By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA: President Bola Tinubu, on Monday flagged off the official construction of the access road from Tunga Madaki to the Abuja-Kaduna Road by Zuba, describing the project as part of a growing network of roads opening up satellite communities in the Federal Capital Territory FCT to the city center.
The president, represented by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dr Tajudeen Abbas, said the project was a direct continuation of the Bill Clinton Drive to Tunga Madaki Community Road commissioned weeks earlier as part of activities marking the third anniversary of the Renewed Hope Administration.
“What began as one road is now growing into a network, and that is how real development takes root,” he said.
Tinubu said Tunga Madaki, Zuba and the communities along the corridor are home to farmers, traders, students and families who “deserve the same dignity of access as those in the city center,” noting that poor road access had for years cut off movement during the rains and caused farmers to lose produce before it reached markets.
According to the president, the road would connect rural productivity to urban opportunity, make food cheaper in markets, give young people more reason to build enterprises at home, and improve security agencies’ response time. “Infrastructure is not just concrete and asphalt. It is the bridge between potential and prosperity, and that is the core of the Renewed Hope Agenda,” he said.
He said the Federal Capital Territory was conceived to serve the entire nation, a vision he said could only be realised when satellite towns and gateway communities were properly integrated, adding that the road would ease pressure on the city center, create alternatives for commuters and strengthen the economic corridor between Abuja, Kaduna and the North West.
Tinubu commended the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Barrister Nyesom Wike and the entire FCT Administration for the discipline and speed with which projects were being delivered, saying the administration was seeing “a return to planning, a rejection of abandoned projects, and a focus on results that citizens can feel.”
Earlier, Wike said the project fulfilled a promise made by President Tinubu that all communities and Area Councils under his administration would enjoy federal government attention.
He recalled that the initiative followed a request from the area council chairman that residents travelling from Zuba to Abuja were being made to pass through Gwagwalada.
“When after the Area Council election, the chairman approached me and said, sir, coming from Zuba to Abuja, you need to pass Gwagwalada. And I said, well, what do we do? He said it will require us to continue from this Tunga Madaki down to the Abuja-Kaduna Highway,” Wike said.
The minister described the chairman’s initiative as an example of leadership, noting that residents of Zuba would no longer need to pass through Gwagwalada to reach the airport or the city, as the community now had direct access to the airport following requests made during the second runway project.
