By Adesina Soyooye

He stopped short of calling him inconsistent. Or Double-faced. But a former Senator, Ben Murray Bruce, did not shy away from expressing surprise and shock at the new Donald Duke he just discovered.

Ben-Bruce, from Bayelsa State, a former Director General of the Nigeria Television Authority, expressed  shock and disappointment at Duke, a former Governor of Cross River State, and currently,

the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, for the 2027 election over  Duke’s comment, recently, on the  President Bola Tinubu’s Government’s legacy project, the Lagos-Calarbar Coastal Highway. The multi-trilion Naira project has, at once, attracted both positive and negative comments since its construction began.

A few days ago, it was the turn of Duke to assess it when he appeared  on a television programme. Answering questions from the anchors of the programme, Duke had nothing good to say about  the project.

He stopped short of calling the Coastal Highway a scam. He called some parts of it land-grabbing. He saw it as a project meant for the development of Lagos State, only, and/or, perhaps, the South-west. He said the highway will never get to Calabar.

On the diversion of the road away from some areas so that it will now pass through Bayelsa, and so, incorporate the never-ending East-west road, Duke dismissed it as a mission impossible, given the swampy Bayelsa terrain. He dismissed the Governor of the State, Senator Douye Diri, who had praised the addition of Bayelsa area to the project as a “local champion”. He said more.

But Murray-Bruce, in a swift and damning response to Duke expressed shock at Duke’s about-turn.

In a post, he revealed that in beginning, while he and Duke drove through that area, that the same Duke, who is now condemning the project, had praised it to high heaven.

Murray-Bruce wondered what changed; what had become of the Duke who appreciated the project then.  He wondered if it is because Duke is now a Presidential candidate, and, so, would sacrifice the Coastal Highway he had praised before on the alter of politics.

On Governor Diri, Murray-Bruce told Duke that: “When Governor Douye Diri commended the road, he was not speaking as a local champion; he was speaking as a statesman who recognises infrastructure of international standard when he sees it.”

Following, is the full text of Murray-Bruce’s response to Duke.

“My dear brother Donald Duke, some years ago, you and I travelled along the stretch of the coastline where this road now runs, and I clearly remember your praise for the vision behind it. That is why your recent comments surprised me..

“Yes, the Coastal Highway is expensive. We agree on that. But nothing of lasting value in this world is cheap or free.

“Great nations are built by leaders willing to make bold, costly investments that will serve generations yet unborn.

“Mr. President committed to funding this project, and he is keeping that commitment. There is no funding shortfall.

“The work is progressing, and the quality of construction is second to none.

“When Governor Douye Diri commended the road, he was not speaking as a local champion; he was speaking as a statesman who recognises infrastructure of international standard when he sees it. I agree with him completely.

“Donald, I understand that you are running for president, and that your statement is political. That is the nature of the season, and I respect your right to make your case to Nigerians.

“But we must be careful never to undermine a project of national importance, or the President delivering it, simply for political advantage.

“When mankind went to the moon, it was neither cheap nor free. But it was necessary. So is this road.”

Both Donald Duke and Ben Murray-Bruce are from the South-South Region of Nigeria.