Bello’s infrastructure drive in FCT

Following the creation of  Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on December 12,1991, several efforts have been made by succeeding administrations to fulfill the core mandate of the FCT, namely, the building of a worthy, first class city for Nigeria. Since its relocation from Lagos to Abuja, succeeding administrations have started many projects and abandoned them on the way, sometimes due to paucity of funds.

But since Mallam Mohammed Musa Bello assumed office as the FCT Minister on November 11, 2015, the narrative has changed in the FCT as they have adopted the policy of the completion of all abandoned projects in the city and the conceptualisation of new ones and in the same way complete them.

This policy, no doubt, bodes well with the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari in bequeathing to the country a befitting capital city. It must also be restated that the gridlock often witnessed in the city is due to the inability of previous administrations to complete the road projects they started.

 The effect is that road users and visitors to the city usually end up in blind alleys while driving in the city. The consolation is that the minister, Mohammed Bello, is committed in bringing respite to the inhabitants of the territory, especially the residents of Nyanya, in the outskirts of the Federal Capital City. The completion of the Gbagalape road project is a testament to this fact.

Today, the FCT is a beehive of activities in what many residents have describe as a huge construction site based on the numerous construction projects ongoing simultaneously in the the territory. Minister Bello’s purposeful leadership and visionary drive is refocusing the priorities of the FCT as an institution that will cater for the generality of Nigerians and foreigners resident in the FCT.

Perhaps, this is the reason why the FCT, under Bello, can be described as developmental, accommodative and conducive for business. It is to his credit that government’s institutions are working seamlessly and residents of the city have to feel secure and enjoy the services being provided.

The administration is delivering commendable services to the residents based on the commitment of the minister in actualising the vision of President Buhari in making Abuja a home for all. Most times people attribute the performances of a leader to the number of projects he had started without taking into account the ultimate completion of those projects. Now the experience of most Nigerians is that most projects are usually abandoned without anybody asking any questions. Today, across the country there are numerous projects abandoned and this has been the bane of our accelerated development.

Therefore, it is a thing of joy that Bello is leading the way in redefining performances with his completion of most infrastructural projects in the FCT. This policy will bring a new lease of life and serve as an example to most state governments to follow. This administration in the fulfillment of its commitment to the people and giving them a new lease of life has paid the counterpart funds to the Chinese consortium for the completion of the Abuja rail projects, which impact is unquantifiable in monetary and investment terms to the quest by this administration in making the city the first capital of choice in Africa.

The completion of the Gbagalape road projects lends credence to the fact that the FCT will always receive the attention of this administration in its quest to make Abuja socially, developmentally, economically and environmentally the best capital in Africa and indeed the world over.

The people of Nyanya and its environs will eternally be grateful to the minister for bringing development in its physicality to them. Never in the life of these residents have they witnessed this symbolic expression of project formulation, promises and indeed fulfillment. The holdups occasioned by regular vehicular movement have now become a thing of the past as it no longer restricts working time productivity.

 The people remain unrelenting in their support for this administration because it is a project formulating and project fulfilling one. The people have seen the change dispensation working are now behind the government by fulfilling their own part of their citizen responsibility by guiding this infrastructures jealously to get the governments nod for more development projects to better their lives.

 The FCT minister has keyed into the vision of President Buhari by focusing on the infrastructural development of the capital city, particularly the rail and the road network. The completion of abandoned and ongoing projects was a priority of the Bello administration that in just three and half years became a reality.

The Bello administration has been able to construct about five bridges, starting from the airport up to the Central Business District around the Coscharis Tower. Apart from making the roads accessible and free, the minister also constructed a bridge over the airport expressway, so that traffic from the airport can easily come over the bridge and then go into the expressway into the city. There is also the link road between the expressway and the international airport which is being reconstructed with one part of the road completed and the second one nearing completion.

If one looks at the access to the city through the Zuba interchange right through to Kubwa, one would find that in 2015, there was serious traffic gridlock there because the two bridges were not completed. This administration in its bid to make navigation of the FCT roads as seamless as possible also completed these bridges and now there is free traffic flow. The Bello administration is a listening one, and the care of the people is his leitmotive and this has translated to the construction of unquantifiable and innumerable projects for the good of all residents in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

Musa writes from Abuja.

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