The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has said rich people, commonly referred to as ‘Big Men’, residing in Abuja remain the nation’s Capital city’s biggest problem in voluntary tax compliance for development.
Wike stated this during President Bola Tinubu’s inauguration of the newly constructed Collector Road CN2 (Zakari A. Kyari Street) in Abuja on Thursday, to celebrate his second year in office.
The FCT Administration constructed the road from Arterial Road N11 (Ahmadu Bello Way) in Mabushi to Judges Quarters in Katampe District and other roads.
The minister said that the ‘big men’ living in the FCT do not like paying taxes.
He, however, expressed dismay that the same ‘big men’ pay their taxes and ground rents voluntarily in London, the United States of America and other countries.
He said that the CN2 road and other connecting roads in the Katampe District were executed with taxes and ground rents paid by the responsible residents of the FCT.
“For those who said we sealed their houses for not paying a ground rent, see the value; see the product of paying a ground rent.
“If you don’t pay, nobody will provide this infrastructure because the city only has to collect taxes.
“People say Abuja is rich. How rich is it?” the Minister asked.
He explained that what Abuja collects from the Federation Account was one per cent of what was due to the Federal Government every month.
“So, assuming that the federal government gets N800 billion every month. One per cent of N800 billion is N8 billion, and N8 billion is insufficient to pay salaries.
“Our salary today is not less than N13 billion because of the minimum wage increase.
“So, if we only depend on one per cent of what the federal government gets every month, we can only pay salaries, not to mention carrying out infrastructure.
“That’s why we’re very aggressive in saying you cannot enjoy infrastructure free of charge. You have to pay.
“It has nothing to do with ‘I belong to party A; I belong to party B, I belong to party C’,” Wike said.
He urged President Tinubu, represented by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu will talk to FCT residents about the need to pay their taxes.
He said this would enable the FCT Administration to deliver more infrastructure in the Territory for the good of all.
He reminded FCT residents, wealthy ones, that whoever has land in the territory and has not paid ground rent should pay, or their names would be published as defaulters in newspapers.
He pointed out that no poor man has the financial resources to build a house in Katampe and Mabushi Districts, adding that those building houses in the areas were rich.
“Mr Deputy Speaker, see what we are talking about. If you know you have land here and have not paid, I will publish your name so you have not paid.
“It has nothing to do with the fact that I want to embarrass you. We need money to do the work that we are doing.
No poor man can build these houses- no poor man. Rich men are building these houses. So, you have to pay so we can carry out the job of delivering critical infrastructure.
“We need people to pay their taxes so that we will carry out development in the interest of our people,” he added.
Earlier, Mr Richard Dauda, acting Executive Secretary, Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), said that the project was executed by CGC and was flagged off in October 2024.
Dauda said the CN2 road was a dual carriageway of two lanes, while the other roads were single carriageways.
He added that road projects were executed to provide infrastructure and open the Katampe District for development.
