It was less of a budget defence and more of a political boxing match on Wednesday as Works Minister David Umahi and Senator Adams Oshiomhole clashed openly on the Senate floor.
The exchange erupted during scrutiny of the controversial N15 trillion Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project, with Oshiomhole grilling the minister over transparency in funding and lingering delays.
As the questioning intensified, Umahi lashed out.
“Sir, are you judging or asking me questions?” Umahi had asked as Oshiomhole probed.
Oshiomhole fired back without hesitation, saying, “You are not entitled to interrupt me.”
That response appeared to ignite the minister’s anger.
“You can’t use foul language on me. I’m a distinguished Nigerian. You cannot speak to me in that manner.”
Gasps and murmurs filled the chamber as lawmakers watched the two APC heavyweights trade sharp words in full glare of the public.
Oshiomhole, a former national chairman of the ruling party, found support among some senators who openly scolded Umahi.
“Mind your language. You were in this senate for how long? Two months. Two-month senator,” one of the legislators lectured, tongue-in-cheek.
With tensions boiling over, the committee chairman stepped in to restore order and urged both men to proceed with decorum.
But the quarrel didn’t end there.
Oshiomhole went on to commend President Bola Tinubu for scrapping the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited funding model for road projects, describing tax credits as “very difficult to monitor transparency”.
Umahi, however, defended the switch to private sector funding, blaming project delays on the federal minister of finance for failing to release allocated funds. He insisted the president was unaware of the bottleneck.
What should have been a routine session quickly turned into high-voltage political drama — exposing cracks and clashing egos within the ruling party over one of Nigeria’s biggest infrastructure projects.
