Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike has announced that the newly completed Apo-Karshi road will be developed into a tourist attraction. The road, which was initially awarded in 2010 and abandoned for over 16 years, is now being rebranded as a future hub for visitors in Abuja.
This is the height of misplaced priorities. A road is not a tourist attraction. It is basic infrastructure. It is meant to get people from point A to point B, not to serve as a photo backdrop for a minister who is obsessed with aesthetics while the rest of the city crumbles.
Wike revealed that the original contractor, Kakata Limited, was fully paid but failed to deliver the project. This means the government paid for a road and got nothing for 16 years. Instead of investigating how a contractor collected public funds and walked away, Wike is celebrating the fact that he finally found someone else to finish the job. He even bragged that when the contract was awarded, people questioned the cost, but he was not deterred because he was focused on the happiness and comfort of the people.
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What comfort? Abuja is currently a city in crisis. Just weeks ago, luxury cars were submerged in floods in Wuse 2 because the minister sold off green areas and blocked drainage. Residents are still waiting for functional hospitals, clean water, and schools. The city is sinking, and the minister is talking about turning a road into a tourist attraction.
Wike’s obsession with turning Abuja into a playground for the elite is exhausting. He cleared trees to install solar streetlights, turning the capital into a heat trap. He painted the City Gate to make it look pretty. Now, he wants to build amenities along a road so that tourists can visit. Meanwhile, the actual residents of Abuja are stuck in gridlock, struggling to survive the brutal economic crisis created by his principal, President Bola Tinubu.
The Apo-Karshi road took 16 years to finish. It took a presidential directive to terminate a failed contract and re-award it. This is not a success story. It is a monument to decades of government failure, incompetence, and wasted public funds. Wike is trying to turn a symbol of national embarrassment into a tourist site.
Nigerians do not need a tourist attraction on the Apo-Karshi road. They need accountability for the money that was paid to the original contractor. They need the government to fix the flooding in Abuja, build functional hospitals, and stop using public infrastructure as a campaign tool for the 2027 elections. Until then, Wike can paint all the roads he wants and call them tourist attractions, but Nigerians know the truth. The government is just dressing up a broken system in a fresh coat of paint.
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