The FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, has warned the Abuja Municipal Area Council Chairman, Christopher Maikalangu, to stop naming road projects carried out by the FCT Administration.
The Minister gave the warning on Wednesday, when he flagged off the construction of Road A09 in the Asokoro area of Abuja.
Wike had previously canvassed support for the re-election of the Council Chairman, a candidate of the All Progressives Congress, in the forthcoming February 2026 Area Council elections, asking residents to ensure they chose who would represent their interests.
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While flagging off road projects linking Tunga Madaki and eight other communities, he urged the people to support the candidate and ensure he was returned to celebrate the commissioning of the project in June 2025.
The Minister, however, faulted the naming of roads without his or his administration’s knowledge, noting that his administration sourced funding for the road projects, charging the Chairman to also construct roads and name them after whomever he deemed fit.
“We cannot be doing roads, putting infrastructure, you wake up in the morning, I don’t know who writes to you, before I wake up, you name the streets of the roads we are doing, putting money. Put your street where you do roads.
“You wake up when somebody writes to you and pays you people money, then you come, before you know it, it’s Dr So and so Street, Professor So-So Street, Bishop So-So Street, Mallam So-So Street, on a road we are suffering, looking for money to provide infrastructure. Better tell them, go and refund them their money.
“We have to name streets after those who have contributed to the development of the area. You don’t just wake up, because somebody has N2 million, he pays you, then you come and have the name of a street.
That is not possible,” he said.
The Minister further stated that while the practice could be done in the satellite towns, streets in the City were reserved as part of national honours, as may be directed by the President.
“You can go and name them in the satellite towns. Go to Ketti-Kabusa, go to Kabusa-Takushere. Go to all those Pai-Gomani. Go and put it there. But in cities here, the government must know who you are naming the street after.
“You don’t know when the President, tomorrow, may say footballers, our sports people, who may have done well, and they say, look, name these streets after them, to immortalise and remember them tomorrow for what they have done for the country, for what they have done for the city.
You go and bring somebody because you don’t know where he made the five million naira. Then you name a very important road. It will not work again,” Wike stated.
