The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barr. Nyesom Wike, has ordered the immediate demolition of buildings obstructing designated water channels in Maitama and other flood-prone parts of Abuja, directing that the exercise begin at once and run through Saturday.
Wike gave the directive on Tuesday after inspecting flood-affected areas in Maitama, declaring that the demolition would proceed irrespective of ongoing political activities or the social status of affected property owners.
“We will demolish all those houses found on the water channel. Some of them are senators. Some of them are big men,” Wike said. “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.”
The minister said the recent flooding had exposed man-made factors worsening the crisis, including construction on waterways, blocked drainage channels, indiscriminate refuse dumping, and poor supervision by relevant officials. He said inspections had revealed that some property owners deliberately obstructed channels marked out in the Abuja Master Plan for stormwater passage.
“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.
According to Wike, the affected structures were not recent developments but had stood for years, built largely by wealthy Nigerians rather than the poor.
“Those houses have been there 10 years ago, eight years ago,” he said, adding that previous administrations may have lacked the political will to enforce regulations.
“If there is one minister that has that political will, I have. I have the political will,” he said.
Wike pushed back against attempts to politicise the flooding, noting that flooding was not new to Abuja or other global cities, citing similar incidents in Dubai, the United States and the United Kingdom. He acknowledged a climate change dimension but insisted human factors remained significant.
“We are in a climate change period. The kind of rains we have experienced… we have not experienced before. But that is not that there are no man-made factors,” he said.
He directed FCT authorities to begin immediate desilting of identified drainage systems and appealed to residents and traders to stop dumping refuse into channels. He also directed the FCT Development Control Department to avoid any delay in executing the demolitions.
“From today to Saturday, if Development Control delay, let them find any excuse to run away. They cannot,” he warned.
Defending his administration’s broader record, Wike said 26,272 Certificates of Occupancy had been signed in the past three years, compared to about 7,000 issued by two previous administrations over 13 years. He dismissed suggestions that the demolition exercise was politically timed, and criticised the conversion of designated green areas to other uses, vowing to protect Abuja’s environmental assets.
“My interest is we’ll continue to do the right thing in FCT, where no one will stop,” he said.
