FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello, clocked two years in office on November 11, 2017, and one remarkable thing about his administration is the splendid manner he has breathed life into abandoned infrastructural projects and given a human face to the already existing ones.
The minister in his maiden press briefing in January 2016 said FCT administration under his leadership would work based on specific phases of its assignment with clear cut guidelines and with emphasis on completing ongoing major infrastructural projects that will have significant impact on residents and boost the economy.
Two years down the line and one could say with all sense of responsibility that the FCT minister has not disappointed in this regard, notably, in road infrastructure.
It is instructive that the minister came in at a time when getting into the city from the Kubwa axis or Zuba was a nightmare because a number of overhead bridges were not connected; those who ply these roads know what the situation is now.
FCT administration has ensured completion of all the three major arterial roads into and outside of the city. Today, airport road, Kubwa expressway, the notorious Nyanya/Area 1/ Central Area segment have all been improved upon and are now free for motorists to come into the city and go out safely.
Also within the city itself, there have been notable improvements on the B6 and B12 roads, otherwise known as the Independence Avenue and the Constitution Avenue that have had their bridges hanging there uncompleted for many years. Abuja light rail project is another area that has witnessed tremendous improvements. When Bello was appointed in 2015, the light rail was only 70 percent with respect to bridges and intersections, but less than 50 percent with respect to stations, tracks, centre station, mechanical workshop and other critical aspects.
But as was recently revealed, the project is now 98 percent complete and the minister has promised that before Christmas, anybody coming to Abuja by flight could access the airport railway station and terminate at the station in the Central Business District or the metro station. That way, you don’t have to drive for 44 kilometers before you come into or go out of the city.
What the minister has been able to achieve with these nice development is that he has convinced FCT residents that he is an astute public administrator who sets priorities in the interest of the masses and sticks to them, despite lean resources.
This time, the minister has once again assured that the focus of the FCTA in this phase two will be mainly to provide additional support to transport, to education, health and most importantly ICT to make Abuja a smart city, following up on the IBM grant to Abuja for smart city development.
The key focus also includes strengthening institutional framework for the delivery of services and embarking on a wide range of reforms to make the institution of the FCT more vibrant, more relevant, more capable of being able to achieve the mandate of the city.
The urgency and enormity of the work required has been underscored with the appointment and swearing in of the mandate secretaries, chief executives of selected extra departmental agencies as well as the senior political aides to help continue to drive the change agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari and the vision of the founding fathers of the FCT.
The whole idea while their appointment was delayed was to strengthen the institutions of the FCT so that work does not have to depend on the minister or his appointees because Ministers will always come and go. The mandate secretaries and other senior management teams are now coming into an FCT where they have met institutions that are really strong, headed by very committed public servants and what is left now is for them to harness resources and hit the ground running.
All of these are indications that there is intent to run an effective public service that avoids waste and conserves resources with the overriding interest of achieving a self-funding institution and an economy capable of providing employment for the teeming youth and those coming behind.
Funding, however, is really critical in this second phase and the move to bring the FCT Inland Revenue Service on stream to make the FCT financially buoyant is a welcome development.
It is important also that funds are made available for resettlement because the reality is that the city is expanding at a very high rate, and there needs to be a corresponding ability to pay compensation, to relocate people and communities to the rightful place as part of their sacrifice for this city to grow.
Danladi Akilu,
Durumi II, Gudu District, Abuja
