President Bola Tinubu has renamed the erstwhile International Conference Centre (ICC), a hospitality facility completed during the administration of military head of state Ibrahim Babangida in 1991, after himself.
The president organised a commissioning ceremony for the building after its renovation.
This conference centre is a choice location for major local and international events, including federal election results collations and parliamentary sittings of the ECOWAS Parliament.
Tinubu’s penchant for naming or renaming strategic federal assets after himself is well established.
FIJ had earlier reported that the president named a new army barracks, an immigration complex as well as a new federal polytechnic, all sited in Abuja, after himself within his first 19 months in power.
FCT Minister Nyesom Wike initiated the rehabilitation of the conference centre in 2024, announcing that the administration would commit N39 billion to the project.
He repeatedly said that the centre would be ready for inauguration before Tinubu’s third year in office.
On Monday, the president jetted from Lagos, after completing his Eid-Adha holiday, straight to the centre to inaugurate it.
“When I attended the Conference of ECOWAS Parliament here, it was very dirty, disorganised, [and an un]inhabitable environment,” Tinubu said at the inauguration ceremony.
“Aside from the side talk with the senate president, I told Wike, ‘But this conference centre is not reflecting who we are? Have we sunk this low?’ He said, ‘No, but bear with us. We will do whatever we can to transform the place. You won’t come back to find it in a dilapidated, uninhabitable situation.’ And today, I am very, very happy.”
Wike said renaming the structure after Tinubu was to appreciate his demonstrated leadership in renovating it.
This latest action brings the conference centre into the fold of important government institutions located in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) named after Tinubu by Tinubu.
Until Tinubu’s administration, successive presidents in the 34 years of the existence of that structure did not rename it after themselves or other national or historical figures.