The Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike, has identified wealthy Abuja residents as the primary obstacle to voluntary tax compliance for urban development.
He made these remarks during Thursday’s inauguration of the newly constructed Collector Road CN2 (Zakari A. Kyari Street) by President Bola Tinubu, marking the administration’s second anniversary.
The 1.42km road linking Arterial Road N11 (Ahmadu Bello Way) in Mabushi to Judges Quarters in Katampe District forms part of infrastructure projects executed by the FCT Administration using taxpayer funds.
Wike expressed particular frustration that affluent citizens who diligently pay taxes and ground rents abroad – notably in London and American cities – consistently default on these obligations within Nigeria’s capital. He contrasted this with compliant residents whose contributions directly funded the CN2 project and connecting roads in Katampe District.
He said that the CN2 road and other connecting roads in Katampe District were executed with taxes and ground rents paid by responsible residents.
“For those who said we sealed their houses for not paying a ground rent, see the value; see the product of paying a ground rent.
“If you don’t pay, nobody will provide this infrastructure because the only thing the city has is just to collect taxes.
“People say Abuja is rich. How rich is it?” he asked.
He explained that what Abuja collects from the Federation Account was one per cent of what was due to the Federal Government every month.
“So, assuming that the federal government gets N800 billion every month. One percent of N800 billion is N8 billion Naira and N8 billion is not enough to pay salaries.
“Our salary today is not less than N13 billion because of the minimum wage increase.
“So, if we only depend on one per cent of what the federal government gets every month, it means that we can only pay salaries, not to talk about carrying out infrastructure.
“That’s why we’re very aggressive in saying you cannot enjoy infrastructure free of charge. You have to pay.
“It has nothing to do with ‘I belong to party A; I belong to party B, I belong to party C’,” he said.
He urged Tinubu, who was represented by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Mr Benjamin Kalu, to talk to FCT residents on the need to pay their taxes.
This, he said, would enable the FCT Administration to deliver more infrastructure in the territory for the good of all.
He reminded FCT residents, particularly big men, that whoever has land in the territory and has not paid ground rent should pay or their names would be published as defaulters in newspapers.
He particularly pointed out that no poor man has the financial resources to build a house in Katampe and Mabushi, adding that those building houses in the areas were rich men.
“Mr Deputy Speaker, see what we are talking about. If you know you have land here and you have not paid, I will publish your name that you have not paid.
“It has nothing to do that I want to embarrass you, no. We need money to do the work that we are doing.
“No poor man can do these houses. No poor man. These houses are being built by rich men. So, you have to pay so we can carry out the job of delivering critical infrastructure.
“We need people to pay their taxes so that we will carry out development in the interest of our people,” he added.
Earlier, Mr Richard Dauda, acting Executive Secretary, Federal Capital Development Authority, said that the project was executed by CGC and was flagged off in October, 2024.
Dauda said that the CN2 road was a dual carriageway of two lanes each while the other roads were single carriageway.
He added that road projects were executed to provide infrastructure and open up the Katampe District for development.
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