In a viral video on Friday, Makinde said an event that there was no need for the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi to be ‘dancing around the cost’ of the project.

The governor was reacting to a heated exchange that unfolded live on television between Umahi and Arise News presenter, Rufai Oseni on Tuesday.

Oseni had requested the minister to analyse the cost of the project, kilometre-by-kilometre.

The request did not sit well with Umahi, who declared himself “Professor of Practice” in engineering, while elaborating that the costs of the road in kilometres are not the same and would be too complicated for the journalist to understand.

He said: ‘These are elementary questions. And it makes no sense. A process is ongoing, payment has been made, and you are saying, “how has this money been utilised”?. The money is meant for the project, and it will be paid according to the work done.

‘When a certificate is generated, and it is approved through a process in the Ministry of Works, it will then be given to the funders, who will, in turn, check if the works were done. How can you be asking for cost per kilometre? The prices are different. The next kilometre is different from the next kilometre.

‘Keep quiet and stop saying what you don’t know. I’m a professor in this field. You don’t understand anything. I understand engineering very well. You have no knowledge of what you ask. You have no knowledge of what you’re asking’.

Oseni, who also refused to back down, responded: ‘Minister, it’s alright, keep dignifying yourself, and let the world know who you truly are’.

However, justifying the journalist’s question to the minister, Makinde said: ‘They asked a minister how much is the coastal road is, and then you are dancing around and going to say that no, the next kilometre is different from the next kilometres. Then what is the average cost?

‘When we did the Oyo to Iseyin road then, it was about N9.99 billion, almost N10 billion. About 34 or 35 kilometres, average cost is about N238 million per kilometre.

‘But when we did Iseyin to Ogbomoso, that was 76 kilometres, it was about N43 billion, average cost is about N500 million per kilometre. And we had two bridges, one over the Ogun River and then one at Ogbomoso end’.

Last year, the Federal Government announced the commencement of construction work on the 700 kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, which spans nine states and includes two spurs leading to the northern states.

Umahi made the announcement during the official handover of the first phase of the project, made up of 47.47 kilometres of dual carriageway, to Hitech Construction Company Limited, and which is to be constructed in concrete pavement.

According to a statement by the minister’s Special Adviser (Media), Mr. Uchenna Orji, Umahi, who was in company with the Federal Ministry of Works’ Controller in charge of Lagos State, Mrs Olukorede Kesha emphasised the need for all contractors handling Federal Government’s road projects to deliver within a record time, noting that the government would not allow variation arising from delays or slow pace of work once mobilisation had been done.