Almost anyone who visits Nigeria as a tourist or for business will soon realize that, after years of neglect, the country is in dire need of significant transportation and road infrastructure upgrades to help open up Africa’s largest economy.
Yet, despite the poor road network, a proposed transformative superhighway for Cross River state, in the southeast of the country (often referred to as “South-South”), is struggling to win supporters. The reason? Activists claim the proposed highway will have severe negative environmental impact and will likely displace up to a million people.
Just last week, a small group of activists were in Abuja to present Nigeria’s president Buhari with over 253,000 signatures collected from the affected forest-dependent communities of Cross River and other international supporters. They’re calling for the immediate de-revocation of the traditional rights of occupancy of all the affected by proposed highway and for a re-routing of the project all together.
