(Oluremi Tinubu inaugurates the remodeled Abuja City Gate. Photo credit: Punch News)
Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, on Thursday inaugurated the remodeled Abuja City Gate in the Federal Capital Territory.
The inauguration was attended by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, the Minister of State for the FCT, Dr Mariya Mahmoud, and other dignitaries, according to a statement released by the First Lady’s Senior Special Assistant on Media, Busola Kukoyi.
The remodeled City Gate is part of the FCT Administration’s ongoing efforts to improve the aesthetics of Abuja and create a more welcoming first impression for residents, visitors, and investors entering the city.
Giving context to the project, Wike disclosed earlier during his monthly media parley on Thursday that the idea for remodeling the City Gate originated from the First Lady, noting that the first impression of a city’s appearance often motivates people to invest in it, and that the initiative was not his idea but that of the First Lady.
He recalled that Senator Tinubu had drawn his attention to the state of the City Gate after observing similar landmarks during her travels, recounting that she had called him to ask whether that was how the city gates of other countries looked, given his own travel experiences.
According to Wike, he later met with the First Lady to properly understand her concerns, and she urged him to beautify the entrance to the capital, asking why he couldn’t do something to enhance the place so that anyone entering Abuja would immediately recognise it as the city of Abuja.
The inauguration of the remodeled Abuja City Gate adds to the series of infrastructure and beautification projects commissioned in the Federal Capital Territory.