The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike is pushing to provide several projects for President Bola Tinubu to mark the 1 year in office, turning the city into a construction site.
However, the city remains dark and dirty.
Across the city, from AYA to Jahi to Maitama, the city is littered with ongoing projects, from bridges to highways— majority of the projects were inherited from the former Minister, Mohammed Bello, who served as the minister from 2015-2023.
In the past couple of months, the pace of the work on the projects has increased drastically.
DAILY POST learnt that the minister has been piling pressure on the contractors to deliver the projects ahead of the May 29 one year anniversary of the president.
Many residents believe that the plan by the minister to hurriedly complete the projects for politics is coming at a cost as the minister appears to be neglecting other aspects of the city, while some others are happy at the pace of the work, putting questions on the 8years of the former minister without delivering projects.
Mr Wike, a former Governor of Rivers State, has repeatedly told his associates of the plans to deliver these projects for the president, most importantly, the Abuja Metro Railway, which the previous administration abandoned, sources told DAILY POST.
It would be recalled that President Tinubu during the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) conference last year, told Mr Wike that he wants to ride on the metro train as soon as possible. To make it possible, the FCT was given over N100 billion in the 2023 Supplementary Budget for infrastructure for the territory. Aside from the budget allocation, President Tinubu approved the withdrawal of FCTA from TSA.
The minister also highlighted this plan during a budget defence session before the House Committee on FCT. He stated that the president would commission some of those projects as he tried to convince the lawmakers to approve the budget.
To meet the deadline, some of the contractors handling the projects are blocking major roads causing traffic gridlocks. Between Berger area and AYA, there are about six ongoing bridges that Mr Wike is trying to complete.
When DAILY POST visited the ongoing bridge linking Wuse and Wuye, the contractors blocked the road to speed up the project.
The same thing is happening at the Old CBN Bridge, but it has recently been opened up.
“If you see the amount of work we have done in the past couple of months, but I don’t know if everything will be ready by May 29, but we are very close,” one of the workers at Wuye Bridge told this reporter.
When DAILY POST visited the ongoing construction of the bridge around Power House in Asokoro, workers were seen working on Sunday.
More focus on the rich, neglecting the poor
Last year, the Minister announced the construction of 135 roads in the territory. However, many of these roads are in the affluent areas of Maitama, Asokoro, Wuse, Garki and others.
Many residents have raised concerns about this because the minister is breaking up the good roads and reconstructing them while less affluent places are suffering.
“Majority of the roads that the minister is reconstructing in Wuse and Asokoro are not even bad, he is just pulling the asphalt and laying new ones while people in Lugbe don’t even have decent roads,” Adeyeye Samson, a commercial driver in the city laments.
DAILY POST also did a mini-survey of many of the roads and discovered a disparity in how the minister is paying attention to the highbrow areas while neglecting the satellite towns.
The dark and unsafe city
While the minister is seeking to speed up the massive infrastructure to please the president, he is yet to get the basics right with the management of the city. All across the city, everywhere is still dirty, dark and insecure.
The dark spots of the city are providing criminals with spots to operate. Many residents believe that the inability of the minister to ensure that street lights are working is a major contributor to the insecurity around the city.
“Any time I am driving around the city gate, particularly around the stadium, my prayer is always the same, ‘Let my vehicle not break down’. I pray this prayer fervently. Not just that spot, even around the Central Business District, I cannot stop at the traffic light at night over the fear of someone jumping out of the dark to attack me,” Ahmed Idris, a resident said.
A trip around the city at night confirmed what Mr Idris said about the situation of the street lights.
From Galadinmawa to Kabusa Junction, it is completely dark. Same as the entire length of Apo Mechanic Road. This situation has left many of the residents at the mercy of miscreants, who use the darkness as the perfect cover.
Mr Wike was lauded recently over the use of N20 million bounty to secure the arrest of a kidnapping kingpin; however, kidnapping and petty criminals remain a concern across the city.
Aside from the darkness, the serenity that Abuja is known for seems to have become an issue of past memory.
Heaps of refuse now pile up at different parks and outside major markets like Wuse and Garki markets. Some of the residents have also raised concerns about the effectiveness of the refuse collectors.
In most parts of Kubwa and Lugbe, residents rely on Babanbola, who ends up dumping the refuse on the roadside or inside waterways like canals.
“It is a serious dilemma for many of us. We know these babanbolas are dumping the waste inside the canal, but what alternative do we have?” Ayo, a resident of PW in Kubwa told this reporter, noting the inability of the administrator of the city to provide a comprehensive refuse collection system similar to what you have in Lagos through LAWMA.
“The waste trucks usually pass the main road to pick up waste on a weekly basis, but those of us living in the inner streets rarely see these trucks. Often, Babanbolas are the only available alternative but the waste ends up in the waterway,” she stated further.
Mega City without potable water
Aside from waste, there is also the water situation in the FCT. Most residents of Lugbe, Guzape, and other parts of the FCT have no access to water board; many have to rely on boreholes and other means.
It would be recalled that Muhammadu Buhari’s administration applied for a $345 million loan for the Greater Abuja Phase II water scheme. The project was to provide water for some of the newly developed areas not covered by the water board scheme. But in the post COVID-19 era, the Chinese government is yet to release the fund.
Months after Wike’s appointments, many residents are yet to get water, but the minister is seeking to deliver projects to celebrate President Tinubu’s one year in office.
