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The Abuja plots bazaar
By Sun News Publishing
Monday, April 21, 2008
Since the past few weeks, revelations of the heinous activities
that took place during the last administration have been tumbling
in and as they are wont to do, they have left Nigerians shocked,
disappointed and angry. It started with the disclosure of
how so much money, meant to facilitate the National Independent
Power Project (NIPP), was literally wasted, leaving the country
in even worse condition in electricity supply.
And while the probe into the criminal bungling of the NIPP
is still continuing with further heinous finds, the Senate
Committee on Allocation and Revocation of plots of land in
Abuja has also led Nigerians into another dark chamber of
that administration.
The committee, which is still probing the land administration
of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in that government,
has made a big discovery, which has put the country in a further
spine. Like the other disclosures with serious vexatious import,
this one revealed how both the minister of the territory,
Mallam Nasir el-Rufai and the then president, Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo, consigned so many plots of land to themselves and
their families in the most obscene manner and circumstances.
The committee was told of how the minister allocated choice
areas of Abuja to himself, his business interests and some
members of his family. On the whole, he got 18 plots. His
principal, Obasanjo, in the same manner, cornered 15 of the
plots with some of his family members also named as beneficiaries,
including his business concern. For example, it was revealed
that certain property, belonging to the Universal Basic Education
(UBE) was revoked and allocated to Obasanjo Farms and this
was done just a day before he left office.
Indeed, so many things are absolutely wrong in all of this.
Nigerians are at pains to believe that these things took place
in an administration that advertised the personality of the
disciplined. But the witness to all of this is the General
Manager of Abuja Geographic Services (AGIS) Mr. Ismaila Iro,
whose evidence should carry a lot of weight in this matter.
Certainly, the upheaval this revelation has caused wouldn’t
have been if both men were prudent and less acquisitive. If
they had had one or two plots of land apiece, Nigerians would
not have been up in arms as it is at the moment.
And equally as troubling is the disclosure that many other
mindless acts of wickedness were committed on the people of
this country under the administration of el-Rufai.
The nation has been told of how some plots were revoked in
the general interest of the people, because according to the
authorities, there was need to maintain the integrity of the
Abuja Master Plan. On the face of it, it was a noble resort.
But the same plots were later re-allocated to some other persons
and interests. For instance, it was said that a residential
building was pulled down for the same reason, but was later
allocated to a business concern.
Indeed, there seems to be one thing running through all these
revelations, be it the NIPP or the Abuja plots. The thing
is that Nigerians have been made fool of by the last administration.
There has been more than enough evidence, if only for the
witness of the past weeks, that that regime put the wool on
the eye of Nigerians. It shows the pretence with which that
administration handled the affairs of the country. So many
Nigerians were inflicted with so much torture and trauma because
of the way the land issue was handled by the el-Rufai administration.
Some Nigerians died as a result of it. Some ran out of the
country. Some went into depression in which they have not
recovered.
As many as 75,000 houses were pulled down in the face of court
orders restraining the authorities from doing so. Lawlessness,
naked temerity and imperial audacity were let loose on the
people and this is highly unfortunate in a civilian regime
which increased Nigeria’s currency of expression with
“rule of law” and “due process.”
We commend the senate committee for what it is doing and we
want to recommend that in its final report, it should include
compensation package for every one who was treated wrongly
in this land issue. The Federal Capital Development Authority
(FCDA) should make a compilation of these persons. And of
course, these plots wrongly allocated to el-Rufai, Obasanjo
and their families and business interests, must be retrieved.
The laws of the land must be applied where they should.
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