EARLIEST interests in constructing Nigeria’s coastal road, dates back eight decades. The Niger Delta Environmental Survey of 1998 rated the road among development priorities for the Niger Delta Region.

After eight years, it was included in the Niger Delta Development Commission Master Plan of 2006, which proposed a road to cover nine coastal States of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo and Rivers.

It will stretch 704 kilometres from Calabar in Cross River to Epe in Lagos, weaving through swamps, river paths, marshy ground, thick forests; and 1,000 communities, most of which do not have any form of land access. The road will open immense social and economic opportunities in the coastal communities through infrastructures. The Calabar end, with further road developments would be the North East’s fastest access to southern Nigeria.

A marvel and the largest engineering project in Africa, its projected N1.8 trillion cost (37.9 per cent of the 2012 budget), pales beside accruable benefits in political, social, economic terms. About 180 bridges, two of them ‘cable-stayed’ and another two being ‘suspension’ bridges are some of its wonders.

The multiplier effects are beyond the unimaginable shortening of transit times from Lagos to Port Harcourt and Calabar to about three and five hours. Other benefits include:

•Generation of over 11,000 jobs during construction

•Linkage of coastal economies to the national economy

•Boost of major economic activities of fishing and related businesses in the region

•Provision of safe and direct access to currently under-utilised or unused waterways

•Fostering maritime industries such as ocean terminals, ship repair and maintenance

•Unlocking of the region’s vast tourism potentials in ocean viewing, natural beaches, eco-sanctuaries, spawning grounds, spectacle of the world’s fifth longest cable-stayed bridge and eighth longest suspension bridge

•Expansion of the service sector of the economies of the contiguous States

•Enhancement of exploitation of vast oil and gas reserves in the region; facilitation of regional integration

•Spur establishment of more export processing zones

Few projects are capable of the anticipated impact of the road on the most degraded region of the country. Completely new vistas of possibilities would open with the completion of the project, including viable light rail systems to link new cities that would be built. Yet the road is bedevilled by poor funding and a seeming lack of interest by the authorities in the economic opportunities it can unleash.

On completion, the benefits of the proposed road could make it the most profound economic legacy from the present generation to the next.

Governments have a duty to discover the political will that would translate this lofty vision into reality, and with it transform our economy and our lives.