FCT Under Wike: Strong Gains In Infrastructure, Setbacks In Social Services
Since assuming office on August 21, 2023, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, has implemented short, medium, and long-term plans aimed at restoring the Abuja Master Plan, decongesting the city, and enhancing rural economies through infrastructure development.
He also promised to improve security, education, healthcare, and revenue generation.
An assessment of his performance in view of the Bola Tinubu administration’s midterm in office shows achievements in infrastructure and security.
However, challenges remain in the education and healthcare sectors.
In this report, THE WHISTLER evaluates the minister’s performance vis-à-vis his promise to transform the FCT.
Infrastructure:
Without doubt, Wike has excelled in the area of infrastructure. As FCT minister, he has completed some abandoned projects and initiated new ones. These projects span the city centre and satellite towns.
Within months of resuming office, he rehabilitated and resurfaced 135 roads in Wuse, Garki, Gwarimpa, and Maitama Districts.
He also completed the Abuja Rail Mass Transit system, which was commissioned by President Tinubu on May 29, 2024. Other projects completed include the Inner Southern Expressway from the Outer Southern Expressway to the Southern Parkway, full scope development of about 6.7km of 10 lanes Outer Southern Expressway from Villa Roundabout to Ring Road 1 Junction, and construction of Southern Parkway from the Christian Centre to Ring Road 1.
Wike also completed the B6 (Constitution Avenue)/B12 (Independence Avenue) roads in Central Area, and the Wuye interchange bridge, Arterial Road, N-20, from Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Expressway to Murtala Mohammed Expressway, named after Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, and rehabilitation of the 18-kilometre Nyanya, Karu, Orozo road.
Another milestone of the Wike-led FCTA was the completion of engineering infrastructure in Guzape District Lot II, and the resurfacing of 189 roads covering 57 km within Abuja city centre, among others.
Wike also completed the Vice-Presidential lodge despite public outrage over the N22 billion construction cost.
In his second year as Minister, Wike has focused on more infrastructural projects, they include; the 16-kilometre inner northern expressway, stretching from Idu to Dei Dei and the CN8 road from N5 (Obafemi Awolowo Way) to the Court of Appeal; the N20 flyover on the Onnex-Kubwa Road, which will be commissioned by the president as part of activities to mark his second year in office.
Other completed projects that will be commissioned are; the newly renovated Abuja International Conference Centre (AICC), bus terminals in Kugbo and Mabushi, and the Apo-Wassa Road, the N16 interchange and connecting roads from Maitama through Katampe to Jahi; and the stretch from Life Camp Junction to Ring Road III, the Kabusa-Takushara and Kabusa-Ketti access roads, an access road in Giri District, a 15km road from A2 Junction on the Abuja-Lokoja Road to Pai in Kwali Area Council, as well as roads in Ushafa, War College, and the Army Checkpoint area in Bwari Area Council.
Furthermore, the minister has completed the extension of Inner Southern Expressway (ISEX) from Southern Parkway (S8/S9) to Ring Road II, and full scope development of FCT Highway 105 (Kuje Road) from Airport Expressway to Outer Southern Expressway OSEX with Spur at Kyami District.
The minister has also resurfaced and provided streetlights in the Dutse-Ushafa road, Kuje township road, Herbert Macaulay Way, Muhammadu Buhari Way, Jabi, the Aminu Kano Crescent, Gwarinpa road, the Ahmadu Bello Way, the entire areas of Maitama, Asokoro, Wuse, Central Business District (CBD), the Airport road, down to Bill Clinton Drive.
Security:
When Wike assumed office as FCT Minister, the capital city was experiencing a series of security problems. Kidnapping for ransom, one-chance robberies and vandalism of public infrastructure were widespread.
To tackle this, Wike distributed 50 operational vehicles to various security agencies in Abuja. He has also commenced the construction of 12 Divisional Police Stations and staff quarters, two in each of the six area councils of the FCT.
The minister has also extended logistics and operational support to organised vigilante and hunters’ groups within Abuja and its environs, declaring that any government that cannot secure lives and property has no business in governance. These moves have significantly improved security in the FCT.
Security data obtained by THE WHISTLER from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) showed a significant drop in kidnappings, armed clashes and fatality counts in the FCT since Wike became FCT minister in August 2023.
In March 2024, Wike asked the Senate to approve a security vote for the FCTA, arguing that the controversial and opaque security vote system was necessary to ensure that security agencies eliminate threats without going through the rigours of official bureaucracy capable of delaying action and revealing sensitive security information.
However, the proposal was not considered by the lawmakers.
While Wike has made some progress with the security situation in the FCT, there is a need for more investments in logistics, surveillance and technology to make the FCT safe.
Revenue Generation:
As promised, the FCTA under Wike has increased IGR.
The Federal Capital Territory Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS) generated over N252.8bn in revenue during the 2024 fiscal year, which represents a 19.8 per cent increase from the N211.1bn recorded in 2023. This represents 101 per cent of the agency’s target of N250.2bn for the year.
During a media chat earlier this month, the minister announced that his revenue drive has shot up the monthly earnings of the nation’s capital from about N9bn when he assumed office in August 2023 to an average of N30bn monthly.
The growth in revenue can be attributed to the collection of ground rents and payment of Certificates of Occupancy (C of O) by land allottees.
The minister said the nation’s capital has the potential to generate up to ₦300bn monthly revenue if land allottees fulfill their obligations.
One of the major wins of the Wike administration is the exclusion of the FCTA from the Treasury Single Account effectively paving way for him to utilize the IGR for the development of Abuja.
Wike, who argued that the FCTA is not a revenue-collecting agency for the federal government, got President Tinubu’s approval to pull the FCT out of the CBN-domiciled TSA.
The move empowered Wike to embark on projects and disburse monies without bottlenecks.
Civil Service Reforms:
The Minister also implemented the bill for the establishment of a Civil Service Commission for the FCT by establishing the FCT Civil Service Commission.
The establishment of the commission ensured career progression for civil servants in the FCT Administration.
He said that the civil servants in the FCTA had lost hope because Directors in the Administration could not get to the apex of their careers because there was no CSC.
He added that the law for the creation of the commission had been signed, but nobody wanted to implement it for different reasons.
Similarly, Wike also created the FCTA’s first women’s affairs secretariat.
The secretariat, headed by Adedayo Benjamins-Laniyi, was given the mandate of ensuring the involvement of women in the programmes of the administration.
Benjamins-Laniyi told THE WHISTLER that the women’s affairs secretariat has, in two years, grown to become a very innovative platform for social interventions reaching women in underserved communities in the FCT.
“What has happened through this pioneer secretariat for women affairs has never happened in the 48 years of the FCT administration’s engagements for/and of women,” she said, “Other advocacies done by the minister through the secretariat like the inclusion People Living with Disabilities (PWLDs) and child right engagements have filled social gaps in the FCT in a manner that has never been experienced before.
“Mr Project (Wike) has turned women into a capital project.
“Aside from working with him, I have been a resident of Abuja for close to 30 years, and I can tell you authoritatively that what we have seen in two years terms of road construction is incredible.
“The development tells you that nothing is impossible, you just have to have an approach and the audacity to follow through, which clearly he has followed it through. And the fact that all the projects are fully paid for is highly commendable.
“As a leader, he has challenged me even in the place of being an innovative leader myself. I have had to rethink and reconstruct the dynamics around women as human capital projects.
“We have facilities within the women affairs secretariat, including women development centres, demonstration farms, groundnut milling, dotted all over the FCT that have been redundant for like 15 years. His approach of reviving moribund and abandoned projects has also provoked my approach to revive these centres.
“Wike is truly a personification of the name ‘Mr project’”.
Education and Health:
While Wike has excelled in many areas, his administration is seen not to have done enough in the education and health sectors.
The current strike action by teachers in the six area councils of the FCT is a problem hanging over Wike’s head. While the payment of the teachers is the responsibility of the council chairmen, the prolonged strike has brought embarrassment to the FCT administration.
Wike had set up a six-man committee headed by the Minister of State, Hajiya Mariya Mahmoud, to resolve the issues and get the teachers back to their classes.
The committee resolved that the six area council chairmen should continue with the payment of 25 months minimum wage arrears as agreed in the earlier signed template, while the issue of the peculiar allowance and minimum wage arrears would be looked into by the FCT minister.
Based on that, the teachers again suspended the strike. The six area council chairmen all agreed to that. But while the minister paid 40 per cent of the arrears as he promised, the chairmen again reneged on their promise, and the teachers again embarked on another round of strike on January 15, 2024.
The minister again waded in, but the chairmen refused to pay their own 60 per cent, and the union, again for the third time, embarked on another strike, which started on September 18, 2024, a few days after the resumption of schools for a fresh academic session. It was later suspended after some intervention. The strike was called off on February 21, 2025, only to resume on March 24, 2025, because the council chairmen refused to fulfill their own part of the bargain.
Recently, Wike disclosed that he withheld 10 per cent Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) allocation normally disbursed to area councils due to their failure to meet the demands of striking primary school teachers in the FCT.
The minister needs to pressure the council chairmen to live up to their responsibilities and get FCT schools reopened.
Similarly, the state of healthcare in the FCT is nothing to write home about.
Recently, the House of Representatives called on the Federal Government to declare a State of Emergency in the FCT healthcare facilities.
Currently, 14 general hospitals across the six area councils are run by the Wike-led FCT Administration.
The house raised concerns over the deteriorating state of public hospitals in Abuja, warning that a total collapse of the healthcare system is imminent unless urgent action is taken.
Last week, an investigation by Daily Trust highlighted how inadequate bed spaces, manpower, prolonged and incessant strikes, and dearth of requisite medical equipment, among others, are bedevilling the healthcare facilities in the capital city.
The report noted that emergency units and wards of some facilities are so full that patients are treated on the floor or told to leave their beds for others.
Patients attending public hospitals in the Federal Capital Territory also decried what they termed a sharp upward review of charges on services, some of them reportedly amounting to 400 per cent.
While the minister has made budgetary provisions for the completion of 250-bed capacity at Utako and New Gwarinpa General Hospitals and an 80-bed Gwagwalada Cottage Hospital, these projects need to be speedily implemented to prevent the healthcare sector from collapsing completely.
Other Issues:
Human rights lawyer, Deji Adeyanju, told THE WHISTLER in a chat that Wike’s two years in office have been marred by land grabbing and racketeering. He accused the minister of revoking lands to enrich his friends and cronies.
“Wike’s two years in office have been characterised by land grabbing and land racketeering. These two are fully back in FCT. If he sees your house and likes the plot he will grab it, he will look for one way or the other to revoke your C of O and allocate it to himself and his friends.
“He has even said on TV that he has been grabbing people’s land and giving it to his friend. That is criminality; the law is clear, you can’t revoke someone’s land and give it to another. You can only revoke somebody’s land for overriding public interest, but Wike chose people’s land and gave it to himself and his friend.”
On Wike’s achievements in the development of infrastructure, Adeyanju alleged that the projects being undertaken by the minister is an avenue to embezzle public funds.
“Have you seen the infrastructure he is doing?” He queried, “Where have you seen that they renovate ICC for N33bn? He is using it to steal.”
He, however, acknowledged that Wike is an improvement on the last FCT Minister, Mohammed Bello.
“Wike is a change, the last minister was non-existent, he was a minister on paper. I will criticise and say the truth, Wike has done well, better than other previous ministers, but Nasiru El-Rufai is still the man any day, anytime. Despite the fact that I don’t like him, he did exceptionally well. He raised the bar in terms of developmental strides, nobody has been able to match him to date.
“Wike has done a lot of development, a lot of taking other people’s land, including the surrounding properties adjacent to his house in order to expand his house in Guzape. Those are serious constitutional and legal infractions,” Adeyanju added.
On his part, public affairs commentator and candidate of the Social Democratic Party for the FCT Senatorial Election, Olanrewaju Osho, lauded the minister for improving road infrastructure in the capital city.
“Minister Nyesom Wike has done well in improving the road infrastructure in Abuja by completing some of the ongoing projects and commencing new ones. He also did well by constructing road projects in the satellite towns.
“He also performed well by structuring the FCT public service into a more robust and organised structure capable of delivering better service if well led.
“Wike’s fencing of the open spaces around major roads and street corners, as well as the provision of solar street lights in some parts of the city, are commendable.”
Osho, however, scored the minister low in terms of education, healthcare, and tourism infrastructure while decrying the lack of youth development programs by the FCT minister.
“In areas like education, healthcare, tourism infrastructure and youth development, the Minister hasn’t done well. In education, for example, the industrial action embarked upon by teachers at the basic education level has now entered the third month. Primary school pupils have been home for over two months.
“It is true that some works are ongoing to improve healthcare through the building of a few more district hospitals. However, the rural health care within the territory needs more revolutionary attention.
“Development could be fast-tracked in the territory through greater openness and community participation. The minister and his team don’t know it all and can’t do it all. Running a more open administration that makes provision for community involvement will encourage citizens to volunteer ideas and contributions that could help the government perform better.
“It’s hard to see any youth development programs initiated by the Wike-led administration. This does not allow the youths to feel a sense of belonging.
“In the area of transportation, the Minister has delivered far less than what he promised. And because of the gaps in transportation infrastructure, the transportation system in the city is poor, unworthy of a city of Abuja’s status and puts the lives of citizens at risk through the dreadful ‘one chance’ problem,” Osho said.
FCT Under Wike: Strong Gains In Infrastructure, Setbacks In Social Services is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
