The FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, has disclosed that the recently inaugurated Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre has been booked till 2027.
President Tinubu, inaugurated the renovated Conference Centre, previously the Abuja International Conference Centre on the 10th June 2025, as part of projects to mark his second anniversary in office.
Following the inauguration, critics, including former Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, had faulted the N39bn spent on the renovation of the ICC, noting that the sum could have been spent on other development projects, particularly in the Education Sector.
However, speaking during the inauguration of the Kugbo Bus Terminal in Abuja on Thursday, Wike noted that despite the criticisms, the ICC had been booked until 2027, adding that he was seeking ways to adjust bookings to accommodate the House of Representatives Committee on Constitution Review’s request to use the place.
“You know, Nigerians pretend. They like good things, but they will pretend as if they don’t. That Conference Centre,/ has been booked now till 2027, no space. In fact, I saw an application by the Deputy Speaker, on Constitutional Amendment. There’s no space, no day,” he said.
Punch reports that the Minister insisted that although the National Assembly was responsible for passing the FCT’s budgets, they still had to pay for its use, as the sustainability of the facility was crucial.
“I’m trying to adjust if he can pay on time. Because it’s not free. There’s nothing like it’s the National Assembly. You have to pay something for us to sustain the facility. Yes, you are helping us to pass our budget, but it’s not for that area. We have to do it very well. Yes, you are passing the budget, which is part of your function, but the sustainability is key, because you won’t like it to be what it used to be before,” Wike said.
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During his address, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, who represented President Bola Tinubu at the event, urged the Minister to find a way to refund monies of those who had made bookings, to pave the way for the Constitutional Review Confab.
He also asked the Minister not to allow bookings till 2028, as the ruling All Progressives Congress will need a place to jubilate, after winning the coming elections.
“I’m not happy to hear that the Constitutional Confab that we are planning by the National Assembly, we will not have space in the International Conference Centre, because of what you have done, that it has been booked till 2027. If they book it till 2027, what are we going to do? Was it our fault that you finished the job in such an international manner?
“Please find a way to return the money to those who booked, we will pay. Because we need that space to also showcase to the world. We are inviting a lot of international people, we would like them to see the good things in Nigeria. Don’t allow them to book it in 2028, otherwise we won’t even see a place to jubilate after we have won the election,” Akpabio said.
