For over two decades, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has been characterized by so many uncompleted public projects.
A country capital originally designed to be the most modern and most beautiful city in West Africa, Abuja is now home to numerous abandoned white elephant projects littering the city.
Several administrations have come and gone with none of them showing any political will to complete projects they met on the ground, for which billions of naira was budgeted for and disbursed to contractors; they would rather introduce and organise groundbreaking ceremonies for new gigantic projects, with no plans put in place to ensure the projects are completed within their tenure, or when they leave office.
Some of these abandoned or uncompleted projects littering the city are the Millennium Tower and Cultural Centre, Abuja Technology Village Science and Technology Park, Abuja Technology Village, Utako General Hospital, National Library, NIPOST Headquarters, FIRS Headquarters, Ministry of Agric Headquarters, the popular underground pedestrian bridge which links the FCDA to the FCT Minister’s wing and the 15km Apo-Karshi road.
From the huge cost of the projects, some of them running into hundreds of billions of Naira, many people in the FCT believe that with the current economic reality – inflation in the cost of building materials and the devaluation of the naira – most of the projects may not see the light of the day, and may remain uncompleted for years to come.
The Millennium Tower, an extensive project, was initiated in 2005 by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration. The Tower was designed to be the tallest tower in Abuja at metres (560ft) with an estimated cost of N69.3bn.
LEADERSHIP gathered that for several years, the government did not make budgetary provision for the complex, thereby forcing Salini Nigeria Limited, the Italian firm handling the construction, to suspend work after over N35.7bn had gone into it.
A source who spoke to our reporter said that with the current inflation in the prices of building materials, an additional N56bn would be needed to complete the project.
The Tower was designed at the same time with the National Library, National Square, International Auditorium, and the Nigerian Cultural Centre within the same vicinity.
It was gathered that the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) is exploring all available opportunities for increased budgetary appropriations to take the project to a level that will be attractive for a Public Private Partnership (PPP) option to complete the project.
Also, among the abandoned multi-million naira structures in the FCT, the worst is the NIPOST Corporate Headquarters opposite the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) at Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja.
The contractor handling the project, Eldorado Nigeria Limited, was said to have abandoned work early into the project. What is visible there now is an old signpost bearing information about the project’s owner, contractor, and other basic information.
Another uncompleted project in the FCT is the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) headquarters building, which ATO Architects won the competition for the design in 2011 on a 14,113.97sqm land with a building footprint of 5645.58sqm. BNL Engineering and Construction Limited (Bouygues) is the main contractor.
Construction began in 2015 by ATO Architects who designed the project,whose cost was put at N39.2bn as of August 2014, to comprise three towers joined at the centre, according to Estate Intel Limited.
However, the structure is yet to be completed despite the 2021 completion deadline given by the contractors handling the project.
The National Library headquarters, located on Plot 35, Central Business District, Abuja, is another project which has been abandoned for years. Realising the building has become a mirage, because the completion of the project seemed to have been defeated by lack of political will by the government.
