President Bola Tinubu has held up the transformation of the Federal Capital Territory as a preview of what his administration intends to replicate nationwide, telling residents at the inauguration of the newly built Collector Road C01 and its accompanying bridge that infrastructure remains the single greatest enabler of economic prosperity.
Represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima at the ceremony within the FCT’s Institution and Research District, Tinubu said building roads opens up districts, opening districts invites investment, and investment is how Nigeria grows, framing Abuja’s modernisation as a microcosm of the transformation his government intends for the entire country. He recalled a promise made on taking office not to let governance become a string of abandoned dreams, and said the new road and bridge had already generated hundreds of direct and indirect construction jobs for young people, calling it the macro economy at work at the grassroots level. We promised Renewed Hope, he said, and today we are not just looking at a road, we are looking at a promise kept.
Tinubu traced the project back to a specific complaint: when the Body of Benchers raised concerns during last year’s Nigeria Law School Call to Bar ceremony about traffic gridlock and lack of access, he said he told FCT Minister Nyesom Wike directly that the country’s legal luminaries could not keep navigating potholes to train future advocates, nor could students keep arriving late to lectures for lack of a simple bridge, and approved the project under emergency procurement rather than letting it languish. Months later, he said, the road stands as proof of what fast execution can deliver, calling it an environment where academia and professional institutions can now thrive without the burden of structural neglect, and praised Wike for once again proving that when he is given a job, he does not rest until it is finished.
Wike, in his own remarks, thanked the president and vice president for attending what he called Day 21 of project inaugurations across the capital, assuring residents that every FCT district would continue to receive the administration’s attention, and separately thanked Tinubu for the resources made available to the territory and for removing the FCT Administration from the Treasury Single Account. Minister of State for the FCT Mariya Mahmoud thanked Tinubu on behalf of residents and the management team for his sustained support of the territory’s current leadership, which she said had produced an unprecedented pace of project execution, and pledged residents’ cooperation in protecting and maintaining the new infrastructure. Acting FCDA Executive Secretary Richard Dauda said the road, which includes a link bridge, an underground drainage system and solar street lighting, is critical to developing the area set aside for research and educational institutions under the FCT master plan, providing a vital alternative route to those institutions and surrounding communities.
