First Weekly Magazine

News

Published

2 years ago

May 12, 2024

Between Landmark And The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway Project

The ongoing dispute between Landmark Africa, owned by Paul Onwuanibe, and the Federal Government of Nigeria over the ongoing Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway Project has been described as a way by which some people and organisations understand the average Southern Nigerian person’s love for bad news, and how they weaponise it, by using it to manipulate Nigerians.

Recall that on April 30, 2024, Landmark released a post on X claiming, “What we built in 6 years was destroyed in 6 hours.”

The post showed before and after photos that gave the impression that Landmark had been completely destroyed and the company was in ruins.

This later went internationally viral as almost five million people viewed it, with most of them insulting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and some heaping curses on the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi.

The comments were as surprising as they come.

One fellow, @greatdarl on X, said, “Man it’s so scary to build anything in naija esp Lagos and they claim nothing would happen to number of lives employed and impacted by this resort.”

Someone else, @Dycocoo, said, “My heart goes out to all the staffs that will be unemployed now”.

Another famous person, Maryanne Moghalu, said, “Invest in Lagos at your own peril.”

And we all sang a requiem for Landmark and went to bed.

However, a week later, on May 6, 2024, Landmark resurrected on X, posting that’ “Landmark Lagos is Open for Business!”

This made it clear that it was not true that Landmark’s business had been destroyed as only a small portion of temporary structures, which had encroached on the beach, which by law cannot belong to an individual or corporation, was demolished.

“The demolished portion comprised less than 3% of their business, and the Landmark corporation was and is still thriving.

“While their post distorting the truth and de-marketing Lagos had 4.6 million views, this new and truthful one only garnered a million views.

“With the allegation, Landmark pushed a false narrative, with the help of heavyweights, such as the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 General Elections, Mr Peter Obi and Kingsley Moghalus, that the Tinubu administration had destroyed their business, because of their ethnicity, and their staff had all lost their jobs while they lost the shirts on their backs.

“But it was a lie. Their business was still very much open and thriving. There had been no employee mass firings.

“It was just a manipulative publicity stunt to turn the public against the government and pressure them to allow a structure that had no standing in law to continue existing.

“The first post had gone viral and was featured on many international fora, denting Nigeria’s image.

“After leading the world to believe that “what we built in 6 years was destroyed in 6 hours” and that they lost ‘$200 million worth of investment’, the truth is that Landmark came out virtually unscathed by this exercise.

“But the world would not hear that story. Only the lie. And stations like Arise TV, who were willing participants in perpetuating this lie, will move to the next lie, without skipping a beat.

“Let me assure you that Landmark has no intention of leaving Lagos. Because, if they do, they will lose money, while Lagos will lose NOTHING! It is in their interest to remain in Lagos.

“And even their second post was not done to correct the damage they did. It was actually motivated by greed. You see, Landmark had to clear the air because many people who used to book them for their events were moving elsewhere, since ‘What we built in 6 years was destroyed in 6 hours’. And when they noticed that, they had to clear the air for their own selfish benefit.

“You see? It is so much easisr to destroy than to build,” Reno Omokri said in a social media post.