*Matches number of C of Os  issued in about 13 years  

*Expresses reservation over planned state policing initiative

Emmanuel Addeh and Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, yesterday revealed that under his superintendence, the revenue collected by the administration in Abuja has soared from about N9 billion in 2023 to an average of N25 billion currently.

The minister, who spoke during a live television interview session with senior journalists, attributed the growth in revenue to the tune of about 177.7 per cent to the collection of ground rents and payment of Certificates of Occupancy (C of O) by land allottees.
Besides, he noted that the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) received over N40 billion as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in December 2024.

At the time that publication (record of C of Os) was made, it was 5,000, but as of today, I have signed over 7,000. Yesterday, I signed about 650. Two days ago, I signed about 750. That’s about 1,400. If you add it to over 5,000, it gives you close to that number.
Before I became FCT minister, there were C of Os that had been there for 10 to 13 years and not signed. One of the mandates of Mr President was that we must create the ease of doing business and make it easy for people to be able to carry out their businesses.

Having a C of O is something that will help you improve your business. It can be a collateral for you to access financing as the case may be. When I came on board I said we have this backlog of C of Os unsigned and it was killing businesses. It was making the economy not to thrive, he observed.
From 2010 to 2015, the minister said that only about 5,000 land documents were signed, stressing that between 2015 to 2023,  a miserly 3,000 were documented.

But between 2023 to 2024 and this January, Wike explained that he signed 7,000 C of Os. In 13 years, they signed between 7,000 to 8,000 C of Os, but in less than two years we have signed 7,000. We should look at performance holistically, he pointed out.

Besides, the minister said the FCT pays salaries to the tune of N13 billion every month.
We dont get up to N13 billion from VAT and the 1 per cent from the federal government. So, we have to augment the IGR to be able to pay the salaries because of the new wages. At the time I came, we were generating about N9 billion to N10 billion. Today, by the grace of God, we are not generating anything less than N25 billion a month.

This is because of our aggressive revenue drive. In fact, last month, we were able to generate about over N40 billion. We are embarking on aggressive revenue drive to be able to carry out infrastructure drive.
This revolution of development of infrastructure is not from my blood. It must be from taxes and when taxes are not paid how do we get development? In your conscience, can you say that the FCT is justifying the revenue or the taxes you are paying? Yes, it is, he stressed.

The minister said the nations capital has the potential to generate up to N300 billion monthly revenue if land allottees fulfil their obligations to pay C of Os, stressing that the FCT will look like some of the most developed state capitals globally if it had access to that amount of money.

Wike also expressed reservation over the planned introduction of state policing in Nigeria on the grounds that the nations institutions will not be independent if the system is adopted. He warned that the system will be manipulated as state police will be at the beck and call of the state governors.

Knowing where we are from, if you allow that so many people will not come out of their houses. Some will say we agree but we should try it first and see how it works. And so many people will say you dont need to try it. We have seen it that if you allow state policing today, nobody will oppose any governor. It is either you will die of murder or armed robbery.

So our institutions are not that independent. You dont need to personalise it and that is the problem we are having.  What we are saying is that our institutions have to be independent of manipulation by the system. It is wrong to say community policing and you go and talk about the USA. You see, the wrong thing with comparison “institutions are built, strong, nobody bothers whether the American President is there or not, Wike argued.

The minister added that his administration was ensuring security in Abuja by building 12 new police stations as well as acquiring drones as part of strategies of enhancing security.
He said: We have built a command control centre in the FCT where all the security agencies are one. We have a system that if anything happens in the FCT, the command and control will know and take action.
” In terms of security camera surveillance, the FCT is the city of the presidency and FCT on its own cannot do that. It has to work with the National Security Adviser, with the Department of State Service (DSS) and the police .

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