FCT minister says no property owner, regardless of political or social status, will be spared as authorities move against buildings obstructing stormwater channels in Maitama and other flood-prone areas…..
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has ordered the immediate demolition of properties found to be obstructing designated waterways in Maitama and other areas affected by flooding in Abuja.
Wike issued the directive on Tuesday after inspecting locations affected by the recent flooding in the capital, declaring that the enforcement would begin immediately and continue through Saturday.
The minister said the exercise would not be suspended because of ongoing political activities, stressing that the identity or influence of property owners would not determine whether affected structures remained standing.
According to Wike, any building found to have been constructed on a designated water channel would be removed.
“We will demolish all those houses found on the water channel. Some of them are senators. Some of them are big men,” Wike said.
He added that neither elections nor political considerations would stop the government from enforcing the city’s planning regulations.
“Whether there’s election or there’s no election, all those houses will go down. Heaven will not fall. Rather, heaven will be at peace that the right thing has been done.”
Flooding exposes Abuja’s planning violations
Wike said the latest flooding had brought renewed attention to several human activities contributing to the worsening flood situation in the nation’s capital.
Among the issues identified by the minister were buildings constructed on waterways, blocked drainage systems, indiscriminate dumping of waste and inadequate maintenance of drainage infrastructure.
He said inspections carried out by the FCT Administration revealed that some property owners had blocked routes specifically designated under the Abuja Master Plan for stormwater.
“Unfortunately, we have gone there, and we have seen how people have blocked channels where, in the Master Plan, that is the right way where the water is supposed to be channelled,” he said.
Wike noted that many of the properties were not recent developments and were largely owned by wealthy Nigerians.
He said the government would no longer allow the social standing of property owners to prevent the enforcement of planning regulations.
“All those built-up areas that were not supposed to be built up, not a single poor person will live there. Those houses are houses built by well-to-do Nigerians.”
According to him, some of the affected buildings had been standing for between eight and 10 years, suggesting that the planning violations had persisted across previous administrations.
‘We have the political will’
The FCT minister acknowledged that previous administrations may not have been sufficiently willing to enforce some of the city’s development regulations.
He also suggested that failures by government officials to properly supervise development and maintain drainage infrastructure had contributed to the situation.
Wike, however, insisted that his administration would not shy away from taking difficult decisions.
“And let nobody make the mistake that this government lacks the political will to do anything. The person must be making a very big mistake,” he said.
“If there is one minister that has that political will, I have. I have the political will.”
Wike links flooding to climate change and human activity
The minister also pushed back against attempts to attribute the flooding entirely to the FCT Administration, saying flooding was a global phenomenon that could result from both natural and human factors.
He acknowledged that climate change had contributed to changes in rainfall patterns and the intensity of storms experienced in Abuja.
However, he maintained that human activities had significantly worsened the impact.
Wike cited flooding experienced in major cities around the world, including Dubai, the United States and the United Kingdom, as examples of the wider challenge posed by extreme weather events.
“We are in a climate change period. The kind of rains we have experienced, or we are experiencing now, we have not experienced before. But that is not that there are no man-made factors. There are.”
He identified the construction of buildings on waterways, development in restricted areas, failure to properly desilt drainage systems and indiscriminate waste disposal as some of the major factors aggravating flooding in Abuja.
FCT orders immediate drainage desilting
Beyond the demolition exercise, Wike directed relevant FCT authorities to commence the immediate desilting of drainage channels identified as problematic during inspections.
He expressed concern that officials responsible for facility management were not present during the inspection and insisted that corrective measures could not be delayed.
“We have to immediately start desilting some of the areas we have identified,” he said.
The minister also urged residents, traders and other members of the public to stop disposing of refuse in drainage channels, warning that blocked waterways would continue to increase the risk of flooding.
Wike rejects political criticism
The FCT minister also dismissed criticism from political commentators over the flooding and his administration’s response.
Wike said he was not interested in engaging commentators whom he accused of attempting to use television appearances to gain political relevance.
“I don’t want to reply to political commentators. I don’t want to reply to people who think that appearing on TV, in their houses, will give them an edge to win an election that they have lost. No,” he said.
He maintained that the FCT Administration had made significant progress during the past three years, while acknowledging that several challenges remained.
According to Wike, the existence of unresolved problems did not erase the administration’s achievements.
“Nobody can diminish what this administration has done in the past three years. Nobody can diminish it,” he said.
He added that the government had addressed several major challenges in the territory and would continue working on those that remained.
Wike highlights C-of-O figures
The minister also defended the administration’s record in the issuance of Certificates of Occupancy, saying 26,272 C-of-Os had been signed within the past three years.
He contrasted the figure with approximately 7,000 certificates he said were signed by two previous administrations over a combined period of 13 years.
Wike argued that the performance of the FCT Administration should be assessed on its overall record rather than judged solely on the basis of the recent flooding.
‘Any house on the water channel will go down’
Addressing concerns that the demolition exercise could be interpreted as politically motivated because of the election season, Wike said enforcement of development regulations could not be put on hold because of political activities.
He argued that the recent flooding had exposed violations that might otherwise have continued unnoticed.
“Now you have done your own by blocking the water channel and nothing has happened. Thank God the flood has come. It has drawn our attention to the place. Now something will happen.”
Wike said the government would proceed with the removal of any structure found to be obstructing a designated waterway.
“I’m going to bring those houses down. Any house that’s found on the water channel will go down.”
He subsequently directed the FCT Development Control Department to act without delay, warning officials against using bureaucratic excuses to postpone the exercise.
“From today to Saturday, if Development Control delay, let them find any excuse to run away. They cannot,” Wike warned.
Green areas also under government scrutiny
The minister said the FCT Administration would also intensify enforcement against the conversion of designated green areas for purposes outside their approved use.
He insisted that Abuja’s environmental and planning framework must be protected, regardless of how long an illegal development had existed.
Wike said the age of an unlawful structure would not make it legitimate and that the administration would continue to correct planning violations identified within the capital.
“Something that was done wrongly will not be corrected? No, we will not allow that. We won’t,” he said.
The minister said the administration’s priority remained addressing problems in the FCT rather than becoming distracted by political arguments.
He added that residents who raise genuine concerns about challenges in their communities would continue to receive the government’s attention.
“My interest is we’ll continue to do the right thing in FCT, where no one will stop,” Wike said.
