reserve in the state were upgraded to national park status, a move intended to strengthen its legal protection and funding.
The impact assessments published so far do not cover Edumanom forest; the ESIA consultants contracted by the works ministry told Mongabay that other than the route’s initial stretch out of Lagos city in the west, and its eventual eastern terminus at Calabar, the road’s precise route has yet to be determined.
Controversial road
The revival of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway has been controversial from the moment it was awarded without public bidding. Umahi, the public works minister, said a public tender process was bypassed to award the job to Hitech Construction Company Ltd. in light of the firm’s expertise in coastal projects. Umahi also initially claimed the contractor would fund the project entirely on its own, but the government subsequently allocated $3.6 billion of public funds to the company for construction.
Critics including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar say the rules were bent to favor a firm owned by an ally of President Tinubu, an allegation the government denies.
Hitech Ltd. is owned by Gilbert and Ronald Chagoury, two brothers who have a longstanding relationship with Tinubu. The company is building Eko Atlantic City, an upmarket commercial and residential development in Lagos on 10 km2 (3.9 mi2) reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean. Tinubu was the governor of Lagos state in 2007 when the company was granted title to the land for the project. The president’s son, Oluwaseyi, also co-owns a British Virgin Islands company with Ronald Chagoury’s son, as major shareholders.
Equally seriously, construction of the highway began without the legally required environmental and social impact assessments. Drafts of ESIAs for the first 104 km (64.6 mi) of the road were only published in August and October, months after construction began. An official letter seen by Mongabay inviting residents to participate in the first stage of the evaluation was dated April 18, just days before demolitions began.
The ministry of environment, responsible for approving impact assessments, declined to explain the delayed ESIA. Ibrahim Haruna, director of press and public relations, told Mongabay that the assessment for the remaining 600 km (373 mi) was ongoing.
Amid sustained criticism, junior Environment Minister Iziaq Salako last year told journalists that construction began after a “preliminary” ESIA had been approved by his ministry but did not explain why residents were invited for evaluation just as work started.
Mongabay submitted a list of questions to the ministry of environment seeking details about routing the highway through the Edumanom Forest but despite following up with phone calls and texts, received no response. The published ESIA justifies routing the highway through Bayelsa’s ecologically sensitive regions by stating they have already been affected by oil production.
In its mitigation plan, the impact assessment advised the government to designate protected zones to safeguard critical habitats, and to rehabilitate or create alternative habitats elsewhere to compensate for any losses.
But experts say such plans are not always followed. Nwaerema said his study of the earlier East-West Road showed “negligible” compliance with recommended environmental mitigation measures. While he said there are steps that could be taken to reduce the impact of road construction, these require baseline studies, and effective enforcement of compliance as the project unfolds.
“This includes conducting thorough pre-construction assessments to identify sensitive ecosystems and implementing measures to protect aquatic habitats, wildlife and forests through designated wildlife corridors and no-go zones,” Nwaerema told Mongabay.
As Hitech’s heavy machinery advances east along the coast, there are few signs of this kind of care. Responding to Mongabay’s questions about the project’s environmental compliance, Stanley Agidiogun, the company’s health, safety and environment manager, did not respond to questions about specific measures the company is taking to protect communities and the environment, including hiring a biodiversity manager as recommended by the ESIA.
“Ultimately, balancing the project’s benefits with environmental stewardship will be essential for sustainable development in the affected communities,” Nwaerema said.
Banner image: Sikiru Solaimon with documents attesting to the value of three properties demolished to make way for the highway. Image courtesy of Kemi Adelagun.
