President Bola Tinubu on Thursday commissioned a six‑lane, 9‑kilometer stretch of the FCT Highway 105 (Kuje Road), a project his administration says will ease traffic into Abuja’s downtown and open up surrounding satellite towns to commerce and development.
Speaking at the ribbon‑cutting for the dualized highway — which includes two river bridges and links the Airport Expressway with Kuje town junction — Vice President Kashim Shettima represented Tinubu.
The President called the completed section a fulfillment of a campaign promise and described it as a direct response to long-standing bottlenecks that he said cost commuters, traders and civil servants hours each day.
“This six‑lane dual carriageway we are commissioning today completely changes the game,” he said.
“You no longer have to endure the suffocating bottleneck on the Kuje‑Airport Road. We are giving you back your time.”
NewsQuest reports that the road, originally awarded in 2022 and later abandoned, had been a major drag on productivity and local commerce.
Deputy Director of Press in the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) office Rabi Musa in a statements said President Tinubu noted that the upgraded route would raise property values, attract investment and speed the movement of agricultural produce to market.
FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, at the ceremony, described the project as politically contentious and logistically difficult when it was handed to the current administration.
He said the 9‑kilometer contract, awarded in February 2022 for more than ₦54 billion, had no contractor on site when the administration took office and that local leaders had pleaded for its reactivation.
“Residents said the road was a death trap,” Minister Wike said.
He credited the FCT administration with completing the Airport‑to‑Kuje segment, and a separate 4.5‑kilometer stretch from Garage Junction to the LEA Secretariat, shrinking a previously long commute to minutes.
Minister Wike added that work is advancing on a separate dualization project between Kuje and Gwagwalada and said President Tinubu would return to commission the first stage of that road “shortly.”
He urged citizens to pay ground rents and other levies, saying consistent revenue would fund further extensions of the highway and link the project to Nasarawa State.
Asked about safeguards, the President urged local leaders and youths to protect the corridor from vandalism, unauthorized markets and refuse dumping, and repeated a call for property owners and developers to meet tax obligations to enable replication of the project elsewhere.
Engr. Richard Yunana Dauda, Executive Director of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), also described Highway 105 as a key north‑south corridor through the FCT that will ultimately connect Abuja with Abaji and parts of Nasarawa.
The current phase comprises roughly 8.6 kilometers of dual carriageway, three lanes in each direction, he said.
Arab Contractors’ Managing Director, Engineer Mohamed Eledarous, said the company had met its obligations and hoped to remain involved in future FCT projects.
At the ceremony, Minister Wike also announced that newly elected chairmen of the FCT’s area councils would be sworn in on Monday, praising outgoing and incoming local officials for their roles in the project’s delivery.
FCT Minister of State Dr. Mariya Mahmoud described the road as a landmark under the administration’s “Renewed Hope Agenda,” saying it would boost connectivity and economic activity across the territory.
