State Capture? Inside Tinubu’s Billion-Dollar Alliance with Gilbert Chagoury

In September 2023, the Bola Tinubu administration awarded the $11 billion Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project to Gilbert Chagoury’s Hitech Construction, allegedly without any competitive bidding or a transparent procurement process. 

This raised eyebrows and prompted counterclaims from the Minister of Works, David Umahi, who insisted that the contract had been approved through due process. However, he failed to present empirical facts to substantiate his claim.

Chagoury’s past and present

Gilbert Chagoury, 78, was born in Lagos to Lebanese parents and is the co-founder of the Chagoury Group in 1971. He built an empire that spans construction, glass, milling, and hospitality, and through flagship Hitech Construction, secured some of West Africa’s largest engineering contracts. 

Yet his résumé also carries a Swiss money-laundering conviction linked to the late dictator Sani Abacha in 2000. Chagoury was reportedly the key figure who helped Abacha launder his illicit funds. He paid a fine and returned roughly $300 million to Nigeria to avoid jail time.

Two decades later, the same businessman sits close to Nigeria’s new power centre, President Bola Tinubu. Chagoury’s firms are leading the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, a 700-kilometre project critics say was awarded without open tender. 

The Chagoury brothers are also the owners of Eko Hotel and Suites, Eko Atlantic City, HITEC ITB Contraction Limited and South Energyx Nigeria Limited. They bankrolled the Eko Atlantic land-reclamation project, which began during Tinubu’s tenure as Lagos governor (1999-2007). 

“To the contractors and my partner in daring, Engr. Roland Chagoury (Gilbert’s brother), it was tough for us. We came together to tame the Atlantic, something my leaders in Lagos thought was impossible for us to do,” Tinubu said of the billionaire during the inauguration of section one of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway.

The tight partnership has resurfaced questions about state capture and conflict-of-interest rules.

For many Nigerians, it’s business as usual in a country where outrage is often reduced to a hashtag, and consequences are few. The fear is no longer that the system is broken; it’s that the system is working precisely as intended, and no one will stop it.

Chagoury’s Caribbean credentials

Chagoury’s Caribbean footprint dates back to 1995, when St Lucia appointed him ambassador and permanent delegate to UNESCO; later, he also represented the island at the Vatican and the UN in Geneva. The role granted him a coveted diplomatic passport and, by extension, friction-free global travel, even after his Swiss conviction briefly placed him on a U.S. no-fly list.

In late June 2025, Tinubu embarked on the first state visit by an African leader to St Lucia since Nelson Mandela in 1998, receiving the island’s highest national honour and a new title, Sir Bola Tinubu, KCOSL. The presidency framed the trip as South-South cooperation. Still, opposition figures and security analysts asked why a Nigerian president would devote scarce diplomatic capital to an island better known for its citizenship-by-investment programme than for trade with West Africa. 

Sahara Reporters, citing unnamed officials, claimed the stopover was arranged by Chagoury and doubled as a discreet medical visit. The claim is unverified, yet the optics are difficult to miss – Tinubu’s closest private-sector ally is also St Lucia’s long-time ambassador.

St Lucia’s role

Why does a Caribbean island matter here? Two reasons stand out. First, St. Lucia’s citizenship and diplomatic-passport programmes offer elite Nigerians, including politicians and business leaders, an offshore safety net.

The island’s Citizenship-by-Investment Unit confirmed a record 3,300 approvals in 2024, many from West Africa (application data are sealed, so nationality breakdowns are unofficial). Second, Chagoury’s dual identity as Nigerian business mogul and St Lucian envoy places him at a unique intersection of commercial ambition and diplomatic access.

Tinubu’s short visit yielded a South-South trade MOU, a cultural-exchange pledge, and a promise to explore joint climate-resilience financing, which are thin deliverables compared to the presidential time invested. 

“State visits normally follow trade volume, not the other way round,” notes trade lawyer Temitope Omosebi. “Here, the sequencing is reversed, suggesting personal networks drove the calendar.”

Money, Politics, and U.S. Scrutiny

Chagoury’s influence is not confined to West Africa. Between 2012 and 2016, he donated at least $180,000 to U.S. political causes via straw donors, leading to a 2021 deferred-prosecution settlement with the Department of Justice, in which he admitted the illegal contributions and paid a $1.8 million fine. His name also surfaced in the 2022 conviction of Congressman Jeff Fortenberry, who lied to the FBI about receiving funds traced to the businessman.

U.S. lobbying filings show Gilbert Chagoury retains multiple firms to press his interests on Capitol Hill, including visa facilitation and image repair. Analysts say the strategy shields his global operations from fallout tied to his Abacha-era past.

Ports, power, and the coastal economy

Back home, Chagoury’s business footprint is deepening under Tinubu. In March 2025, a $700 million Lagos Ports modernisation deal reportedly went to ITB Nigeria, another Chagoury subsidiary. The Africa Report recently noted that the tycoon’s group has become “the preferred partner” for Tinubu’s big-ticket infrastructure push.

Supporters frame the partnership as meritocratic: Hitech pioneered sand-filling technology that reclaimed nine square kilometres for Eko Atlantic, arguably Africa’s most complex private civil-engineering site. Detractors counter that the concentration of public works in one conglomerate creates systemic risk and undermines Nigeria’s public procurement law, which requires open bidding on major projects.

The boundary between business merit and political favours

Executives who have worked with Hitech credit the firm with world-class dredging know-how and fast delivery. “When you want 20 million cubic metres of sand moved, there aren’t many African outfits that can bid,” says a former Lagos infrastructure commissioner. 

Yet, even admirers worry about the risk of concentration. If every mega-project hinges on a single conglomerate closely linked to the president, what happens if financing dries up or public sentiment shifts?

Tinubu’s economic advisers argue that Nigeria needs marquee projects to unlock regional logistics and coastal tourism, and that few local players can front the capital. For them, Chagoury is less a liability than a lever, a private partner willing to invest in a high-risk environment.