DAFA — The Federal Government has re-emphasized its commitment to decentralizing critical infrastructure development away from urban centers, declaring that the systematic delivery of modern road networks across the satellite regions is designed to fortify rural communities as self-sustaining economic entities. Speaking during a high-profile state ceremony in the Kwali Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu asserted that rural infrastructure remains the ultimate cornerstone required to secure national food security, reduce urban migration, and guarantee an equitable distribution of the country's collective wealth.
The President, who was formally represented at the event by the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, made these assertions while officially commissioning the newly completed Gomani–Dafa–Yangoji Road. The critical transit corridor, constructed by the Satellite Towns Development Department under the FCT Administration, was handed over to the public amidst widespread celebration by local agricultural cooperatives and traditional institutions.
According to the executive brief delivered by the President, the opening of this specialized road corridor provides an immediate structural solution to long-standing supply chain inefficiencies within the agricultural sector. President Tinubu explained that with the engineering completion of the asphalt highway, local farmers can now move their freshly harvested produce to major market hubs at significantly higher speeds, wholesale buyers can access remote farm gates without operational delays, and the high rate of post-harvest losses that historically plagued the agrarian community will drop significantly. The President noted that more importantly, the infrastructural upgrade ensures that the Kwali Area Council can confidently stand on its own as a premier, high-capacity food-producing hub capable of supplying essential commodities to the wider Federal Capital Territory and neighboring states.
Reflecting on the deeper social implications of rural engineering, President Tinubu maintained that accessible roads do far more than facilitate commercial logistics; they actively keep families together by providing young people with viable reasons to remain within their ancestral communities and build prosperous lives at home. He noted that when the current administration set out under the Renewed Hope Agenda, the core governing principle was that development must reach every single Nigerian citizen, rather than being concentrated exclusively within privileged urban centers.
The President argued passionately that Abuja cannot be allowed to exist as a city of two divided worlds, characterized by gleaming district lights and modern boulevards in the city center, while its surrounding satellite towns remain forgotten in darkness and isolation. He stated that the newly commissioned highway successfully connects the historic settlements of Gomani, Dafa, and Yangoji to modern commercial markets, educational institutions, healthcare facilities, and life-changing economic opportunities. This investment serves as a clear statement that the wealth of the nation belongs entirely to all citizens, emphasizing that whether an individual resides on a major city boulevard or operates a farm track in the hinterlands, they possess an inherent right to participate fully in the prosperity of the country.
The President observed that for far too long, the immense economic strength and productive capacity of Nigeria’s rural communities had been severely held back by poor access roads, which routinely caused valuable food crops to rot away in the fields before ever reaching consumer markets. This persistent infrastructural failure, he noted, historically drove ambitious young people away from rural communities, as the impossible state of the roads actively brought their aspirations down instead of elevating them. He declared that those negative dynamics have officially changed.
Commending the administrative execution of the project, the President praised the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Nyesom Wike, for providing purposeful, results-driven leadership in delivering life-impacting projects across the territory. The President thanked the Minister for taking his executive advice seriously to open up the area councils and match city development with aggressive rural development, noting that the timely completion of the project has earned the administration the deep trust of the local populace.
Providing context on the genesis of the project, FCT Minister Nyesom Wike explained that the extensive road construction was initiated directly in response to a strategic request made by the Etsu Kwali, His Royal Highness Luka Nizassan III, during an interactive community engagement session held with local stakeholders to identify the area's most urgent developmental needs. The Minister explained that this interactive meeting was held in strict adherence to President Tinubu's directive, which commanded the FCT administration to meet directly with rural community members, discuss their challenges, and reach a mutual agreement on projects requiring immediate government intervention.
According to Wike, that meeting represented the first formal community engagement designed to deeply entrench grassroots public participation in project nomination and implementation within the area councils. He recalled that during the historic engagement, the traditional ruler specifically outlined the critical need for a continuous road network covering the corridors from the A2 expressway to Pai, moving from Pai to Gomani, continuing from Gomani to Dafa, and finally terminating from Dafa back to Yangoji, creating a vast transit arc. The Minister expressed immense satisfaction that to the glory of God, all promises made to the traditional institution during that town hall meeting have been fully and transparently fulfilled.
The Minister re-emphasized that the presidency had given strict instructions that urban development must not be concentrated solely within the high-end city center but must be dynamically extended to the satellite towns to foster inclusive growth. Wike revealed that since the FCT Administration commenced its extensive project inauguration tour on June 9, the Gomani–Dafa–Yangoji highway represents the fourth major infrastructure project successfully commissioned within the satellite towns and rural communities, proving that the rural renewal drive is moving at a rapid pace.
Earlier in the proceedings, the Coordinator of the Satellite Towns Development Department, Mr. Abdulkadir Zulkiflu, provided a detailed engineering brief on the scope of the project. Zulkiflu revealed that the contract for the final phase of the highway was formally awarded in November 2025, explaining that the Gomani–Dafa–Yangoji segment forms a vital link within the broader 43.4-kilometer FCT secondary regional road network. The coordinator explained that the overall road architecture commences from the primary Abuja–Lokoja Expressway, widely known as the A2 highway, and traverses through Pai to Gomani before finally terminating at Yangoji town, thereby creating a perfect crescent of road with entry and exit points situated at two entirely different sections of the national expressway.
Providing a breakdown of the construction phases, Zulkiflu stated that the first segment of the regional road, spanning from the A2 expressway to Pai over a distance of approximately fifteen kilometers, was completed and commissioned in June 2025 to mark the celebration of President Tinubu’s second year in office. He added that the second segment, which covers a 15.4-kilometer stretch from Pai to Gomani, is currently undergoing active engineering construction and is progressing rapidly toward completion.
The coordinator concluded by noting that the event marked the successful inauguration of the third and final segment of the regional master plan, running thirteen kilometers from Gomani through Dafa to Yangoji, effectively sealing the secondary regional crescent and providing the agrarian communities of Kwali with unrestricted, high-speed access to the primary national transport arteries.
