• Wike seeks president’s intervention in N400b Millennium Tower project

President Bola Tinubu yesterday urged state governors to prioritise investments in roads and other critical infrastructure over what he described as white elephant projects, saying that improved connectivity is essential in tackling insecurity, unlocking economic opportunities and improving citizens’ quality of life.
   
He noted that the governors now have significantly more resources at their disposal following his administration’s fiscal reforms and should deploy the funds to projects that deliver tangible benefits to citizens rather than to prestige projects with limited public value.
   
Speaking at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, during a courtesy visit by traditional rulers from Oyo State, led by the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Ladoja, Tinubu said that expanding road networks in underserved communities would not only stimulate economic activity but also improve security agencies’ access to respond to emergencies.
   
According to him, investments in strategic infrastructure have become indispensable as the country intensifies efforts to defeat terrorism, banditry and other violent crimes.
   
“The money going to the states today is four to five times what they used to receive. Nobody is borrowing to pay salaries anymore, and pensioners are receiving their entitlements,” the president said.
  
Against this backdrop, he urged the governors to make prudent use of the increased allocations by focusing on projects that directly impact people’s lives.
  
“Instead of building flyovers where there is no significant traffic, build roads and arterial networks that improve access, enhance the quality of life and enable security agencies to reach vulnerable communities quickly,” he said.
   
The president further stressed that infrastructure planning should be driven by the people’s needs and national security priorities. Maintaining that infrastructure and security are closely linked, he insisted that investments in roads and rural connectivity remain indispensable to sustaining peace, driving economic growth and extending the reach of government services to every part of the country.
   
In a related development, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has appealed for the president’s intervention to complete the long-abandoned Millennium Tower, saying the estimated cost of reviving the project has risen to between N300 billion and N400 billion, which he said is far beyond the FCT Administration’s financial capacity.
   
Wike, who spoke to newsmen in Abuja, described the tower as a national project that should be funded by the federal government rather than through the FCT’s statutory budget.
   
Responding to a question on when residents could expect the landmark structure to be completed, the minister said the scale of funding required would make it impracticable for the FCT Administration to execute the project without sacrificing other critical infrastructure across the nation’s capital.
   
According to Wike, “the Millennium Tower is a national project. It should be treated as a national tourist centre project, and the capital involved is too huge for the FCT to accommodate within its statutory budget.”
   
The minister recalled that the project was initiated during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo but has remained uncompleted since then, despite its significance as one of Abuja’s flagship monuments.
   
According to him, discussions have continued with the contractor handling the project, and the latest cost estimate is between N300 billion and N400 billion. However, “If we embark on that project from the FCT budget, it means every other project in Abuja will have to be abandoned.”
   
The minister further disclosed that he had already opened discussions with Tinubu on the need to reclassify the Millennium Tower as a national project deserving of direct federal funding, even as he expressed optimism for a favourable consideration of the proposal.