President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Thursday inaugurated the Wuse-Wuye Link Bridge, Abuja, 15 years after its contract was awarded.
The project was awarded in 2009 at N34 billion but was completed with N74 billion by the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) Ministry.
An elated President Tinubu said with the completion of the project, FCT residents would begin to witness improvement in traffic flow within the Wuse and Wuye communities as well as adjoining districts.
Tinubu said his administration’s commitment to making Nigeria attain a high level of progress explains why it was investing massively in ‘’essential services such as water supply, electricity and road network.’’
He said: “We celebrate not just the infrastructure, but also the empowerment of the Wuse and Wuye communities and the fulfillment of promises made some several years back.
“As they always say and experts acknowledge, the fact that government is a continuum.
“With the completion of this project, we will witness a fast improvement in traffic flow within the district and the adjoining districts.
“The best way to achieve greatness is to look forward, aspire for great results, and not look at obstacles. See opportunities from the obstacles and grab it.
“We are investing in essential services such as water supply, electricity, road network, we are laying the groundwork for economic growth and prosperity, social progress and improvement in the quality of life for all.’’
Tinubu, however, noted that achieving progress and creating an egalitarian nation required hard work by all citizens.
“Whatever anybody might say, it should be that Nigeria will definitely make progress, and the prosperity, the hope and the achievement is in our hands. We will build a nation where no one is excluded,” he said.
The President once again lauded the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike for providing leadership to the ministry’s management. He noted that Wike and his team had, through hard work, led the way of true democracy, which is making people the centre of governance. Tinubu said: “I extend, once again, my heartfelt appreciation to the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, for making this a realisable dream for all of us and for the country as a whole. The completion of this facility brings the security of life close to our people.
“Making the people central focus of our development and that is the way democracy should work. Our determination to succeed and extend happiness to our teeming population, bringing about prosperity and value of immense proportion to our people, is the goal of the government. Thank you for making a dream a reality.”
Wike, who praised the President for making it possible for the ministry to complete the project, said ‘’people of this area( Wuse and Wuye communities) will always appreciate’’ the Tinubu administration.
Wike said: “Mr. President, I think this is one of the projects that I think residents of the FCT will always cherish. When we were inaugurated, we sat down and looked at projects that we could complete within time, that have value and that can impact positively on the lives of the people.
“In fact, residents of this district had lost hope. Anybody who is familiar with this terrain will definitely appreciate what you have done. This job was awarded in 2009, about 15 years ago, at the cost of N34 billion. But before you came in, on May 29, it was revised to N74 billion. So, you can imagine for 15 years, we were struggling just to construct one interchange.
“You can imagine the hardship the people here had to face. Business activities, of course, will crumble. But to the glory of God and with your determination, you have said that your mission is to bring back hope that has been lost. So, people of this area will always appreciate you and thank you for this interchange.
‘’It is not about how many kilometres it covers; it is about the importance of the interchange and I want to sincerely thank you.
“I also thank the two chairmen of the two committees. I will say that we are very lucky in the FCT. I have been hearing stories of some ministers complaining about chairmen of their committees, my own is different because we are working like brothers and sisters.
‘’We visit each other and so we don’t have problems when it concerns implementing what we want to do.’’
He added that the removal of the ministry from the Treasury Single Account(TSA) by the President had enabled him and his team to execute projects effortlessly.
Wike said: “Mr. President, I want to say that removing us from the TSA has made it very possible for all these achievements. All these projects wouldn’t have been possible if you hadn’t pulled us out of the TSA.
“Let me use local parlance, they say ‘monkey dey jump, but na when tree near tree’. People say FCT is performing and that is because you (President) have given us tremendous and massive support.
