The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria has asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to spell out exactly what approval was given for demolitions linked to the Lagos-Calabar Coastal road, amid claims that diaspora investors and WINHOMES Global Services Limited lost properties without redress. National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko told reporters in Abuja on Monday that after more than two years of tracking the dispute, no compensation has reached WINHOMES or the overseas Nigerians who sank money into the affected sites. He said repeated document submissions, invitations for diaspora investors to return home for talks and engagements with ministries have yielded no closure, leaving public trust and the country's investment image in jeopardy.
Onwubiko wants the president to verify whether due process was observed and to order prompt, full compensation, warning that the unresolved stalemate signals to the world that contracts and property rights in Nigeria can be voided without consequence.
WINHOMES Global Services Limited and its diaspora backers have waited over two years for compensation while their bulldozed structures sit in the right-of-way of a flagship 700-kilometre coastal highway that the government never misses a chance to showcase. The silence from the Presidency suggests either that the demolition orders exceeded what Tinubu actually signed off, or that someone powerful is betting the victims will give up and go away.
Nigeria is courting foreign capital to replace petrol-era revenues, yet a straightforward test case—documented investors, paper trail, public outcry—still crawls along in limbo. When even the optics of property rights are trampled, the real message to external financiers is that due process is negotiable once politics and ribbon-cutting ceremonies enter the mix.
For citizens at home, the takeaway is blunter: if people who bring scarce forex home can be dispossessed without payment, those without foreign passports stand even less chance when the next federal or state project eyes their land. Every unpunished demolition chips away at the belief that courts, ministries or petitions can shield ordinary title holders.
This episode fits a pattern of rushed infrastructure rollouts where compensation votes appear on paper but never reach bank accounts, leaving communities stranded and giving the lie to the mantra that mega-projects equal instant development.
