Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike has vowed that no amount of intimidation or blackmail would derail his focus on infrastructure development.
The FCT Minister stated this on Tuesday while commissioning the newly rehabilitated Phase 2 of the Lower Usuma Dam Water Treatment Plant in Bwari area council.
Wike’s statement was a response to recent media reports, particularly on Channels Television, alleging that the FCT administration was indebted to local contractors to the tune of N5 billion.
“Let me use this opportunity to tell people that no amount of blackmail will stop us from being focused. I will never be intimidated.
“You see the problem in this country is that when you want to fight corruption, corruption will fight you back, and it’s corruption that is fighting back. We are going to defeat corruption,” he said.
He categorically denied knowledge of the contracts in question, laying the blame squarely on civil servants who he alleged to have awarded contracts without ministerial approval.
“Civil servants stay in their offices and award contracts worth 15 million, 10 million, 20 million without the minister knowing.
“And then you hear, ministers, sitting in the office and people will tell you that you are owing 15 billion Naira, when you don’t know when it was awarded, certainly it will not happen! Let heaven come down,” he said.
He challenged the contractors to provide proof, questioning their legitimacy. “Let anybody who said I awarded a contract should bring the documents.
“Let them show me the job that they are commissioning. If you look at their faces, you will know that those who awarded the contracts to themselves, are bringing those people to come,” the minister said.
He outlined his administration’s strategy of prioritising major capital projects, contrasting the alleged “small, small” contracts of the past.
Wike further revealed that he had shifted the budget allocation to 70 percent for capital expenditure and 30 percent for recurrent, a reversal of previous trends.
“Every day, some people want to buy computers, every budget you will see all kinds of things. Some people will say, I want to travel to U.S. about land administration. You want to learn land administration, you go to U.S.? I mean, there’s no nexus,” he said.
The minister pointed to the increased Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the FCT, from N9 billion to over N30 billion monthly as the engine funding current projects, vowing to continue his development drive until 2027.
Speaking on the water project, Wike revealed that the Phase 2 rehabilitation was awarded in 2022 for approximately N50 billion and completed under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope agenda.
“This Phase Two is very important because it increases the carrying capacity, and of course will improve water supply to the residents of Abuja,” he said.
He also announced that the Federal Executive Council had already approved the rehabilitation of Phases 1, 3, and 4.
Furthermore, he confirmed the flag-off of a N90 billion project to provide water to satellite towns, starting with Bwari on Wednesday and Karu on Thursday.
“All this is geared to make life easier for the people of the FCT. We are not concentrating on the development of the city, we are taking development to the satellite towns,” he said.
