Nigerian Students Endorse Tinubu and Umahi After Inspecting Road Projects

Nigerian Students Endorse Tinubu and Umahi After Inspecting Road Projects

Student body announces backing after Cross River and Benue tour

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has passed a vote of confidence in Works Minister Dave Umahi and reaffirmed its endorsement of President Bola Tinubu after an inspection tour of federal road projects, Punch and P.M. News reported on October 25, 2026. The decision was announced on Saturday after the delegation assessed the quality and pace of work on roads linking Cross River and Benue states.

Onyia-led delegation visits three road corridors

The team was led by NANS Senate President Ibeabuchi Onyia and included national officers, zonal leaders, state executives and campus leaders. According to Punch, the roads inspected were the Alesi-Ugep (Iyamoyung-Ugep) section in Cross River State, Sections 3A and 3B of the Calabar Coastal Highway, and the Adikpo-Ajio-Teshe-Ada-Kyogen-Obudu Road connecting Benue and Cross River states.

Inspected Cross River chainage spans 65 kilometres

The inspected Cross River stretch of Sections 3A and 3B covers Chainage 0+000 to Chainage 65+000, roughly 65 kilometres of chainage (not the two-state total). Leadership reported that the student inspectors found steady, measurable progress on site, describing the site crews as disciplined and technically competent, and singling out the coastal highway sections for their scale and ambition.

Finished roads will cut travel time and open up markets

Speaking for the students, Onyia said completed roads would reduce travel time, connect border communities, open up farmlands and markets, and reduce accidents and the hardship faced by daily road users, P.M. News reported. He praised Umahi's hands-on leadership and the progress recorded on the inspected projects, and restated the association's support for Tinubu's drive to rebuild national infrastructure and open up regions to trade, investment and tourism.

A nationwide campus-roads audit nears its end

The statement is part of NANS's Nationwide Federal Roads Project Tour, a student-led audit of federal infrastructure. Earlier legs covered the South-East, including the Enugu-Onitsha Dual Carriageway, the Second Niger Bridge and the Onitsha-Owerri Expressway, while NANS President Babatunde Akinteye separately led a visit to the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway in mid-October, The Sun reported. The association says it will keep assessing the federal roads leading to campuses, commending where due and recommending where needed.

Students, farmers and traders gain first along corridors

NANS argues that students and commuters who travel these routes daily stand to gain first, followed by farmers, market traders and cross-border commerce. The government says the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway runs 750 kilometres in total; Section One covers 147.47 kilometres in Lagos, the 55-kilometre Section Two is expected to be ready by mid-November, and Sections 3A and 3B of about 75 kilometres in Cross River and Akwa Ibom are more than 40 percent complete, according to an October ministerial briefing carried by the Gazette Post Nigeria and Voice of Nigeria.

Students demand supervision through to completion

Onyia urged the Works Ministry to sustain supervision of the projects until completion, and NANS says further tour reports will follow. Umahi has said construction on the coastal highway is moving faster than envisaged and that quality standards will be enforced. With student inspectors now acting as independent witnesses to delivery, each completed section will test whether the government's infrastructure promises translate into roads Nigerians can actually drive on.