Roads Are Very Important For Development. If You Want To Build Hospitals, You Need Roads Leading To The Hospitals

FCT Minister Nyesom Wike has defended his administration’s heavy focus on road projects, saying roads are the backbone of every other form of development.

“Roads are very important for development,” Wike said on Tuesday during an inspection of ongoing works in Abuja. “If you want to build hospitals, you need roads leading to the hospitals. If you want to build schools, you need roads. Without roads, nothing moves.”

The Minister was responding to critics who have questioned why the FCT is spending heavily on roads at a time many Nigerians are complaining about cost of living and welfare.

Wike argued that infrastructure must come first. “You cannot take a sick person to a hospital if there is no motorable road,” he said. “You cannot move drugs, equipment, or teachers to schools if the road is bad. Even investors will not come if they cannot access your site.”

He listed several projects under construction and rehabilitation across the FCT, including arterial roads, satellite town routes, and rural connectors. According to him, the goal is to open up Abuja beyond the city center so services can reach more residents.

Wike said the FCT Administration is also working on health and education facilities, but insisted that road access must precede or run alongside them.

“If we build a 200-bed hospital today and the only road to it is a failed road, who will use it?” he asked. “We are not playing politics. We are planning for 10, 20 years from now. Abuja is growing fast. You must prepare the arteries before you put the organs.”

He added that contractors have been told to meet deadlines and quality standards, and that project sites are being monitored weekly.

Reactions in Abuja were mixed. Motorists in Gwagwalada, Kuje, and Bwari said bad roads have long isolated communities and driven up transport costs. “If these roads are done well, market women will save money and patients will reach hospitals faster,” a commercial driver said.

Others, however, said roads alone are not enough. “We agree roads matter, but people are hungry now. We also need cheaper food, medicine, and jobs,” a resident in Kubwa told reporters.

Wike maintained that his mandate is to make Abuja work. “Criticize me later, but judge me by what you can see and use,” he said. “Roads first. Then the hospitals, schools, and markets will function.”

With more road projects billed for completion before 2027, the FCT Minister is betting that connectivity will be the legacy Nigerians remember…See More