Wike defends push for ground rent payment

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has explained that the funds allocated to the FCT from the Federal Government are not enough, which is why he has intensified efforts to collect ground rent payments.

Wike made this known on Thursday while commissioning the newly constructed Collector Road CN2 (Zakari A. Kyari Street), which connects Arterial Road N11 (Ahmadu Bello Way) in Mabushi to the Judges Quarters in Katampe, along with other completed roads.

He said the revenue generated from ground rent is used to fund developmental projects that benefit all residents of the capital.

The Minister also acknowledged the backing of President Bola Tinubu, noting that the President’s support has made it possible for him to achieve the progress recorded since assuming office.

He said: “This road links to a lot of areas here and the judges quarters is also one of the areas that will benefit, so I commend the CGC for showing that it has the capacity to fulfill its promise.

“We flagged off this project in October last year and this project is supposed to be one year and twelve months but here we are, the project has been completed within eight and nine months.

“And that is why we have always said give to those who have the capacity to deliver for the benefit of the people.”

Speaking further on the impact of the road project, Wike noted: “I’m sure that those who have land here now, their land will be going for 200, 300 million. But I don’t think that anybody will attempt to buy land here, you must think twice because the value of land here now is something else.

“People here will benefit from it, this is what we talk about development. Mr President has always given his support and that is why we are able to achieve what we are achieving.

“I said sometimes somewhere that for those of you who said we will sell your houses for not paying your ground rent, see the value, see the product of paying your ground rent.”

He added that the FCT doesn’t have many sources of revenue besides taxes and rent collections: “If you don’t pay, nobody will provide this infrastructure because the only thing this city has is just to collect tax and I have said it before when people say that Abuja is rich, how? Because Abuja collects from the federal account one percent of what they give federal government monthly.

“If we depend on one percent of what the federal government gets monthly, it means we can’t pay salaries or talk of carrying out infrastructural projects and that is why we are very aggrieved to say you can’t be enjoying this free of charge, you have to pay.”