President Bola Tinubu has pulled the Federal Capital Territory Administration FCTA out of the Treasury Single Account TSA, effectively paving the way for the Nyesom Wike-led FCTA to utilize the territory’s internally generated revenue (IGR for the development of the nation’s capital.
At a news conference in Abuja on Friday, Wike disclosed that the President has also approved the creation of the FCT Civil Service Commission to allow for staff career progression.
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He said, “The Central bank cannot give us loans, and even the IGR is spent as it comes and you cannot tangibly do anything with it. “I said to Mr. President that if you want FCT to really carry out its developmental projects and infrastructure, then it must come out of TSA. If we (FCT Administration) are not a revenue-generating agency of the federal government, then what financial leakages are you plugging? The revenue comes in, and it will go to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and we need money to do projects. I cannot go to the Central Bank to ask them to give us money, and I can’t go to the commercial banks. They will ask, How do you pay back? So, I said, we must pull out; that is the only way we can survive it.
“Mr. President graciously agreed with us and approved that we should pull out of the Single Treasury Account. You will see that from next year it will be projects upon projects in FCT, and with what you saw in Port Harcourt, Abuja would be something else. So for us, it is one of the happiest days, and we have to thank Mr. President for the foresight”.
He said that for several years, a lot of issues in the FCT were stalled due to a lack of political will to see them through. “There is this fear that if I do this, people will kick against it, but it is not personal; it is about the growth of the city, the welfare of the civil servants, and the interests of the women—our mothers, sisters, and wives.
“For many years, this fight has been on, but in just a few months, Mr. President has done it. That is the essence of the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Tinubu. “Civil servants in the FCTA were stagnant because they could only become directors and not rise to permanent secretaries. Before now, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had, as acting president, signed a law to create the FCT Civil Service Commission to allow for career progression, but the law has never been implemented. So, I went to Mr. President and explained why we had to implement it in his administration, and he graciously approved the creation of the Commission.
“Mr. President has also approved the creation of a secretariat for women. You can imagine having an administration as large as this, and there is no secretariat for women. So, the president has approved the creation of a Mandate Secretariat for Women Affairs, just like we have the Ministry of Women Affairs in the states.
“One of the reasons I accepted to work with Mr. President is because he has the capacity and political will to do those things that people are afraid of doing. The problem in this country is partly leadership because so many people don’t want to take action because they believe that some people will be angry. There is no action you take that makes everybody happy. But what is important is that you are guided by the law and your conscience”, he added.