Road constructions not development — Ex-minister faults Wike’s FCT projects
Former Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, has criticised the purported Abuja infrastructural development drive attributed to Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Dalung also dismissed the claim attributed to the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, that Abuja has started looking like London.
Speaking on Arise TV’s The Morning Show on Friday, January 10, 2025, the ex-minister said the area where he lives in Abuja does not look like London.
“If the Senate President is feeling like he’s in London, it could the London of his own immediate environment,” he said.
Dalung, who earlier affirmed the existence of ‘dangerous cabals’ in President Bola Tinubu’s government, described the narratives about Wike’s projects in Abuja as a misrepresentation of progress, saying the Federal Capital city lacks basic amenities.
According to him, it’s unfair to celebrate road constructions in a city with no proper schools and health facilities.
“I think there is misrepresentation of progress and limiting it to the elites alone or priviledge class. It’s unfair. In Abuja, I know there’s no water. Most people support themselves with private initiatives through boreholes. The public school system in Abuja is not different from (those) in any part of Nigeria. The healthcare delivery system is of course like a transit camp,” Dalung said.
He stressed that road projects in the FCT do not translate to development because such projects do not “touch the general wellbeing of the people.”
“These are the services that affect common people directly, not road construction. How many poor Nigerians have vehicles, so we cannot be emphasising dualisation or road construction as development,” he concluded.
Earlier, Dalung maintained that the people around President Tinubu pursue their selfish interests and thus disconnect him from the reality of Nigerians plights.
When asked to mention the names of the people who constitute the cabals, derailing Tinubu’s directives, the ex-minister said he reserves the right to mention no name.
Vanguard News
